Album Review: WZRD- WZRD

Average Rating: 8.4/10

Overall Rating: 8/10

1. The Arrival (8/10)

2. High Off Life (9/10)

3. The Dream Time Machine Ft. Empire of the Sun (7/10)

4.  Love Hard (8/10)

5. Live and Learn (9/10)

6. Break(8/10)

7. Teleport 2 Me, Jamie Ft. Desire (9/10)

8. Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (9/10)

9. Efflictim (7/10)

10. Dr. Pill (9/10)

11. Upper Room (9/10)

    Rappers normally don’t work on other genres. It’s very rare to see a rapper move from one genre to another, but some rappers do though. Kanye West did a pretty decent job with his singing debut 808s and Heartbreak, Lupe Fiasco did a decent job with his rock band Japanese Cartoon, and Lil Wayne did a terrible job trying to do rock music in his Rebirth album. Right now, another rapper is willing to join that group of artists, but this time the artist is very familiar of going back and forth in the rap world, who is it? Kid Cudi, yes, Kid Cudi is releasing a rock album called WZRD, and the chances are that the album will work, Kid Cudi can switch through genres easily, he does that on the same song most of the time, but are the chances always right though?

     WZRD had the basic hip-hop to rock transformation concept, which is basically showing off an entirely new style, but this time, there’s a Kid Cudi twist to it, meaning that WZRD is supposedly rock music that is about emotional destruction and drug abuse, so the concepts brings a lot to the table, combining Cudi’s content and style to rock music, but did it work though? I think it did, WZRD was a great combination between rap and rock, it had a strong balance between both genres, along with the slow and dizzy Kid Cudi flow. Rap rock or Cudi alone is very powerful on music, so both of them combined made one hell of a combination.

     As I mentioned, WZRD had the two usual Cudi concepts, which are emotional destruction and drug abuse, and in this WZRD’s case, both concepts where balanced perfectly. I felt like both concepts fitted the album and the style, now, however, they sounded very similar, making WZRD a fairly repetitive album that lacked some creativity. WZRD wasn’t Cudi’s best work, but it was a very strong project, mainly because of its concepts, it’s presentation, and more importantly it’s balance between the two main concepts.

    Half the WZRD album talked about emotional destruction. Each song on that half had some kind of story about emotional loss and it’s effects. Some of my favorites on that half included “Live and Learn” which was a song about learning form personal mistakes, the song had a slow mood, deep lyrics and strong production, “Teleport To Me, Jamie” was basically about Cudi missing his girlfriend, the lyrics on the song where steady, the mood was slow and the production was strong, and “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” was a song about a girl cheating on Cudi, it had the usual slow flow and stellar production, but lyrically it was the one of the best songs on the entire album, the song was deep but it wasn’t too heavy, which is a combination that’s not normally heard in music in general.

      The other half of the album talked about drug abuse. It was the weaker side of the album, but each talked about a drug’s effect and influence on Cudi. That side of the album had some great tracks though, some of the best tracks on that half of the album included “Break”, which talked about trying to let go of the drug addiction, it was a strong, slow track which had a lot of background and backbone, “Dr. Pill” was another great  track that talked about Cudi’s need of perspiration drugs, it was a faster track on the album, but it was also a lighter track lyrically, and “Upper Room” was another great track, and the last on the album, it was a very slow song that talked about how drugs affect Cudi’s mind, it gave a very high and spacey mood, it’s production was powerful and it’s lyrics where cleverly crafted, it was a great way to close the album, and it was one of the best on the album as well.

     WZRD did have a few problems though. As I mentioned, the album felt a bit repetitive, Cudi’s usual flow and style where both used on both concepts, which means that the music just felt like it was on loop most of the time, it gave the album a sense of balance and connectivity, but it made the album feel repetitive though, which was a bit of a downer. Another error the album had was the fact that it was called a ‘rock’ album, but to be be honest, WZRD was not a traditional rock album, which was good, but it did have a downside though, the music was more alternative hip-hop than rock, WZRD did have a few rock related elements, but it did not feel like that much of a rock album though.

    WZRD was a good album. It did have its bumps here and there, but look at the bright side, the album was polished, the music was good and it showed some new diversity comparing to Cudi’s older music. WZRD was very enjoyable and perhaps the best rap to rock transformation I’ve heard, even though the album was closer to alternative hip-hop than rock. WZRD wasn’t a traditional rock album, and it wasn’t a traditional hip-hop album, but it overall did the job as a great transformation and even more important a great album that didn’t quite reach expectations, but was good enough to touch them every now and then.

Album Review: Chiddy Bang- Breakfast

   

    Average Rating: 8.9/10

      Overall Rating: 7.5/10    

1. Intro

         2. Breakfast (10/10)

         3. Handclaps & Guitars (9/10)

         4. Mind Your Manners Ft. Icona Pop (9.5/10)

         5. Ray Charles (10/10)

         6. Does She Love Me (9/10)

         7. Run it Back Ft. Shirazi (7/10)

         8. Out To Space Ft. Gordon Voidwell (10/10)

         9. Whatever We Want (9/10)

         10. Interlude

         11. Talking To Myself (8/10)

         12. Happening (10/10)

         13. Baby Roulette (6/10)

         14. 4^th Quarter (5/10)

         15. Rescue Me Ft. You Me At Six (10/10)

    There wasn’t a real consistent decent hip-hop duo to make music since Outkast. The past few years where mainly built on a combination of some decent collaboration albums and poor hip-hop duos. the last few years featured some great collaborations, such as Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne and Methodman and Redman’s Blackout 2, however, those collaborations where just one, or at most two time jobs, there wasn’t a real consistent hip-hop duo since Outkast, now duos are mostly poor, having The Cool Kids as the only good hip-hop duo, and having many duos such as the New Boyz, LMFAO, The Ying Yang Twins and more, all these consistent duos where either mediocre or poor, all of them are far from the level of The Cool Kids, little than Outkast, however, how will this newer, younger duo, Chiddy Bang do with their long awaited debut “Breakfast”, did the album manage to keep them going as a good duo, or does it show that they belong with the many other, poorer hip-hop duos?

    Breakfast kept it simple concept wise. It had the usual debut album concept, which was just a simple showcase of everything the artist or the group can do, and personally I think that’s the best way to go with a debut album, because a debut album mainly needs to attract fans for the more advanced music, and if the listener didn’t listen to everything the artist or group can do, they will be skeptical on buying more albums from that artist or group, and in Chiddy Bang’s case, they jumped onto many styles lyrically and production wise, which made a very diverse yet familiar album, which really gave the album such a great, smooth and an entertaining style to listen to through sixteen tracks.

    Chiddy Bang concentrated on one major style on most of the album, which was punchline rap, Chiddy Bang rapped some very strong and well crafted punchlines in many different styles of production, and they mainly concentrated on new school production and old school production through the punchline tracks.

     “Breakfast” was a strong track, it had some very clever lines in a smooth flow which was all tied together with a mixture of an old school beat and a new school beat. “Mind your Manners” was a highlight of the album, it had a guitar based beat, a strong hook and some very clever lyrics.“Ray Charles” was the first single of the album, and it was a near perfect track, it had some amazing 1930s jazz style production and some of the strongest lyrics on the entire album. “Happening” was a punchline track which came out of pure happiness, it had some strong positive punchlines and a fast, positive beat as well, and “4^th Quarter” was one of the last tracks on the album, it had some extremely strong punchlines, probably the best on the album, however, comparing to the punchlines to the production on the track was a disaster, the production was fairly poor, it was a basic hip-hop beat and it really ruined the album’s good mood.

    A less familiar style with the duo was the more emotional style. The album had a decent amount of tracks 

which stood out emotionally, and some of those emotional tracks actually stand out as some of the best tracks of the album.

     “Does She Love Me?” was a song that questioned love; It was one of the smartest and one of the most meaningful tracks on the album. “Out To Space” was a very motivational track, it had very motivational production and some self-motivating lyrics as well, it was one of the best tracks on the album. “Baby Roulette” was a track that was mainly about questioning keeping a baby, it was an emotional track, but it had a poor hook and poor production which really threw me off the mood, and “Rescue Me”, which was a rock inspired track about the need of love and its importance, You Me at Six provided the production and the hook, which really made a huge difference, it turned an emotional rap track into an emotional rap/rock track, which is a good thing most of the time, and a perfect way to finish the album.

     However, even with the album’s heavy concept and it’s strong, diverse but familiar music, the album did have some downfalls, some tracks, such as “Talking To Myself” or “Run It Back” had poorly constructed hooks which did not fit the tracks and just felt like they were forced on those track so they can feel more radio friendly. Another problem some songs on the album had was the production, mainly tracks like “Baby Roulette” or “4^th Quarter” suffered from poor production, which made both of these tracks sound broken and disjointed.

     Chiddy Bang’s Breakfast was a strong enough album to be seen as a great debut and a great collaboration. It didn’t really cross any limits or any lines, but it had some decent music though. The concept was strong and simple and the music was almost on par with the concept, the production was almost stellar and the album’s general flow was very strong, however the album suffered from random hooks and poor production in some cases, which lowered the album’s quality, but even with those errors the album managed to be filled with great tracks to make an overall strong, but not a significantly strong album. Breakfast was a good enough album to make me believe that there is a duo that might be able to compete with today’s most powerful duo, The Cool Kids.

EP Review: Yelawolf & Ed Sheeran- The Slumdon Bridge EP

Average Rating: 8.3/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

        1. London Bridge (8/10)

         2. You Don’t Know (9/10)

         3. Faces (10/10)

         4. Tone (6/10)

    Soft Pop and Southern Hip-hop put together? It’s a combination that has never been done before, it’s a combination between two genres of music that have very far and very distant styles, so having both genres in one song by its self is considered something hugely experimental, how about an entire EP? That’s what we will find out with this short, but experimental project, collaboration between Southern rapper Yelawolf, and soft Pop singer Ed Sheeran, so how did the EP work out? Does the style prevail?

   The Slumdon Bringe EP had a very clear and a very direct concept, which was experimenting and showing clear and thick diversity. Yelawolf brought his style of rap, which could be described as long bars and strong content in a southern accent, and Ed Sheeran brought his own style of singing with a calm, soft voice over an aquistic guitar, so the collaboration had a lot to bring with strong concepts tied to calm rhythm, which actually worked out very well on a four track ratio.

    The Slumdon EP opened with the track “London Bridge” which was a slow, folk-inspired track which was basically about personal downfalls and demotivation, Yelawolf provided some clever lyrics presented in long bars, however sometimes they felt too long, and Ed Sheeran provided a calm but entertaining hook to compliment the production and the concept perfectly. London Bridge was a great track, and a clear indication that Ed and Yala have chemistry together.

   “You Don’t Know” was a more old school hip-hop track. It talked about creativity and the process of making good music. Yelawolf had some smart lyrics, and Ed Sheren had a chance to show off some of his rhyming skills, his smooth flow complimented Yela’s fast flow and It also complimented the hook perfectly; “You Don’t Know” was an excellent track. It was definitely a highlight.

    “Faces” was a rock inspired track which talked about the rise and the process of reaching fame. Yelawolf did his usual job in the EP, which was the rapping, he mentioned some of the most crucial moments of his life and explained how they lead to his fame, and Ed Sheeran was just here for the hook this time, it was my favorite track on the EP, mainly because of its aggressive rhythm mixed with its soft hook, as well as the song’s strong meaning.

    “Tone” was the song that closed the EP. It mainly talked about dealing with audiences and using music to communicate with them. The entire track mainly featured Yelawolf rapping over Ed Sheeran playing the guitar. Tone was a decent track, however, it was short, Yelawolf’s flow felt a bit broken and I think Ed Sheeran should have had a singing role in the track.

    The Slumdon Bridge EP was a good collaboration. It had some great tracks and had some very strong points. It showed that southern hip-hop and soft pop can easily make some good calm music, I mean, Yela did have some personal downs which made the album lose a bit of its value, but really, it’s not that much of an error. The Slumdon Bridge EP was overall a strong project, and a strong indication that two very different genes of music can come together to make a strong and lasting piece of work.