ScarLip is a 24 year old rapper & producer from Brooklyn, New York signing to Epic Records following the single “This is New York”. I on the other hand wasn’t introduced to her until she appeared on “Take ‘Em Out” off the Hip Hop 50, Vol. 2 EP that Swizz Beatz produced a couple years ago & began seeing the appeal in her music once “Blick” came out weeks after a couple of her fans were messaging me on social media last summer. To get THIS summer started, the Broken Child Entertainment founder’s preluding her debut album with a debut EP.
I didn’t mind “Pop That” featuring Lil Wayne as an intro bringing both of them together over a Rockwilder & Swizz Beatz instrumental to remind where you can find them if you need some weight whereas “Melanin” angrily talks about beefing with ghostwriters instead of other rappers. “Eastside” fuses trap & soul advising not to call her since she don’t need anyone leading into the mediocre New York drill collab “Fruity Pebbles” featuring TaTa.
“Could’ve Been Me” featuring Skilla Baby begins the final moments of Scarred B4 Fame with both of them keeping guns by their side asking what the plan is but after “Runaway Love” freestyles over the instrumental of the Ludacris track of the same name from Release Therapy, “Lord Please” sends off the EP fusing trap & gospel asking God to be easy on her.
Haven’t really consider myself the biggest fan of the New York drill scene other than the late Pop Smoke & right when I thought that subgenre was starting to fade out because nobody has really carried the torch since, hearing ScarLip for the past couple years had me hoping that she would capitalize on her potential with this EP & the results are mixed. I can certainly say the hunger’s there in her verses, although most of the guests’ performances & some of the instrumentals are 2 of the biggest criticisms I have with it.
This is the 3rd EP from Toronto, Ontario, Canada rapper Smiley. Beginning as a member of the Garden Gang, he would go on to drop his debut mixtape Buy or Bye in the spring of 2018 followed by 2 EPs & even a couple more tapes before local superstar Drake signed him to OVO Sound a little over 3 years ago already. As for his OVO debut Buy or Bye 2, it didn’t really do all that much in catching my interest or standing out enough to the point where I’d go back to it & I Did What I Did wasn’t doing any favors. In spite of Kendrick Lamar performing last night & tonight in the label’s city, Smiley’s advising to Don’t Box Me In.
“Budge” wasn’t that good of a single bragging over a piano-trap instrumental that his trap house was doing the same numbers as the NFL when I doubt that whereas “6SideKids” cloudily talks about feeling bored on tour. “2 Mazza” featuring Drake has gotta be one of the more salvageable moments on the EP from the Boi-1da beat to even Smiley’s mentor barely outperforming him leading into the atmospheric “Kept Snowin’” tediously speaking on the racks making him feel good.
Why G pops up on “Trapman” for a subpar trap collab prior to Icewear Vezzo saving the best feature on the EP for “Money Feen” talking about their overly obsessive desire for money. “Big Dog” featuring Baka Not Nice whose weird case still makes people wonder why he’s around takes a nosedive again hilariously referring to themselves as bosses & after “Wave the Flag” adds insult to injury talking about not making it worse since he learned from the best, Pooh Beatz samples Sean Leon during “Spill the Tell” until Smiley derails it by making them “put out your hand like Wii”.
“Bob Curry” cloudily starts the deluxe run boldly asks if anybody wants smoke when the guy who have him a deal’s still taking Ls while “Oliver North” continues with a comatose tribute to his city. “Ratchet Baby” featuring Roy Wood$ finds the 2 talking about preferring some nastiness in their women while “Faddah” pleads for all the time he’s lost to come back when that isn’t happening. The final bonus track “Not a Fan” ends the EP with him talking about being a “guyser” whatever that means.
Last summer, it was mentioned when I had reviewed I Did What I Did that Smiley was by far the weakest link compared to the rest of the OVO roster & Don’t Box Me In solidifies that even further. I appreciate the fact he wanted to go for a different direction compared to his earlier material, but that doesn’t mean I found a lot of his performances boring compared to almost half of the guests on top of the production for a good run of the 36 minutes coming off as mostly uninteresting.
Addison Rae is a social media personality, singer, actress & dancer from Lafayette, Louisiana know for temporarily being a member of the Hype House collective of TikTokers for a mere 5 months. Her debut EP AR was welcomed to moderate feedback & caught the attention of Columbia Records, who signed her following an appearance on the remix of “Von Dutch” off Charli XCX’s 6th album brat last summer. Coming off a string of well-received singles however, she’s taking it further on her major label debut.
We get a heavy dosage of dance-pop during the intro “New York” singing about her affinity for the City of Dreams itself whereas “Diet Pepsi” blends contemporary R&B, alt-pop, chillstep, alternative R&B & downtempo for a lead single calling back to Lana Del Rey’s 5th album Lust for Life. “Money’s Everything” takes a complete 360 from what “Diet Pepsi” did asking taking on a more satirical tone while “Aquamarine” combines dance-pop, deep house, garage house & melodic house to sing about her transforming & realigning.
“High Fashion” after the “Lost & Found” interlude fuses alternative R&B, alt-pop, post-dubstep, chillstep, future bass & wonky preferring the luxurious lifestyle over drugs leading into the breezy “Summer Forever” singing about loving Omer Fedi so much that she forgets what’s going on. “In the Rain” kicks the synthesizers into full gear turning her tears into gold until the dance-pop, electropop, synthpop & electro house track “Fame’s a Gun” recaptures the ethos of Sheila E.’s biggest hit “The Glamorous Life”.
The song “Times Like These” uses the sounds of contemporary R&B, downtempo, trip hop, alt-pop, UK street soul & alternative R&B to sing about her life moving faster than herself while “Headphones On” after the “Life’s No Fun Through Clear Waters” interlude finishes off with a trip hop, contemporary R&B, pop, UK street soul, alternative R&B & hip hop soul single sampling “What I Am” by Edie Brickell to touch base regarding situations that cannot be resolved.
Of the 2 full-length albums we have from the Hype House so far, Addison puts Huddy’s debut Teenage Heartbreak to shame by revealing Addison Rae as the most musically talented of the bunch by cooking up a more passionately conceived LP than Alex Warren’s recent singles ahead of his own debut You’ll Be Alright, Kid next month. We get a better understanding of herself with her background as a competitive dancer bleeds all over the production pulling from alt-pop, contemporary R&B, downtempo, dance-pop, alternative R&B, electropop, pop, trip hop, UK street soul, hip hop soul, electro house, synthpop, post-dubstep, chillstep, future bass, wonky, deep house, garage house & melodic house.
Miley Cyrus is a 32 year old singer/songwriter, actress & director from Franklin, Tennessee breaking out as the older sister of Noah Cyrus & the 2nd eldest daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. Achieving greater success as the titular character on the The Walt Disney Company-owned Disney Channel teen sitcom Hannah Montana, her first 3 LPs Meet Miley Cyrus alongside Breakout & Can’t Be Tamed underHollywood Records were equally met with mixed or negative reception. Same goes with The Time of Our Lives. Her debut for RCA Records during my junior year of high school Bangerz was when her music started to improve since I prefer songs like “#GetItRight” produced by The Neptunes over it’s biggest hit “Wrecking Ball”. Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz became a polarizing take on neo-psychedelia & psychic pop even with The Flaming Lips’ involvement, Younger Now went for a mid country pop direction aside from a DJ Premier remix of the title track, She’s Coming missed the landing with R&B & electropop and Plastic Hearts was a decent way to fulfill her RCA contract following her divorce from Liam Hemsworth of the mid A24 Films thriller Cut Bank. Moving over to Columbia Records, her debut for them Endless Summer Vacation once again divided public opinion & the high praise her 9th full-length album has been getting made me want to hear it to believe it.
“Prelude” has gotta be one of the boldest lead singles to a body of work that I’ve heard in a long time since it’s spoken word poetry over an epic post-minimalistic & progressive electronic instrumental until the title track goes full gear drawing from art rock, psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock, smooth soul, jazz-rock & experimental rock desiring something beautiful lasting eternity.
Pop rock, Europop, new wave, psychedelic pop, soft rock & big music all collide on “End of the World” suggesting that we should be making the best of our final moments if the apocalypse were to happen leading into “More to Lose” maintains a steady cross between soft rock, adult contemporary, piano rock & art pop singing about not wanting to be interrupted ore overthinking of chasing perfection.
“Easy Lover” after the first of 2 interludes was actually conceived during the Plastic Hearts sessions fusing country, rock & pop addressing the emotional addiction to a complicated relationship but after the other interlude, “Golden Burning Sun” turns up the soft rock influences employing themes of devotion. “Walk of Fame” featuring Brittany Howard is a synthpop duet singing about what it’s like for he to be at her level of international superstardom just before “Pretend You’re God” yearns to have that person in her life who’ll make her their everything.
The song “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved” featuring Naomi Campbell blends funk & pop together for another duet asking if they’re pretty enough for more than fun in the dark while “Reborn” experiments with meshing trance music & pop together for a spiritual enlightenment ode inspired after she & Greg Aldae sat at church together one day. “Give Me Love” as a closer heavily builds itself around synthesizers instrumentally singing that heaven & terror both await behind the curtain while “Secrets” starts the deluxe run by forgiving her father. The final bonus track “Lockdown” finishes with a 13 & a half minute 2-parter singing about a relationship on the lowkey.
Never thought I’d see the day where I’d actually being saying any of what you’re gonna read in this paragraph, but here we are! Regardless of Bangerz always holding a place in my heart as time goes on, I can’t say that I’ve would’ve NEVER thought I’d hear Miley surpass it in terms of cohesiveness until Something Beautiful. Inspired by Pink Floyd’s iconic 11th album The Wall, it’s heavy concept centered around healing from trauma on top of finding beauty in life’s darkest moments & reconciliation of lost time heavily dabbling with pop rock, art rock, electro-disco, dance-pop, soft rock, neo-psychedelia, spoken word, poetry, epic music, post-minimalism, progressive electronic, psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock, smooth soul, jazz-rock, experimental rock, adult contemporary, piano rock, art pop, Europop, new wave, psychedelic pop, big music, synthpop & a small dose of country blows everything she’s done out the water.
Oakland, California rapper, singer/songwriter, producer & actor G-Eazy making up for the delays of his 8th studio LP. Breaking out into the mainstream with his 3rd album These Things Happen in 2014, this was followed up a year later with When It’s Dark Outas well as The Beautiful & Damned back in 2017. Scary Nights was a subpar prelude to These Things Happen Too, Everything’s Strange Here easily stands as his embarrassing body of work yet & the These Things Happen sequel was only better by a small margin. Freak Show was one of the worst albums of 2024 & is putting out Helium only 11 months later.
“GRWM” was a mediocre trap intro talking about hoes calling him & asking them to pay him whereas “Kiss the Sky” gives boom bap a shot only for him to miss with a weak homage to the iconic Jimi Hendrix cut “Purple Haze”. The title track gets into his signature pop rap style pleading for this woman’s love leading into the underwhelming boom bap/rap rock crossover “Outside” featuring Diany Dior staying out for the summer.
Finishing the first half, “Dream About Me” tells his ex not to even think of him in her dreams over a generic trap instrumental just before “Fight & Fuck” gets back on the pop rap vibe once again describing a toxic relationship where he & his partner argue only to make lover afterwards. “Nada” wound up being a close contender for one of the worst singles to come out in 2024 partying when he wants, but then “After Dark” expresses his desire to be understood.
“How Can You Sleep?” gets it going on the final minutes of Helium with an acoustic pop rap cut finding G-Eazy admitting that he can’t move on from this woman that he said he would try to leave in the past & I found the lead single “Vampires” to be a tiring closer addressing toxic relationships once again although I don’t really mind the moodier sound all that much nor did I have any issue with the Bahari hook/bridge.
Conceptually built around the highs & lows of love & life, the sliver of optimism I had regarding this one wasn’t really done any justice even if it was released the day prior of G-Eazy’s birthday & the birthday of his brother he was closer than close too. The boom bap portions are actually average at best & the idea of parties never lasting forever being worth it in the end is a valid life lesson, except neither the trap or the pop rap cuts don’t really scratch the itch.
This is the debut mixtape from Columbia, South Carolina born albeit Atlanta, Georgia up-&-comer Pradabagshawty. Introducing himself in the spring of 2023 off Bloxk Addiktion, his popularity within the plugg subgenre of trap continued to grow last year by putting out 3 more EPs in 1 Love as well as his Cegular Records/Sony Music debut 10 Freak Ho’s of course debut Forever & After. His newest EP B What You B only 3 months after inking the Sony deal has quickly become the most popular entry of his catalog so far, returning a few months later to put out Home Invasions.
“She Tinder” kicks off the tape with a plugg instrumental from Dstarkel talking about being in love with his girl as much as he is with the kush whereas “Good Morning” continues to bring a mellow flare to the table referencing the greatest basketball player of all-time Michael Jordan. “Hands Up” feels more like a YounnMoh cut since Pradabag barely has any presence flexing over synthesizers about the bitch he just fucked while “Sweater Weather” refuses to snitch after landing in court unlike Akon.
As for “Hop Aht”, we have Pradabag over some quirky synth leads & hi-hats talking about popping out of the ride with the sticks on him leading into “Showered Up” keeps the plugg vibes going using the backdoor on any opp leaving them for death. “Lucky Charm” heads for a cloudier approach advising anyone who wants to fuck with him to go fuck themselves, but then “Duck” produced by WhyCeg talks about making people hide when he pulls out the Glock.
“3am Lobby” begins the final leg of the tape on a lo-fi trap note boasting that nobody’s doing it like him & riding around with guns on him while “Ruthless” talks about taking issue to people crossing over his squad showing them absolutely no mercy. ImSoMarcus takes up “Too Much” hanging with the slimes instead of lames & after “Shooting Star” lets off rounds at a cop car, “Do Re Mi” wraps it up letting the chopper sing some more.
Other than not being so sure why he takes a backseat in performing every time letting the features take up a good chunk of the tracks they’re on, Home Invasions takes Pradabagshawty even higher as an up-&-coming plugg artist maintaining the quality production of the EP that got me into him back in February breaking down more stories of his life being a gangsta trying to make it out of the trenches.
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands singer/songwriter Naomi Sharon with a brand new EP. Starting in 2018 with her debut single “Breeze”, she would go on to release 4 more singles until Toronto, Ontario, Canada superstar Drake signed her to OVO Sound for an impressive debut Obsidian giving a refreshing take on the way the label delivers alternative R&B going beyond that in favor of neo-soul, afrobeats, afro house, downtempo, sophisti-pop, deep house, ambient pop & smooth soul. Year & half later, Naomi’s back to address The Only Love We Know.
“Bittersweet” is a passionate intro asking if her & her partner can simply be while “Can We Do This Over?” works in elements of smooth soul, sophisti-pop, downtempo, contemporary R&B & neo-soul asking for a redo since she doesn’t want closure. “Calm Waters” finds her wishing on a star pleading to be in the presence of her romantic interest again while “Soft Like Dawn” sings about things not feeling sane when you’re unsure & drifting away.
The song “Feels Like Home” portrays herself as a woman who deserves better despite sharing in her current relationship & the title track produced the EP’s executive producer Jordan Ullman of Majid Jordan closes out the transformative successor to Obsidian showing some gospel influences reflecting on the time she spent with her ex-husband Jamie Sun.
Aiming to exceed the high expectations her debut had set, Naomi easily clears the new Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR collab album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U and Roy Wood$’ most recent EP Dark Nights diving into the emotional complexity of moving on from experiences that no longer serve your happiness. Jordan’s honest chemistry with OVO’s First Lady crafts a solid base of intricate sophisti-pop, alternative R&B, downtempo, neo-soul & adult contemporary for a journey through the beautiful, the broken & everything in between.
Brand new surprise 3rd EP from Atlanta, Georgia emcee, singer/songwriter, producer, actor & the Prince of hip hop André 3000. Coming up as 1/2 of the greatest hip hop duo of all-time OutKast with Big Boi whom he met at Lenox Square Mall when they were both 16, they were also a part of the Dungeon Family collective & released some of my favorite music EVER! This includes ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia & Speakerboxxx / The Love Below. The 2nd disc of which was basically the closest thing we got to a solo album from 3 Stacks up to this point. However after what would eventually be their final album Idlewild serving as a soundtrack to the movie of the same name, they would focus on their solo careers. Francis the Savannah Chitlin’ Pimp mostly notably putting out 3 full-length LPs of his own as well as an eponymous EP as Big Grams & an eponymous debut album as Big Sleepover too. André 3000 however stuck to doing features & pursuing an acting career, putting out an avant-garde jazz EP on Mother’s Day 2018 called Look Ma No Hands & signing to Epic Records for the new age ambient-driven solo debut New Blue Sun to critical acclaim. Moving Day was a fine collection of 2 outtakes from the New Blue Sun sessions & has laid out 7 Piano Sketches out of nowhere.
“Bluffing in the Snow” was a great intro to the EP showing off his keyboardist abilities for 3 minutes whereas “& Then One Day You’ll…” works in some more cumbersome tone to the notes he’s playing further assuming “die” to be the missing word in the title of the composition prior to the 34 second “When You’re a Ant & You Wake Up in an Awesome Mood About to Drive Your Son to School Only to Discover You Left the Lights on in the Car Last Night, So Your Battery is Drained” interlude.
The name “Hotel Lobby Pianos” goes for that exact vibe feeling like I’m walking into Circa Resort & Casino or any other high quality resort on the verge of checking in just before “Blueberry Mansions” turns it up on the luxuriousness for almost a couple minutes. “Off Rhythm Laughter” lives up to its name playing the piano overlapping a laughing sample that’s not on rhythm. “I Spend All Day Waiting for the Night” finishes by adding some drums in the fold for a climatic closer that I can hear at the end of a show or a movie.
Not too shocked to see people complaining about him doing anything except dropping a whole hip hop album but like I said when I reviewed New Blue Sun: André 3000 is literally one of those guys who can do just about anything & can find a way to pull it off. Instead of him using woodwinds like he did on that LP & the previous EP Moving Day, he’s playing the piano with hints of spoken word because of every track starting with the track number & title being said out loud for an easy listening experience.
This is the 5th EP from Brampton, Ontario, Canada rapper & singer/songwriter Roy Wood$. Signing to Drake‘s very own OVO Sound a decade ago already, he has since gone on to release a total of 3 full-length studio LPs & 4 EPs, with the most notable of the handful being the 2015 debut EP Exis & of course the debut album Walking at Dawn the following winter. Rolling Stone back in December felt like a bunch of uninspired Weeknd runoff & is looking to take us on a journey through the Dark Nights nearly 2 months since Drizzy followed the current 4-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan on social media regardless of her on-screen relationship with the newest WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio.
“So Obvious” begins by talking about clearly seeing this woman in pain advising her to lay her problems out in front of him whereas “Stay with Me” after a brief interlude asks for his lover not to leave him & asking what he has to do for their love. “Whatchu Mean” comes off as another Weeknd bite addressing an individual who has no love for themselves just before “What I Used to Get Into” produced by Drumma Boy talks about being different as of late.
To start the 2nd half, “Like You” embraces an alternative R&B vibe continue to copy The Weeknd singing that he’s as fucked up as his romantic interest is while “You” asks how did he ever let this relationship go wrong. “Disrespectful” speaks on a woman who’s constantly talking over him & “Tell Me What I’m Living For” responds by saying respect isn’t hard to show.
Roy initially saying that Dark Nights was gonna mark a return had me hoping that he would improve from the lackluster reception his most recent output has been receiving, but it’s still the same ol’ generic alternative R&B & pop rap we’ve been getting from him in who knows how long at this point. I understand the situations of betrayal he’s been through are very much real, the execution of it is what leaves little to be desired.
Atlanta, Georgia producer, audio engineer & recording artist Whyceg releasing his sophomore effort under his Sony Music imprint Cegular Records. Properly introducing himself to the underground in the summer of 2022 off his debut EP Grey Areas alongside the superior follow-up Cegular over a year later & of course the debut mixtape Yin & Yang a couple months later, his full-length studio debut Ceg Year would arrive in the previous February, signing both Babystaydown & Pradabagshawty to Cegular afterwards with each of them becoming successful in their own unique ways this past fall. Unlike their mentor’s previous solo efforts however, he chooses to take a backseat vocally approaching Cegregation & a list of guest performers to do what they do best over his production.
“Go Far” by 2sdxrt3all begins with a plugg intro talking about being disappointed by people tearing his heart in half whenever he shows them love whereas “Creep” by B6 decently blends gangsta rap lyrics & a dark plugg instrumental together for a passable single if you’re a fan of those styles. “In the Blind” by FBLMANNY talks about others hating to play a game they don’t want him to win leading into a personal favorite of mine “Old Lady Purse” by RRoxket co-produced by Goxan admitting to getting nervous around the feds.
Big Yavo gets a song of his own with the pluggy “Yay Ball” pulling out a stick & he’s not referring to chicken when he says that just before “Jetson” by Lil Tony fuses these trippy synthesizers & hi-hats shouting out one of the 2020s’ most popular trap beatsmiths: JetsonMade. “Dominoes” by Lazer Dim 700 & 2sdxrt3all finds the 2 teaming up for a dark plugg track cautioning to not choke if you don’t want smoke while “No Mental” by Yhapojj talks about giving a fuck less regarding his haters.
“IRL” by Lil Dre6o reaches the halfway point of Cegregation poking fun at people who be actin’ hard on the Meta Platforms-owned Instagram only to be scared shitless of him when running into each other while “Dead Ppl” by NDO D & Pradabagshawty kicks off the 2nd act on some dark plugg shit once again talking about smelling corpses near them, the latter having the strongest verse compared to the other. “Need Shells” by iam3hard moves forward continuing to mesh themes of the gangsta lifestyle & plugg instrumentation looking to reload his guns with more ammo while “Claim You Rich” by Jripey takes jabs at anybody who says they’re wealthier than they really are.
Zone1eriic takes the mic during “Clock It” & once another highlight “Undercover” by Babystaydown takes 111 seconds so he can talk about the woman he’s seeing possibly being the one yet simultaneously feeling like he can’t trust her for whatever reason he’s still trying to figure out, 2sdxrt3all returns 1 last time so he can make a sequel to “Crazy Dxrt3all Flow” off his 2nd EP Stop Holdin’ Nuts that recaptures everything that made the original version of it so special.
“OhYeah” by Rx Yp uses a flow reminiscent of Lucki’s using the gat to make muhfuckas dance like it’s the music video to “Thriller” by the late King of Pop himself Michael Jackon while “TF You Goin’?” by luhbrod7 promises to never leave his Heat similarly to how LeBron James did. Ending the album on a high note, “Riches” by diamond* clarifies to his girlfriend that he handles mafia business making others go missing.
I’d recommend checking out the Cegular EP for those curious of Whyceg’s abilities as a rapper, but I’d still take it over Cegregation for the finest entry in his discography so far & it has me hoping I’ll enjoy the next time the CEO of Cegular Records decides to let other artists rock his signature plugg sound throughout the duration of an entire LP a lot more than the averageness of this. This guy’s amongst my favorites in the plugg/dark plugg subgenres of trap & he really has something special going for his imprint, my main criticism with the album’s that the guest-list feels inconsistent.
Legends Will Never Die 