Thoughts on MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES by Westside Boogie and Honestly, Nevermind by Drake

The long anticipated follow up to Boogie's debut Shady Records album Everything for Sale finally dropped a couple of weeks ago, as did a surprise album by Drake. Here we are discussing them both...

MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES - WESTSIDE BOOGIE

MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES is a concise, empowering and vibey record. There is plenty of variation in the LP and Boogie brings us sounds that we didn't hear on the last album back in 2019. The track NONCHALENT is super nice with an extremely strong vocal performance from Mamii who features on the track. NONCHALANT is a light, summery and pretty track where Boogie sounds really at-home over the delicate acoustic guitar, potentially a ukulele. The single AIGHT is another awesome track where Boogie pushes his sound in another direction as this song has a mucky trap beat and Boogie spits darker, greazier bars. Dram adds to the track nicely. So do all the features on MORE BLACK SUPERHEROES. The features, which include Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy were risks, but certainly paid off. Soulja Boy's verse added to the song and made CAN'T EVEN LIE a better track - I was just surprised when I saw the tracklist as I'd never imagine Soulja Boy on a Shady Records album. I would have potentially liked to have seen a feature from people like Chance the Rapper or Anderson .Paak as I think they would gel really well with Boogie's sound. Or maybe someone from the Dreamville roster, like when we had JID on Everything for Sale. I think this album lacked some of the catchiness and melodic moments from his previous album, and could be a worse album, but I certainly don't think that this is a backwards step in the way that that sounds. Boogie's album has real sense of potency and is a solid body of work. He is proving himself as a great album-artist and of course I am excited for whatever comes next. 

Star Track - NONCHALANT

7/10

Honestly, Nevermind - Drake

If an album title could sum up an album... Nah it's not that bad. This is the first time reviewing Drake but he absolutely needs no introduction. What can we say about this album? Firstly, for people who haven't heard it, this is essentially a dance album, which uses moments of various sub-genres but mainly house music. I am reviewing this because, there is still a fair bit of rapping, and it's Drake, the biggest Hip Hop artist of the last 5 years who has dominated the charts worldwide. It was cool to hear Drake try something new for sure, the split between just music and having vocals present was fairly even, so straight away we are in unfamiliar territory. So we have this dance music throughout which to me felt bland and at times half-baked, and when we did hear vocals they also sounded bland and uninteresting. Drake didn't sound that bothered himself for large parts of this record.

To discuss some tracks specifically, Falling Back had a cool sort of wavey atmospheric instrumental which Drake graced with some awful singing - It's super high-pitched falsetto stuff with just repetition of lyrics that didn't really do anything either. Texts Go Green has a much better cadence to it. The track Currents has a horrible squeaking sound, a bit like a bottle which you would spray surfaces with or potentially a squeaky chair or even bed. It was really distracting and made for an overall unpleasant and obnoxious listen. Calling My Name starts with these shitey lyrics about counting the ways Drake's going to make you cum, but luckily for us the beat switches to something way more interesting and captivating but this never goes anywhere or ever really drops, so to be honest, what was the point in the beat switch? Liability had potential if not for the moody vocal effects which completely dulled the performance and the track. Jimmy Crooks featuring 21 Savage was a great trap banger but made absolutely no sense for the album and stuck out like a sore thumb. 

There are some decent moments, the middle run from Sticky to Flight's Booked is better. However, at best, this album is background fodder. Drake should, and could, be doing a lot better. Some of the tracks feel quite minimalist, but in a way that suggests a lack of ideas rather than an artistic decision. If it wasn't blatant before, it feels like a huge admission that Drake is not album-artist anymore and this was solely made for the purpose of earning summer playlisting. But Drake, what are we going to listen to in winter? It should be pointed out as well that Drake has done nothing new to house music, and this is by far the worst attempt at jumping on a genre that he has little business being involved with. I'm all for artists trying new things and new genres but I feel this whole album is just a bit of a head-scratcher. In the not-too-distant future I am going to be checking out and reviewing If You're Reading This It's Too Late, I have a feeling that one might be better.

Star Track - Sticky

3/10