Concrete Rekordz – “5$tarCrete” review

Concrete Rekordz is an Atlanta, Georgia record label founded by Lil Yachty as a subsidiary of Quality Control Music & Motown Records. He has since signed Camo!, Dc2Trill, Draft Day & formerly KARRAHBOOO. They released a debut showcase compilation It’s Us receiving mixed-to-negative feedback & is having PlaqueBoyMax host a debut EP ahead of It’s Us 2 over exactly 4 months since Boat was at WrestleMania XLI sporting a shirt of the inaugural AEW tbs Champion & former 2-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Jade Cargill.

“Go” starts with a trap instrumental lenient towards sampling talking shout them not breaking any sweats whenever they issue any threats whereas “Big Spender” featuring PlaqueBoyMax references TKO Group Holdings co-founder Vince McMahon fresh off his recent interview regarding the death of the inaugural IWGPヘビー級王座, former 12-time WWE world champion, WWE tag team champion, 2-time WWE Hall of Famer, Real American Beer founder, Real American Freestyle Wrestling (RAF) co-founder & known racist Hulk Hogan.

Former 2-time NXT Tag Team Champion Ludwig Kaiser may or may not have been referred to on “It’s Us” nearly a week after him, the current WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio & former AAA Mundial Parejas Campeon Dragon Lee failing to end former The Crash Pesocompleto Campeon El Hijo del Vikingo’s ongoing 2nd reign as AAA Mega Campeon at Triplemanía XXXIII while “Life’s Proper” by Lil Yachty proves to be my favorite song of the 4 talking about the way life is trading him.

It’s Us wasn’t really all that interesting to me personally because it felt like KARRAHBOOO was the only signee that was actually entertaining besides Lil Yachty himself & 5$tarCrete feels like a step further down from it. Far less interesting production & the true star of it is Yachty, even if I felt that a bar he had regarding the late Screwed Up Click member Big Floyd during a livestream earlier this month was done in horrifically stomach churning taste.

Score: 2/5

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James Blake & Lil Yachty – “Bad Cameo” review

Here we have a new collaborative LP between James Blake & Lil Yachty. One is a singer/songwriter & producer from London, England, United Kingdom & the other happens to be a rapper, singer/songwriter & producer coming straight outta Atlanta, Georgia. Both of whom I’ve covered individually in the past ranging from projects like Assume Form to Michigan Boy Boat & of course Let’s Start Here., the latter being Yachty’s very own 808s/IGOR moment venturing out into a psychedelic rock direction. Neither one of these guys have ever worked with each other previously, so my curiosity around Bad Cameo got a hold of me needless to say. Especially after James’ comments back in March about streaming services devaluing music & has since been trying to help improve streaming rates for artists, hence why Pharrell released his latest album Black Yacht Rock: City of Limitless Access through its own web domain on his birthday along with ¥$ planning to release Vultures 2 exclusively through a YZY app & Metro Boomin’ recently saying his next album might be the last on DSPs. Those & Bandcamp are the best solutions.

“Save the Savior” starts off headed towards an ambient direction rapping & singing about the savior needing to be saved whereas “In Grey” hopes to be picked back up by Valentine’s Day if they fall by then bringing a future garage vibe to the table behind the boards. “Midnight” takes the neo-psychedelic art pop route instrumentally knowing that the shore will speak even though you’re the only one who saw while “Woo” fuses hip house & alternative R&B wanting to know if their partners really love them.

The title track produced with BNYX of Working on Dying goes ambient once again hoping not to head down towards a significantly dark path ever again just before the ambient house-infused “Missing Man” finds both of them vulnerably feels broken down into pieces. “Twice” continues the 2nd leg of Bad Cameo in the form of this perfectly balanced 2-parter describing a simple equation you can count on them for prior to the progressively ethereal “Transport Me” samples “The Vibes is Right” by Barrington Levy wanting to know your story.

“Run Away from the Rabbit” nears the conclusion of the collaborative LP that we never thought we needed to hear wanting to be blinded over an ambient instrumental & “Red Carpet” closes it out with 1 more ambient cut talking about never wanting to walk the red carpet on top of everyone seeing new versions of them right in front of us & late night thoughts make it hard for either one of them to sleep at night.

Yachty’s evolution throughout the last year & a half putting out some of the best material of his career has been one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed in my life especially when you had the heads who genuinely don’t fuck with him at all coming clean that Let’s Start Here. or “The Secret Recipe” are incredible & Bad Cameo stands as a historic crossover for fans of both him & James. It’s prominently art pop & neo-psychedelic with additional undertones of alternative R&B, ambient house, ambient, experimental hip hop, future garage & UK bass.

Score: 4.5/5

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Lil Yachty – “Let’s Start Here.” review

This is the 3rd full-length album from Mableton, Georgia rapper, singer/songwriter, producer & actor Lil Yachty. Skyrocketing to fame in 2016 by bringing a unique sound & personality to the trap subgenre on his debut mixtape Lil Boat, his subsequent material since then has ranged from being mid at best like Summer Songs 2 or even his previous mixtape Michigan Boy Boat to absolute trash like Teenage Emotions & Nuthin’ 2 Prove. But when I heard that Let’s Start Herewas gonna be a complete stylistic departure for Yachty in contrast to one of my favorite singles of last year “Poland”, I was sold in checking it out.

“the BLACK seminole.” pretty much sets the tone for what’s to come as Yachty sings about his inner self & compares himself to the titular Native American-Africans part of the Seminole people over a Jimi Hendrix/Pink Floyd inspired psychedelic rock instrumental whereas “the ride-“ with Teezo Touchdown takes a more neo-soul route with the 2 singing about needing the special women in their lives by their sides. “running out of time” has a more summery twang to it addressing a relationship that pretty much ran it’s course at this point prior to Foushée tagging along for the atmospheric “pRETTy” singing about dying the pussy.

After the “:(failure(:” interlude, “THE zone~” to go into space rock territory admitting that Yachty feel at home up until he’s by his lonely with Justine Syke counter-parting him telling him she never meant to make him feel alone & asking if he’d put anyone else above her leading into “WE SAW THE SUN!” having a bit of a Tame Impala influence sonically singing about how shit don’t get better & to take picture for proof. The “drive ME crazy!” duet with Diane Gordon has a more synthpop flare to it as they profess their love for one another with Yachty dropping a cool reference to both Kanye’s “Jesus Lord” and later WWE Hall of Famer & unrecognized WWE Champion Ted DiBiase, but then “IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!” is an otherworldly experience detailing a bad drug trip over an EPIC guitar riff.

“sAy sOMETHINg” brings back a more mellow vibe instrumentally living the dream & feeling like a teenager again while “paint THE sky” gives me a bit of an art pop feel to it singing about stalling for & overdosing on one’s love. The song “sHouLd i B?” treads the psychedelic pop waters admitting that he needs to do right by his lover & that he ain’t mad at what she did even though he’s unsure if he should be while the penultimate track “The Alchemist.” sings about living a good life over some warm rock production. “REACH THE SUNSHINE.” featuring Daniel Caesar is a 6 minute neo-psychedelic grand finale with them talking about filling a void.

If you told me 7 years ago that the same guy who made “1Night” & “Never Switch Up” would go on to drop a full-blown psychedelic rock album & actually manage to pull it off, I would’ve laughed at you. And if anyone can’t appreciate the artistic growth that Yachty shows throughout Let’s Start Here., then that’s your funeral because the most consistent body of work that I’ve heard from him in a grip. All the artists that he draws inspiration from mentioned throughout the review (i.e. Hendrix, Pink Floyd) have literally made some of my favorite music EVER & the fact that we got a body of work from him in those specific styles of music into his own after being called a “mumble rapper” early on in his career proves ANYTHING’s possible.

Score: 4.5/5

Lil Yachty – “Michigan Boy Boat” review

This is the 5th mixtape from Mableton rapper & songwriter Lil Yachty. Skyrocketing to fame in 2016 by bringing a unique sound & personality to the trap subgenre on his debut mixtape Lil Boat, his subsequent pretty much took a nosedive from there. Why? Because he made a song on that breakout tape about never switching up & that’s EXACTLY what he did. But to pay homage to this reviewer’s home state, Yachty has amassed together some of the hottest rappers Detroit has to offer currently for Michigan Boy Boat.

“Final Form” is a ruthless opener with a hyphy instrumental from Helluva, but then Tee Grizzley tags along for the airy “Dynamic Duo” to talk about how his chemistry with Yachty is unmatched. The harp on “Concrete Goonies” shortly after is pretty cool except the fact that it’s a tad bit offputting hearing him start it off by saying he wants to fuck Kali Uchis. Meanwhile, we have Veeze & Baby Smoove jumping on a piano instrumental to brush off those who wanna fight for a print on “Don’t Even Bother” referencing WWE Hall of Famer Mike Tyson whereas the song “G.I. Joe” with Louie Ray finds the 2 talking about being young cats who got it over a colorful beat from Buddah Bless.

“Never Did Coke” is one of my favorites on the project with it’s bongo & string-laced instrumental as well as Yachty’s chemistry with Swae Lee, but that same back-&-forth magic on the RMC Mike-featured “Ghetto Boy Shit” falls flat for me even though I like the grubby Carlo Anthony instrumental. Icewear Vezzo & Rio da Yung OG help him go into gangsta rap territory for “Plastic” while the track “Fight Night Round 3” with Babyface Ray & Veeze does it’s title justice by providing a lethal moshpit joint.

Sada Baby’s feature on the braggadocious “SB 2021” is cool, but his performances on the 30 Roc-produced “SB5” are much better if you ask me. Rio comes back into the fold for the glassily-produced “Stunt Double”, except his feature on here doesn’t stick the landing like it did on “Plastic”. The penultimate track “Hybrid” has these inauspicious keyboard melodies Yachty & Babytron both give flashy performances before bringing in some bells for the “This That One” cypher to finish things off with everyone except Slap Savage going off. YN Jay’s verse at the end referencing former 4-time TNA World Champion, TNA X Division Champion, 2-time WWE United States Champion, 2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, 2-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion & the current WWE Champion Bobby Lashley was worth mentioning.

Coming from someone who’s lived in The Mitten his entire life, I’m a bit torn coming away from this. Even though Yachty doesn’t do the modern Detroit style all that much justice, I still admire the fact he took some of the hottest rappers the city currently has to offer & brought them all together.

Score: 2.5/5

Lil Yachty – “Lil Boat 2” review

Atlanta, Georgia rapper Lil Yachty commemorates the 2 year anniversary of his breakout mixtape Lil Boat by releasing a sequel. The opener “Self Made” talks about his success over a spacey, booming trap beat while next song “Boom!” with Ugly God sees the 2 talking to their haters over a bouncy beat, but the hook is annoying as fuck. The track Oops with 2 Chainz gets braggadocious over some bass while “Talk to Me Nice” with Quavo is yet another humble brag over an airy beat.

The track “Get Money Bros.” with Tee Grizzley pretty much speaks for itself over an eerie beat while the song “Count Me In” gets charismatic over a banging instrumental from Pi’erre Bourne. The song “She Ready” gets sexual & the beat is pretty playful, but the PnB Rock feature doesn’t do much for me. The track “Love Me Forever” is pretty much the same thing except with a more moody instrumental & the song “Das Cap” gets in your face over a haunting Southside beat.

The track “Pop Out” is another redundant bragging tune with a weird, electro-trap beat from Digital Nas & a terrible verse from JBan$ while the song “NBAYOUNGBOAT” is basically a showcase of decent chemistry between Yachty & YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

The track “Mickey” is an eerie tune about snitches, but the Offset feature at the beginning is the only highlight about it for me. The song “FWM” might have over a bass-heavy beat, but Yachty’s monotonous delivery will doesn’t get me excited at all. The track “Flex” is another in your face braggadocious banger with annoying ass delivery while the song “Whole Lotta Guap” talks about what he has now & over another bouncy beat from Pi’erre.

“Baby Daddy” with Lil Pump & Offset basically tells this woman that his man is a sucka choke-slamming them like former SMW Tag Team Champion, 3-time WWE world champion, 2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, 12-time WWE tag team champion & WWE Hardcore Champion Kane over an eerie beat I’m pretty sure I similarly heard while the closer “66” talks about how he’s allegedly gonna flex until he’s old over an atmospheric DY beat with a decent Trippie Redd feature.

Personally, this thing did not live up to the hype that was set out for it. While I‘ve never been a fan of Lil Yachty’s music to begin with, at least I can commend the first Lil Boat for having a blissful vibe to it. This however, is filled with a bunch of club bangers in a shorter & feature heavy way than Teenage Emotions was

Score: 1.5/5