Outside of a few features here and there, I really am not familiar with Schoolboy Q's music at all. I just knew he had a really unique voice, aggressive kind of delivery and was from the West Coast.
I'll just say straight away this album is so good. What I liked about it was that classic West Coast feel and sound. Banger after banger, I've never been to California but when I listen to this album it feels like I'm there, and that is something that great rap albums can do.
The track 'Lord Have Mercy' doesn't have Swizz Beatz listed as a feature on Spotify, so at first I was like, why's he sounding so much like Swizz Beatz, but then I went on Genius and saw that is was actually Swizz. Yeah that song was great, short and sweet and they both sounded great.
Then you're straight in to 'That Part' which is definitely top 5 on the album. The trap instrumental laid down a great foundation for both Schoolboy and Kanye to ride and not really take anything too serious. I didn't think they ever were trying too hard, which is a good thing. Schoolboy did something really cool in his first verse which I liked, right at the start of his verse he was bending his words at the end of each bar to make them rhyme and it came off really well - "lil' bitch I'm back and poppin', tell that ugly bitch to move away I need more options. Broke? Then fix your pockets all I do is profit".
Kanye on 'That Part' was on his Life of Pablo flow and delivery, he was really in the pocket. That style and attitude he had in 2016 was so good, was great to hear it again, Life of Pablo is my second favourite Kanye album behind Yeezus.
Another track I liked was 'Groovy Tony/Eddie Kane'. Both Jadakiss and Schoolboy had really good chemistry on this track. It actually emphasised to me how similar they actually sound to one another. Jadakiss came through with this greazy verse and had this ill rhyme scheme going too, "It's a three man weave with the lord and the devil, really all I need is a pitchfork and shovel, if I can't proceed then I resort to the metal".
The second track 'Eddie Kane' I wasn't as keen on. It had a totally different vibe and kind of took me out of the first track, I was a big fan of 'Groovy Tony'.
A few tracks down the track-list you get to 2 songs which were my shit. 'Whateva U Want' was the first time the tempo kind of picked up a bit which was sick. The hook was hard as well and the backing vocals throughout as well just to add to the beat and make it more interesting, which eventually climaxed at the end were brilliant.
'By Any Means' was the first track which caught my attention on first listen. I just thought 'instant banger'. A lot of lyrical highlights on the album and this song contained a fair few. I loved Schoolboq's attitude to this album, I think this song captures that the best. I love the melody at the end of each hook which glued the song together from hook to verse. It's the bit where he's rhyming "I make a scene around me hit the corner heaven hell, I come from pimpin' banging baby mother rockin' yayo".
I think with the track 'Dope Dealer' your enjoyment is very much based on whether you like E-40's verse. I don't necessarily mind E-40's double time and triple time flow. However, I think it is really boring when rappers set up their bars so they always end with one word punchlines. For example, "Cali Ni**as is manish and we havin' it - greedy, we got FN-57's and we savages - beasty". I just think it's been done a lot of times and it's rare for it to ever be done well. With that being said, without E-40's verse this song would've just been short and very forgettable, even though the hook was kinda cool.
In the track 'Big Body' (produced by Tyler, The Creator) the tempo turns up again. This is something I love about West Coast albums, they always pull off tracks that are a bit quicker and still they always hop on the beat comfortably and it always sounds so good. For example, my favourite track on Dr Dre's 2001 is 'Let's Get High', and the way they all ride the beat so effortlessly is the reason why. This track 'Big Body' is the same, see how each MC catches the beat and then rides is smoothly. For example, Schoolboy Q's first verse "steppin' in my big blue chucks, groovy q they all wanna fuck".
The only downside to this track was the obnoxious and annoying hook. It did ruin the track, however, I'll still listen to the song every now and then for the verses, just a shame about the chorus.
Yeah these were some of my takeaways from the album, there are songs that I like that I haven't mentioned, such as; 'JoHn Muir', 'Str8 Ballin'. 'Ride Out' and 'Overtime'. SZA also did a great job on 'Neva Change'. There are a lot of great moments on this album. There's nothing I could critique too much about Schoolboy's rapping or his lyricism. Any issues really are more unique stuff for certain songs, I mentioned a few of them above.
Yeah, cool album, excited to hear some of his other stuff now because I'm pretty sure this isn't the most renowned Schoolboy project either.
Star Track - By Any Means
7.75/10
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