After the slow start to the year, new Hip Hop is being dropped and with decent variety too. In the last article we spoke about Logic's new album College Park, and here we are going to drop some opinions on the new slowthai record, UGLY, and the new Creed III soundtrack by J.Cole's stable, Dreamville.
slowthai - UGLY
The rollout of this project went pretty under the radar for myself, not hearing either of the 2 singles and only clocking he was dropping a new album until the night before. My instant thoughts and reaction from first listen were, wow, this is a really fresh and unique project. It's got some punk in there with much of the instrumentals sounding live, and also very guitar and drum-heavy, with lots of attitude and gumption. slowthai does sound a little crazy at points with the music matching his erratic nature. We also hear slowthai singing a share of the album with an equal amount of rapping too. It's hard for sure, but when you dig into the lyrics a little more you can hear a highly emotional and traumatic person. Whether discussing his battle with addiction on Yum, or the heart-breaking storytelling song of Never Again, slowthai puts so much of himself into his music. You can tell there's a large amount of energy and thought that goes into it, the variety he gives you, the ordering of the songs, and the feelings he wants to get off his chest and how he wants to make the listener feel. He's not the most lyrical or technically gifted rapper, but the twang in his accent and bluntness of his lyrics make him extremely listenable. Those 2 qualities he has, of his delivery and lyrics, mixed with the great production were always what scratches the slowthai itch for so many people in my opinion. But now on UGLY, you hear him making more ambitious music, the story telling for example, or the slower ballad-type tracks like Falling where slowthai fully turns up the melodrama in his voice. Or lastly, the single Feel Good where slowthai tries to hit a more commercial sound without necessarily sacrificing any of the character, and whimsical sound, he often has. If it's ever whimsical, he certainly still has a dark under-belly in his music, most often in his content matter. Yeah overall, you have some real highlights on UGLY, and some songs admittedly that I don't care for, but a solid album from the Northampton MC, and my favourite project I've heard from him thus far.
Star Track - Never Again
7/10
Dreamville - Creed III: The Soundtrack
My first ever review on this blog came 3 years ago in December 2018 with the review of the Creed II soundtrack, produced by Mile WiLL Made-It, so the announcement of a soundtrack for the next film brought a nostalgic smile to my face. If you want to check out the original review, here's a link - https://thehiphopsom.blogspot.com/2018/12/creed-ii-soundtrack-review.html
There was mixed feelings on that soundtrack looking back and re-reading my clunky article. One thing I touched on was the mix of both chilled, slower songs and faster-tempo bangers, and that's much the case with this new album. Instead of an angle of tempo, the split here is more, melodic vs tough, grittier songs. We open with the clinical song, Culture, where Mez, REASON, Symba and 8AE are reeling off mean bars that are dripping in grit and greaze. JID's flawless flow and delivery on the bop, Ma Boy, is another great performance and shoutout to Lute for maintaining that energy too. Another top performance came from J.Cole on Adonis Interlude flipping the legendary Dr Dre song, The Watcher. Bit of an old-head wet dream but is what it is.
I 100% was here for Westside Boogie getting a big feature on the cold boom bap joint Headhunters, and also for Morray and Jetsonmade, whom brought superb chemistry to their song, Long The Way, which blended a catchy hook between skippy and liquid verses.
When we talk about melodic Hip Hop, Dreamville probably brought some of their best work on this album. I like Revenge of the Dreamers III and D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz, but some of the melodies on the Creed III soundtrack hit way harder than most on those projects. Look no further than the casual Ogogoro by Bas and Ayra Starr, or the more sentimental Hate Me Now with Mereba (who was phenomenal), Arin Ray and Omen. SiR and Syd brought us the sexy, slow jam Lay Up which was another big highlight of the tracklist.
Did the track have some skips, yes probably, I didn't care for Anthem, Greater, and Heavy Is The Head to name a few examples. And because I haven't seen the film, I have no idea how this all relates to the movie. I have a decent picture of how the film is going to be, quite similar to the second movie I imagine, glamourous, emotional, dramatic, sensual, as long as the soundtrack does mirror the films style.
If you're into Dreamville, new-school Hip Hop, the melodic style of rap but with some harder moments then this is certainly a project you will appreciate. It's something I was into and will be coming back to no doubt. Now just to see the film!
Star Track - Culture
7/10
BONUS/HIDDEN CONTENT
Westside Boogie - Live At The Novo
Firstly, if you've got this far in the article, thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed it. I just thought for you people who did get this far, I'd do a little extra piece of content and drop some quick on thoughts on Shady Records signee, Westside Boogie and his new EP, Live At The Novo.
At just under 5 minutes and only containing 3 songs, it really didn't justify an individual bonafide review. However, it's still music, and although it didn't take much to digest it, it was still very much consumed. Fairly similar to what we've heard so far from Boogie, with cool vocal effects, laid back instrumental, and the pouring of emotional. Cold as Love, the opening track, starts with Boogie reeling off personal bars about his struggles but also his personal growth, spitting bars like I done took leaps tryna make a change, I done went deep looking in the pain", starting many of the bars, in this probably 16 bar verse, with the repetition of "I done...". The flow is pretty relentless and the beat is nice too. But what lets the song down is the nasally chorus that doesn't sound great at all really, though the second part which is less squeaky is better. Singing lyrics like "invade my space, but you still can't save me, tell me why?", it's never entirely clear who Boogie is talking to here, maybe another verse would not only complete the thought going into the song, but also give the listener a lot more understanding of what Boogie was attempting here, especially as he was spitting some deeper stuff on the verse too. This song, and the whole EP feels a little incomplete, I think is fair to say. However, I do think that was an edgy stylistic choice by Boogie, rather than laziness.
The next song, Tell Me has a high-pitched vocal sample dominating the bass-heavy beat, whilst Boogie again spits a pretty great verse that feels very frustrated and again, extremely introspective and personal. He also delivers a fire rhyme scheme and prods the listener with lyrics questioning their decisions, their friends, all in quite a greazy way, and a tone that suggests these are questions Boogie has himself been asked before, maybe by Boogie himself, as he spits "is your ties beneficial? Is your guys really with you? If your time come and get you, will they slide and avenge you? Is your pride finna hit you? Do you hide every issue?".
Boogie finishes the EP with the piano, trap banger that is short and snappy that Boogie has delivered for us before, and no doubt encourages fans of his harder, more ratchet sound, to flock to his music.
Star Track - Mood
5/10
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