Album Review: Yelawolf- Radioactive

Average Rating: 7.4/10

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

1. Radioactive (7/10)

2. Get Away Ft. Shawty Fatt & Mystical (6/10)

3. Let’s Roll Ft. Kid Rock (9.5/10)

4. Grown’ Up In The Gutter Ft. Rittz (10/10)

5. Hard White (In The Club) Ft. Lil Jon (3/10)

6. Throw it Up Ft. Eminem & Gangsta Boo (0/10)

7. Good Girl Ft. Pooh Bear (8/10)

8. Made in the USA Ft. Priscella Renea (9/10)

9. Animal Ft. FeFe Dobson (8/10)

10. The Hardest Love Song in the World (7.5/10)

11. Write Your Name Ft. Mona Mona (8/10)

12. Everything I Love The Most (9/10)

13. Radio (10/10)

14 Slumerican Shitizan Ft. Killer Mike (6/10)

15. The Last Song (9/10)

16. Whip It (9/10)

17. In This World Ft. Eminem (7.5/10)

18. I See You (6/10)

     The number of white rappers have been increasing since Eminem reached unbelievable levels of critical and commercial success, and honestly, most of the time I felt like Eminem was the only white rapper who could rap until the 2009-2010 era, where two white rappers, from two very different districts started gaining attention, one of the two was Yelawolf from Alabama, which belongs to the south region, and the other is Mac Miller who is from Pittsburg, which is in the northern reason, they both got albums this year, Mac had a pretty decent debut with “Blue Slide Park”, let’s see how Yela does with his debut, “Radioactive”.

    Let’s take a look at how Yela really blew up his career, he gained a lot of recondition releasing his mixtape “Trunk Muzik 0-60”, ever since he’s been working with big shot artists and rappers as big as Big Boi and Game, after that he got signed to Eminem’s label Shady Records, so clearly Yela waited for the right moment for his debut, but the question is, did Radioactive bring what Yelawolf’s past work brought? Did Radioactive bring out what Yelawold wanted to bring? Was Radioactive worth all its hype and anticipation given its history as well as it’s concept?

     Radioactive mainly focused on one major huge topic, which where the pros and cons of his life style and the American life style. Yelawolf went into many details that go around concepts like general lifestyle, poverty, gang wars, the radio in his home country, as well as his home state, however, Radioactive cannot be called a political album, because it did not really go deep into politics, but it went more into lifestyles in general. Radioactive is more of a social commentary than anything else, which was very experimental, because a lot of artists normally don’t do stuff like that, especially for their debut album.

     Yelawolf talked about so much in Radioactive, and mostly on his personal life and lifestyle, “Let’s Roll” was a great track, it talked about mainly getting up and Yelawolf going up from the bottom, “Animal” talked about Yelawolf’s rap style and aggression, it had a strong beat, a strong flow, but a bit of a cheesy hook though, “Everything I Love The Most” talked about how Yelawolf loves all the wrong stuff for him, it was a personal and honest track and that showed with Yelawolf’s strong lyricism on this track, and “The Last Song” talked about Yelawolf’s father and how he left him, it was a personal and emotional track, one of the best on the album.

    Yelawolf talked about woman and love on this album too, “Good Girl” talked about how Yelawolf, and other guys are not treating the girls that they love right, the result? A honest track straight from the heart, and “The Hardest Love Song in the World” talked about how if Yelawolf loves a girl he would basically show it to her with a well-focused, well-made real love song and that not many guys would put a lot of emphasis into doing that, it was a good track, it had a great concept, but it did feel a bit commercial though.

    Yelawolf also talked about how the music industry is slowly turning to turmoil in some tracks, “Throw it Up” talked about how mainstream music became so generic and simple, and it had potential to be a great track, except it was a total failure, it had a boring beat, poor verses from Yelawolf and Gangsta Boo, and the man who could have saved the song, Eminem, actually made the song the potential worst song of the year with his enormously terrible verse, and “Radio” talked about the limited amount of content being played in the radio recently, it was one of the best tracks on the album and a lot of the emotion and honesty was really showed on this song.

      Yelawolf opened up about what he thinks about the US as a whole as well, “Growing Up In The Gutter” was a very creepy track, it was an opposition to what a lot of people assume how ‘cool’ living in the ghetto is but really it’s worth suicide, it was a creepy track, the lyrics where the best on the album and it was a really convincing track, “Made in the USA” was a very honest track that was about all the social problems in the country, it was a great track and one of the best on the album, and “Write Your Name” talked about how many Americans try masking there true selves while there true selves is what matters and that only there real selves will solve the country’s problems, it was a good track.

     Radioactive did have it’s share of flaws though, a lot of the hooks on the album where really corny, generic and made for the radio, the album had poor tracks “Hard White (Up in the Club)” and “Throw It Up”, but it also had some minor concept related issues, for one thing, the concept was very loose filled therefore giving the album potential to have a lot of filler, and it did, “Whip It”, “I See You” and “In This World” had nothing to do with this album, and all they did is fill it up, also, the album had an extensive number of guests, which I normally wouldn’t mind, but as for a debut album, I expected a lot more Yelawolf, but none the less, those flaws are minor.

     The bottom line is that Radioactive had a good, but unstable concept, a large group of good tracks, and some poor tracks, and a handful of features, sometimes a little too much. It had a lot of diversity in style and substance, Radioactive was overall a good album, it stood out as a strong debut and a little preview of big things that could happen in the future of Yelawolf’s career, the album did have it’s clear flaws, and I mentioned them, but I think I underestimated Yelawolf‘s music, Radioactive was nothing that I expected and had almost nothing I feared, it was an enjoyable album, but I don’t think it will be remembered as one of the best debuts to come out though.