The Good:
As a broke college kid who frequently listens to mixtapes, it's always rough when an artist you listened to from his beginning stages starts making legitimate albums. Because you enjoy him. You have all of his mixtapes. But as soon as he releases that first album, you realize you're faced with two options: you could either continue supporting him and fork up the fifteen dollars, or you can give up on him. (You can also take a sail to the bay of pirates, but I totally don't do that.)
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| Just so you know, "the bay of pirates" is not in Somalia, |
Hoodie Allen is that kind of artist. I have almost everything he's done, even Making Waves. He was one of my favorite rappers for a while. But as soon as he dropped All American, I was faced with that same dilemma. The fact that he took on a poppier feel just made it more difficult.
Usually when an artist makes that jump from mixtape rapper to album rapper, they're gone for good. Or if they ever do come back, it's with a subpar mixtape because they save all their best stuff for the albums that actually make them money.
But Hoodie Allen is better than that. He gets me. He understands my dilemma and he's making it so I never have to make that hard decision that would probably lead to me abandoning him. (I'm really broke, guys.) He's making it so I can have my "Cake" and eat it, too. (It's funny because one of his songs on Crew Cuts is called "Cake Boy." The only thing funnier than puns is explaining them, right?)
And Hoodie comes through on his first mixtape since July 2011. In fact, I might even enjoy it more than All American.
For one thing, he's more experimental on Crew Cuts than he was on his album. "Cake Boy" might be his most experimental song ever. The beat is comprised mostly of deep bass and pots and pans. That's right, pots and pans. For a pop rapper, "Cake Boy" is pretty indie.
The other things that makes Crew Cuts so good are the features on it. "Two Lips" is another one of the best songs on the album and it's in due in large part to the featuring of OCD: Moosh and Twist (who released a song earlier this week entitled "All Alright," which sounded a lot like a Hoodie track and now I know why). And "Fame Is For Assholes," a song which earned a quality music video earlier this week, features Chiddy of Chiddy Bang, another mixtape rapper who made the switch to albums, making the song even sweeter. Hoodie also manages to get features from Shwayze and G-Eazy, among others.
Hoodie's been better than he is on Crew Cuts, but it's definitely a refreshing listen for any Hoodie fan and it shows he hasn't gone completely mainstream, yet, which is always good.
The Bad:
If you had come up to me within the past few years and told me that Birdman was dead, I would have believed you without even having to Google it. That's how irrelevant he's been. But now he's back with a G.O.O.D. Summer-like collaborative mixtape, heavily featuring the artist he frequently collaborates with.
Rich Gang: All Stars is actually more of a compilation album, but the idea is similar to that of G.O.O.D. Summer in the way that it tries to showcase the talent surrounding Birdman. It says a lot, however, that Birdman could only put together a compilation mixtape, whereas Kanye can release a critical success of an album with his crew. Remember when Birdman was not only relevant, but not far from the top of hip-hop royalty? Back when he could just put Lil Wayne and Drake on a song and hit platinum? Now he's so far down the food chain that he can get his so-called "all-stars" together and barely make a ripple.
There are actually some pretty good songs on All Stars. For instance, Drake's single that sent every rapper into the recording studio, "Started From the Bottom," is the first song on this mixtape. It's one of the better Drake songs since he signed with Young Money. Reminds me of the old Drake, when he was a rapper before anything else. But even that song is old news and not made because of Birdman.
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| Don't think you can share this with Weezy. |
The song immediately following it is definitely more suited to a Birdman mixtape, though. It's called "Awkward" and it's by Birdman's protege himself, Lil Wayne. I'm honestly proud of myself as a music fan because I'm so appalled by Lil Wayne now. I really liked Carter III when it came out, but it hasn't really held up. And almost everything since that has been complete and utter garbage. "Awkward" continues that streak. It's got a kind of sexy vibe that's supposed to get the ladies all hot and bothered, but with lines like "She made me cum a hundred times" and "I tell her that that pussy for me / Just in case she thought it was ours / And she said 'cool'" are so out of left field that I can't ever imagine anyone finding them sexy. Or good, but that's a given.
It doesn't stop there. Birdman has songs from here from almost everyone who's ever been associated with him. This includes, but is not limited to, Tyga, French Montana, Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, Mack Maine, Kevin Rudolf, Gudda, Meek Mill and Ace Hood. And very few of them are any good. Honestly, it might just be better if Birdman just becomes a recluse again.
The Re-dic-yu-lus
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Rich Hil, the son of Tommy Hilfiger. I actually said his ambient, drug-influenced mixtape was good. So just keep that in mind as I trash this douchebag.
I'm never going to say hip-hop is a closed community. It's actually very open and free. It features the rich and the poor, the gangsta and the posh, the hard and the soft, and the list just goes on. That's what makes it so interesting, the fact that it's so accessible. But guys like Travy do not belong in hip-hop.
Just look at the Local Celebrity cover. A white boy smoking a cigarette, sitting on the hood of his red Acura, dressed in his blue button-down Polo dress shirt and his salmon shorts (yes, I realize I can't talk shit about this) in the middle of Delaware (it's on the licence plate). Now imagine that preppy kid rapping. It's that bad.
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| Something tells me Tupac didn't have a cranberry Acura. |
About 95% of Local Celebrity is Travy bragging about just how rich he is. Just read some of his song names: "Acura Music Pt.1," "Local Celebrity," "Country Club Interlude 1" and "PREP." Now let's look more in-depth at his music.
"PREP" is really the essence of Travy. It starts out with the phrase, "Due to some violent content, parental discretion is advised." He then proceeds without even being that violent. He covers topics that span everything from his "cranberry Acura" to polo. ("Polo socks, Polo hat / Turn the golf course into a polo match.") And it doesn't even sound like it's finished. Travy trips up on his words, gets out of breath and doesn't even seem like he knows what he's doing.
And then there's the title-track. It sounds like a parody done by a poor man's Lonely Island. Travy's voice is smothered with autotune as he raps lines like "Rich, white, hood, country club kid who's on his shit." And by the end of the song he's just saying stuff like "All you faggots boring, boring" and "I'm so fly, so fly" most likely to just test out his autotune.
It'd be one thing if Travy was good. Or if Local Celebrity was at least well-produced. Or if he was at least some drug addict hopped up on designer drugs making ambient, hippie music (see: Rich Hil). But Travy's none of those things. He's exactly what you'd expect from some rich boy who most likely has his own studio in his bedroom just for the fun of it. I really hope he's just trolling me, but even if he is, it's not even funny. Just bad.
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