The Good:
Trev Rich - Heights 3Hot damn was this a slow week. There were a couple major releases (if you even want to consider them major), but most of them were in the awkward zone between alright and bad. I actually had to search for Trev Rich's mixtape because nothing else did it for me.
But I'm glad I did find Rich's Heights 3, which, as the title makes obvious, is the third installment of his Heights series. I don't love Heights 3 but it's certainly a good listen.
The best part of Heights 3 is easily the production, headed by Brinky Beats. The wide range of beats on Heights 3 range from simplistic piano-based ballads to futuristic bass bumpers.
A solid example of the brilliant production on this mixtape is "Prayer," which also showcases one of the few features on the album in Leonna Harper. The piano-like synths and the bassy undertones show a Kanye West influence. This influence can especially be seen when Rich paraphrases Yeezy himself, rapping, "I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven / Then I woke up in this hell without a necklace."
There's also the incredibly complex "Go Get It" beat that uses insanely heavy synths and the occasional guitar to create the most hype-worthy beat on the album.
And while Rich is far from the best lyricist, he easily makes up for it in content.
 |
| 50 ain't nothing but a P-I-M-P |
you're pimping or you're getting pimped."
Overall, Rich does just enough to make him stand out from the rest of the hip-hop community without doing so much as to propel him to the next level. This makes Heights 3 an entertaining listen, but doesn't make it as memorable as it could be.
The Bad:
If I had to be honest, I loved "Bugatti." Easily one of my favorite party tracks in 2013. The only thing more surprising than Future's damn catchy hook was the fact that it belonged to Ace Hood.
I kind of forgot about Ace Hood up until that point. I mean, the last time I really listened to an Ace Hood song pre-"Bugatti" was "Top of the World," but that's just because it was in an NBA 2K game. But that game also featured LeBron James in a Cavs jersey, so that should give you an idea of just how long ago that was.
But now, with "Bugatti" in the books, I guess Ace Hood is once again relevant. After Starvation 3, though, I'd be surprised if that lasted much longer.
| Khaled's just sad he's not the best anymore |
Ace Hood just feels so old now. I mean, he's signed to Cash Money and DJ Khaled's We The Best labels. If that doesn't scream late aughties, I don't know what else could. He's just a holdover from the last generation of hip-hop. And he wasn't even that successful then!
I mean, listen to "Everyday." The Auto-Tune-heavy "banger" sounds like it could have easily been a T-Pain beat.
Hell, "Home Invasion" was even produced by Cool & Dre. The former hotshot producers produced only four--count 'em, four--commercially released songs in 2013. I mean, don't get me wrong, I used to love the duo. But there's a reason for their drop in production.
The song starts off nice, sounding like a Barry White track. And then it all of a sudden shifts into a hood beat that sounds like just about everything else Ace Hood does. No wonder Cool & Dre aren't around anymore.
I mean, there are a couple of decent songs. "Hip-hop" gets a soulful sample to make it interesting and "Buss Guns" gets a good sample from Mavado to give it a heavy reggae feel. But at the end of the day, Ace Hood's just stuck in the past. Which leads to this question for Ace Hood:
The Re-dic-yu-lus:
Oh. My. God. I forgot how much I loved writing this part of Stack That Cheese over the past month. But thanks to Bobo Norco, I can love again!
Everything about Bobo Norco feels like it's fake. His Auto-Tune-heavy, bubbly techno sound brings back memories of nineties boy bands. His album cover makes him look like a Macy's mannequin trying to appeal to the "urban youth." Even his name, Bobo Norco, sounds like an Italian clown. I honestly love it. I can't stop typing it. Bobo Norco. It's so great!
Now, let's give a listen to the Backstreet Boys reject's mixtape, Keep It XO, a mixtape described as "visually stunning."
 |
| If you look closely, you can see Bobo in the back. |
The Bay area "rapper" is definitely on the poppy side of hip-hop. But I'd hardly associate Kevin Federline Jr. with the genre.
 |
| K-Fed is proud of his illegitimate son |
"NLNF" is a good example of this confusion in Bobo's head. See, he seems to think just because he's not singing 100% of the time (it's more like 49%) that he's rap. He sprinkles in some typical rap topics like expensive clothes, guns and women, but it comes off as more hearsay than experience. Hell, the featured rapper (who's not mentioned) raps circles around Bobo and he sucks in his own way. It's not a hard task, though, when Bobo has a rhyme scheme of twelve-twelve-shells-twelve-shells.
"NLNF," by the way, is an acronym for No Lovers, No Friends which will be the name of his debut album out on March 3, which I will happily wait the next month and a half for.
And every song sounds like "NLNF" to a horribly scary degree. I mean, there's "You," which includes Bobo doing a disgusting Pharrell impression. Or "Funk Sweat Dope" where Bobo moves from 'N Sync to Black Eyed Peas, so that's improvement, I guess? But you'd be hard-pressed to find a good track on Keep It XO. That being said, I loved Keep It XO and I cannot wait for his album in March. Bring on the re-dic-yu-lus!
No comments:
Post a Comment