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. 

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.

Single Review: Yelawolf Ft. Kid Rock- Let's Roll

Single Rating: 8.5/10

   How does an artist come back from a non-successful debut single? That’s a tough question to answer, because normally, an artist’s career’s fate normally depends on the success rate or at the very least the successful response of the debut single, Yelawolf didn’t have any of those with his debut single “Hard White (Up In The Club)” which was really just a hard to enjoy club track wannabe. But with a new single called “Let’s Roll”, can Yelawolf build something off his flop? Especially given the high expectations he had since being sighed to Shady.

    

    Yelawolf tried a different approach this time for Radioactive’s second single. Instead of having a mainstream inspired track, he decided to put in a personal track for his second single. Radioactive’s second single was a motivational track called “Let’s Roll” which featured Kid Rock, and as a result, it was a great track track, it was an excellent comeback, and really the song that Yelawolf should have debuted his career with in the first place.

    

    Let’s Role had a very motivational and self-reflective theme and concept. It was about Yelawolf rising up to the point where he is now, and really just doing it all by himself. He went into various details about where he lived, how he decided to get up and rap, how he felt about his raps, and how he felt about his new found fame, putting all of those factors together would normally make a song like this a story about rising up to success, the only difference between Let’s Roll and other motivational tracks was simple, Let’s Roll was written in a more self-reflective style than the usual ‘once apon a time style’, which is something that is used a lot on motivational tracks, and honestly, that was really something that really gave the concept some strength, and was something that made the concept stronger than what it normally is on other tracks.

     
    Lyrically Let’s Roll was about almost as good as the concept. The track was presented in a more reflective way then a story telling way, but that wasn’t the only upside of the lyricism on this track, lyrically, this track had smarter lines than what Yelawolf normally has on his tracks, and despite having a few bad lines, Let’s Roll was written in a very strong way, it had a lot of punchlines, a lot of clever lines and so much more. Let’s Roll was a great track lyrically, and hopefully something that Yelawolf would grow on to and keep on his debut album and future albums.

    Yela isn’t the best rapper when it comes to flowing and really balancing his lyrics to the rhythm and the beat, but Let’s Roll proved otherwise, the track did have some off-bar lines, but even with those lines Yela’s flow and balance worked very well with the track. He was fast and he was smooth at the same time. Flow wise this song was excellent, it was just one of the many real reasons why he was signed to Shady in the first place.

    The hook on Let’s Roll was sung by Kid Rock, and like the track’s mood and feeling, the hook felt very personal and motivational, despite it having a generally lucrative rhyme scheme it flowed very well, and more importantly is sounded catchy and excellent, which basically cancels out the lucrative rhyme scheme and really made it look like something that wasn’t a big deal, which basically made the hook a generally successful and catchy hook, and maybe even a hook to remember.

    Now for the rapping of the gift: the production/ Let’s Roll had a great beat produced by Eminem and the Audiables, so already it’s shown that it’s production had a lot of star power put into it, but does star power always work? Obviously not, but in this song it did, the beat is always the motive of the track’s concept, and thanks to this song’s strong beat, it was lyrically a very motivational and reflective song, and that’s what matter with the beat, not how cool it sounds or how dancy it is, but the mood that it brings, and the beat here certainly brought the right motivational type of mood for the track.

   So how does an artist make a successful single after having his or her debut single a complete flop? With a track like this, let’s look at this song as a whole, first of all, Let’s Roll did have its share of flaws, but there was no denying that as a track it was really strong when it comes to so many things such as concept and production, and honestly, this is what people where wanting for from Yelawolf, not a mainstram inspired track, but a more personal track that shows why he is where he is, and this track showed that exactly, thus making it a stand-out single for this quarter if not the second half or the year.