Monday, August 15, 2011

Album Review: MellowHype- BlackendWhite



 Average Rating: 6.1/10
Overall Rating: 6.5/10 
       1. Primo (6/10)
          2. Gunsounds (6.5/10)
          3. Brain Ft. Domo Genisis (5/10)
          4. 64 (8/10)
          5. Loaded Ft. Mike G (4/10)
          6. Deaddepudy (9/10)
          7, Right Here (3/10)
          8. Igotagun (10/10)
          9. F666 The Police Ft. Tyler, The Creator (10/10)
          10. Rico Ft. Frank Ocean (6.5/10)
          11. Circus (2/10)

     Since Tyler, The Creator’s album, Bastard came out; Odd Future has been getting a lot of recondition. Earl Sweatshirt’s album Earl opened to critical success. Frank Ocean’s EP Nostalgia: Ultra also gained a lot of critical success, and some commercial success. Then Tyler’s second album, Goblin came out, which opened with more critical, and more commercial success than all of the other Odd Future projects that came out, and now, MellowHype have a chance to react to the post-bastard success with their album BlackenedWhite.

      MellowHype are a hip-hop duo, made up of two members. Hodgy Beats, who is known mostly for his production, and being the second most production credited member of Odd Future after Tyler, and the second rapper, who is a lot like hodgy, but less active, who is Left Brain, we heard them both together before, in fact, they made two EPs together, but can they hold on a whole album?

     BlackendWhite is a lot like Goblin, and that was a big issue for this album in my opinion, because unlike a lot of the music released by Odd Future, this feels a bit copied and unoriginal. The album’s production does differ from Goblin, but it still does sound a bit familiar to Goblin though, and lyrically, it’s almost the same, dark themes and just horrorcore based lyrics, the only difference is the flow, Goblin had a more entertaining flow, and this album honestly had a bit of a boring flow on some tracks. This is a decent album, but it just felt copied and unoriginal, which wouldn’t make it feel the same as it could have felt if people already listened to Goblin.

      As I mentioned, the album faced a lot of issues coming with originality, especially on the lyrical side. Every track on the album was practically the same thing, but the album most struggled with originality with “64” which was a great track, but it sounded too much like Tyler’s track Sandwitches. “Brain” sounded a lot like a few tracks on Goblin, plus it had a more boring flow, the same thing goes for “Loaded”, one of the album’s worst tracks “Cercus” which sounds like the Goblin’s intro, but it has different lyrical content, but a really poor and blow flow, and “Right Here” which sounded a lot like the songs on Goblin, only it was a bit lighter, and it had a much more boring flow than the rest of the album.

      The album does shine in a few tracks though. It has some tracks which were really different, and that’s where BlackendWhite shined, in its originality in some of its tracks. Tracks such as “Igotagun” which had a quick flow, and a great beat to go with it, “Deadepudy” which had a really speedy flow, and “F666 The Police” which had a great flow, great lyrics, and an excellent guest appearance by Tyler, The Creator.
    
       There is not much to say about MellowHype’s album, except for that it’s probably one of Odd Future’s worst releases. The album did shine in some moments, but at the same time it has one big issue, which was a lack of originality, and that really affected the album negatively. Overall, it’s clear that when a good album should come out it should not just show potential on some tracks and make it a really copied and unoriginal album. This album does have its moments, but it’s moments are far too little to change the fact that this album was nothing special, or memorable, still though, real hardcore Odd Future fans will enjoy this album, probably more than I did, even though I was satisfied by the album, but I wasn’t really impressed or will really remember this at the same time.  

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