Week 1

7/10/21

Hi, I'm Benji, and with this being my first post of the Hip Hop Weekly blog, I think it's a good idea to quickly run through what this blog will contain. I will simply be briefly reviewing a few of the past week's album and/or single releases in hip-hop. I will be releasing this usually on a Wednesday or Thursday as most releases occur on a Friday, giving me enough time to listen and sit with each record. This will be casual but hopefully also contain a good amount of musical insight to pander to any person with any level of music knowledge. The reviews will be presented in order of my rating of them, with the albums coming with a score out of 10 at the end of the review (along with my favourite tracks). Bare in mind, this is always subject to change as I only have one week to make my judgement. With all that said, let's get to it!

Lute - Gold Mouf

Dreamville member and up-and-coming rapper, Lute, dropped his second full length album this week, and what a stunner it is. I had not heard a great deal of Lute before this, but what I had heard I enjoyed, so I went in to this album listen with optimism. I was blown away. Lute delivers introspective lyrics diving in to self worth, fame, and anxiety. This is done over smooth, low bpm production with Lute's flow and cadence just cutting through this hard-hitting production. Each new beat on subsequent songs feels like a sucker-punch of tranquility, if that makes sense. The hooks are also fantastic, often employing layered vocals (which I always LOVE) to just add to the texture of each song. That is probably the best word to describe this record. Each song just has so much texture from the lyrics to the production to the flows. Most of the features hit really well, with DVSN and WESTSIDE BOOGIE being some of my personal favourites. Lute doesn't really stray too much from this formula and sticks with it throughout the album, but executes it so well I almost don't care. My only slight annoyance with this album is that the song featuring Saba and JID, which I highly anticipated, was very underwhelming and did not stand out to me at all. But, if the worst thing about an album is that one song was underwhelming, that isn't too bad at all. I would like to see Lute employ different techniques in the future, but in general this album was a thoroughly enjoyable, replayable, and quite eye-opening listen.

Favourite songs: Myself, Be Okay, Eye to Eye, Changes, Ghetto Love, Flossin, Life, Overnight

Score: 8.5/10

Meek Mill - Expensive Pain

Probably the biggest release of the week goes to Meek Mill. Following up his 2018 album 'Championships' was never going to be easy, but he does a pretty good job of it with this record. The first song in typical Meek fashion is hard as fuck. It's a standard Meek Mill banger which I thought would set the tone for the record, but I was wrong. Well, to some extent. There are a lot of different themes employed by Meek on this record, including the regular amount of extreme violence and gross-detail of his sexual ventures. But, I expected that from this record. What I didn't expect was the decent amount of heartfelt and introspective themes Meek employs on this record. Songs like On My Soul and Love train (to name a couple) paint Meek as a really vulnerable character who does not only dish out pain, but is subject to it as well. For these more emotionally exposed songs, as well as a few others, he turns to a more melodic trap style approach, reminiscent of Juice WRLD or Lil Durk (who actually adds a great feature to the album). Most features perform well on the album, with Lil Baby continuing his own hot streak as well as the seasoned generals in Young Thug and Uzi. Speaking of Uzi, the song Blue Notes 2 really feels like a moment in this album. The production is grand with Meek and Uzi both delivering quality performances. The guitar in the background (reminiscent of that in The Weeknd's 'The Morning', a song which I adore so those guitars hooked me straight away) adds an extra layer which just adds to the overall feel of the song. Like I say, this is a very solid record. But, the main issue I have with it is inconsistency. There are a lot of filler tracks which are fortunately balanced out by the highs of this album, but they are still there. The multitude of themes also make the album seem a bit all over the place at times. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the melodic trap sound, but Meek uses it in moderation here so I don't mind it. It's definitely an album I will revisit and enjoy, but maybe only selected songs and not the album as a whole.

Favourite songs: Intro, On My Soul, Ride for You, We Slide, Blue Notes 2, Angels

Score: 7/10

Ryan Trey - A 64 East Saga

I had high expectations coming in to this album as I enjoy Ryan Trey's music and thought highly of the singles released leading up the album. Unfortunately, this album did not really live up to the standards I set for him. This was not a bad album, just quite average. I like them theme that he employs for the album with the contemplative lyricism and the way he battles with his thoughts for this girl. Most of these tracks are quite hard-hitting and relatable lyrically, backed with spacey lo-fi instrumentals which suits his style very well. He doe well in putting the listener in his shoes with some well thought out and descriptive storytelling. There are these clear conflicting feelings for this girl whom he loves but clearly keeps getting hurt by her or is disagreeing with a lot of her antics. This is something I'm sure a lot of his listeners can relate to. This feeling changes slightly in the second half of the album when his tone shifts to moving on from her predominately and slating her attitudes. 'Rollin', even though it appears early on, is a real standout track (which I knew it would be as I had heard it many times before the album dropped). The standalone line "Just hurt me, that's fine" is really hard-hitting and really showcases his sombre state of mind in this time period. It is a shame that the album really doesn't reach this high with any of the other songs. By the end of this record I found myself not really remembering a few of the songs (and bear in mind this album is not very long) as the production (while it is enjoyable) is very similar, so does not keep the listener engaged. The one exception to this is the track 'Nowhere to Run' which has much punchier production and his voice doesn't seem as lost in the mix as other songs. Bryson Tiller also delivers a very strong feature on this one. The Drake influence is also very clear to see on this album, whether that be in the flows, production, or subject matter. This isn't a bad thing, I just feel like Ryan needs to find his own lane or go back to that more varied style that worked so well for him on 'august', but he does have real promise and I'm excited for his future.

Favourite songs: Rollin, Change of Plans, King's Heart, Nowhere to Run

Score: 6/10

And that's the first post done! Bear in mind this is just my opinion, but please let me know what you all think. If, in future, the weekly releases doesn't really excite me, I may also throw in a classic album reaction in to the mix as well so watch out for that!

Benji Marks