Janelle Monáe – “Dirty Computer” review

Almost 5 years after delivered her last modern classic The Electric Lady, modern R&B creative genius Janelle Monáe is finally returning with her 3rd full-length album. Things start off with the title track, where she sings about her man picking her up from the ground over some harmonious background vocals. The next song “Crazy, Classic, Life” talks about wanting to live her life over a bouncy atmospheric instrumental while the track “Take a Byte” gets playful over a synth-funk instrumental. After the “Jane’s Dream” skit, we go into the song “Screwed”. Here, Janelle & Zoë Kravitz sing about partying over a spacey yet bouncy beat. The track “Django Jane” is a full-blown rap song about feminism with a moody beat while the song “Pynk” continues these feminists themes with a fantastic interpolation of the classic Aerosmith song “Pink”.

The track “Make Me Feel” talks about bisexuality over a Prince-like instrumental while the song “I Got the Juice” with Pharrell sees the 2 getting freaky over a bouncy beat from Skateboard P himself. The track “I Like That” is basically Janelle addressing the rumors of her sexuality over a luscious trap beat while the song “Don’t Judge Me” expresses concern of her man only loving her for her disguise over a settle instrumental. After the “Stevie’s Dream” interlude, we then go into the penultimate track “So Afraid”. Here, Janelle expresses her fear of loving this man over an acoustic yet druggy instrumental. The album then finishes off with “Americans”, where Janelle gets conscious over a beat that’ll make you wanna dance.

As a whole, this is yet another damn near perfect album from one of the most creative forces in R&B today. The production is beautiful, it’s well written & it sounds immensely focused as ever before

Score: 4.5/5

Nipsey Hu$$le – “Victory Lap” review

Nipsey Hu$$le is a rapper from Slauson, California & this is his long-awaited full-length debut. The album starts off with the title track, where Nipsey talks about where he is now & the Stacy Barthe feature is beautiful. The next song “Rap Niggas” telling us that he’s nothing like these dudes out right now over a gritty instrumental while the track “Last Time I Checc’d” with YG sees the 2 talking about how they’re self made over a g-funk/trap infused beat. The song “Young Nigga” gets braggadocious over a trap beat with some rattling bass & the track “Dedication” with Kendrick Lamar sees the 2 talking about their come ups from the ghettos to the rap game over a bass heavy atmospheric instrumental.

The song “Blue Laces 2” is a welcoming sequel to “Blue Laces” off of Nipsey’s 2010 mixtape The Marathon while the track “Hu$$le & Motivate” pretty speaks for itself over some decent keys. The song “Status Symbol 3” with Buddy is a fun close to the titular trilogy & the track “Succa Proof” is a menacing, unapologetic shot at all the lames out there. The song “Keyz 2 the City 2” isn’t a bad sequel to the original “Keyz 2 the City”, but the TeeFlii feature is probably the weakest one on the entire album.

The track “Grinding All My Life” talks about his work ethic & I like the eerie vibes of the instrumental. The song “Million While You Young” gets luxurious over kick-back beat from Mike & Keys and Jake One while the track “Loaded Bases” is basically about living for the moment over a soulful instrumental. The song “Real Big” talks about his success over an ambitious beat & then the penultimate track “Double Up” with Belly & Dom Kennedy talks about drug dealing over a spacey beat. The album then finishes off with “Right Hand 2 God” reflects on from where he was to where is now & I absolutely love the horns that come around during the hook.

As a whole, this may be Nipsey’s best work yet. The beats bang & it displays where he is right now very well while delivering a few sequels to some of his older songs from his mixtape days. I really hope this gives him the shine he deserves, because it was well worth the long wait

Score: 4/5

Gucci Mane – “El Gato: The Human Glacier” review

With Christmas approaching 3 days from now, iconic trap rapper Gucci Mane is giving fans his 12th full-length album & he has enlisted 808 Mafia co-founder Southside. The album starts off with “Rich Ass Junkie”, where Gucci is talking about serving rich drug addicts over an gloomy trap beat. The next track ”Peepin’ Out the Blinds” talks about firing his gun at people over a sinister yet abrasive instrumental while the song “Dickriders” takes a jab at just those & the bass on here is thumping! The song “Mall” talks about people who wanna “buy his style” over an ominous beat & then the track “Side EFX” talks about people who turn evil over some organs along with some rattling hi-hats.

The song “T.Y.T. (Thick, Young, Tender)” talks about this how hot this woman, but the beat is a bit synthetic. The track “Sea Sick” is a fun party tune the whistling on here was a nice change of pace while the song “Smiling in the Drought” gets confrontational over a menacing beat. The song “El Gato’s Revenge” flaunts on the lifestyle of a drug dealer over an eerie instrumental while the penultimate track “Step Throat” gets braggadocious over an explosive instrumental. The album then closes with “Southside & Gucci” and while it’s only 1 minute long, the short verse Gucci delivers over this thunderous trap beat with a nice guitar sample. This is honestly just as great as Gucci’s 58th mixtape Droptopwop, which he did with Metro Boomin’ in Late May of this year. It’s been long overdue that we got Southside producing an album for GuWop, but their strong chemistry on here makes it worth it

Score: 3.5/5

Kap G – “Mood” review

A little over 7 months after the release of his debut SupaJefe & about 5 months after being included into the 2017 XXL Freshman Class, College Park rapper & i am OTHER signee Kap G is delivering a 3-track EP. The first song has a decent piano trap beat, but I feel like he bites Future a little too much vocally. The next track “Marvelous Day” with Lil Uzi Vert & Gunna has a moody beat & all 3 rappers compliment each other pretty well in each verse. The closer “Big Racks” has a decent hook & instrumental, but the lyrics just too cliché for me. While I do enjoy some of Kap G’s songs, this was a mediocre EP. If he’s gonna stick with the trap sound, he really needs to find his own lane. He also needs to work with Pharrell lot more as well

Score: 2/5

Future & Young Thug – “SUPER SLIMEY” review

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If it wasn’t enough that Future dropped his self-titled album & HNDRXX earlier this year along with Young Thug dropping Beautiful Thugger Girls mixtape back in June, the 2 Atlanta, Georgia trap superstars are now coming together with a surprise collaborative mixtape. The opener “No Cap” sees Future & Thugger getting braggadocious over an eerie beat from 808 Mafia co-founder Southside & then on the next track “3”, they channel their inner pimp over a futuristic-ish (no pun intended) trap instrumental from DY. The song “All da Smoke” is a party anthem with a fitting cloudy trap instrumental & the track “200” is yet another braggadocious tune, but this time with more of an atmospheric trap instrumental from Tre Pounds & Wheezy. The track “Cruise Ship” is a Thugger solo cut & I love how insanely energetic he sounds over this dreamy trap instrumental.

The song “Patek Water” is basically Young Thug & Offset rapping about not wanting to go back to being broke & not only was I disappointed that Future only did the hook on here, but Offset’s line near the end about “her sucking on semen” made me cringe a little bit. However, Future makes up for it by having the track “Feed Me Dope” to himself as he raps over a sinister instrumental. The song “Drip on Me” sees Future & Thugger linking back up once more to get mafioso over a wavy instrumental & then the track “Real Love” is an spacey sex tune with Future sounding more slick to set the vibe in contrast to Thugger sounding hype. The track “4 da Gang” is another Future solo cut, but with him talking about how nothing’s changed & repping his Freebandz crew over another cloudy beat from Fuse.

The song “Killed Before” is another Thugger solo cut & despite the verses being decent, I really love how he got London on da Track to bring back that country rap vibe from Beautiful Thugger Girls. The penultimate track “Mink Flow” gets back to the braggadocio bars over a hard beat from Mike WiLL Made-It & with the closer “Group Home” venting about their break-ups, Future’s verse is more sad & Thugger’s is more fittingly hostile considering the fact that he broke off his engagement with his ex-fiancée Karlae recently.

Modern trap fans would dream of someone as unique as Future doing a collab project with someone as versatile as Young Thug & in the end, I think this is better than the Drake & Future collab mixtape What a Time to Be Alive that they did back in 2015. Sure it’s not super lyrical, but I see that Future has a more natural chemistry with Thugger then he did with Drake. On top of that, the production is almost as lively & the deliveries are just wild

Score: 3.5/5

Gucci Mane – “Droptopwop” review

To celebrate a whole year of being a free man, Gucci Mane is delivering his 58th mixtape & he has enlisted Metro Boomin’ to produce it in it’s entirety. The tape’s opening track “5,000,000” sees Gucci bragging about how much he makes in a day & the bass on here is just THUNDEROUS! The next track “Tho” sees Gucci freestyling over some Atari-esque loop with some trap snares & it’s actually not too bad. The next song “Hurt a Nigga Feelings” brags about the shit he has over some sinister synths & hand claps, but he does it so charismatically. Especially during the hook. The song “Helpless” is a sex tune, but I don’t like how the bass sounds so loud that you can barely hear the synths. The track “Met Gala” has some really nice bells throughout, but it feels more like an Offset song given the fact that he dominates the track up until Gucci’s verse pops up during the last minute & a half. The song “Finesse the Plug” talks about how life’s a gamble & the main loop on here sounds really creepy, but the delivery was just meh. The song “Dance with the Devil” has some twinkling high-pitched keys throughout & I actually like how he’s talks about a man getting arrested & a woman trying to act gangsta on here. The song “Both Eyes Closed” has a decent beat & Gucci’s verse isn’t bad at all, but the 2 redundant guest verses from 2 Chainz & Young Dolph flat out ruin it for me. The penultimate track “Bucket List” talking about him getting & doing things he never thought he would over a murky trap beat, but the “she may get this dick like 1%” line at the beginning of the 1st verse was just corny to me. The tape closes out with “Loss 4 Wrdz”, where Gucci & Rick Ross talk about getting fucked up on drugs, but Ross actually goes in harder than Gucci did on here. While some still knock of Gucci Mane, he certainly is more tolerable than all of these mumble rappers nowadays. Plus, he has gotten better since his release from prison (both as an artist & as a person) & this tape is no exception at all. Metro Boomin’s production is just as dark & hard-hitting as ever & given that Gucci has sounded great over Metro’s beats before, for him to finally rap over them for the duration of a full project was bound to happen soon & I’m glad that he finally gave it to the fans to commemorate being a free man for 365 days
Score: 3.5/5