April 2024
Monthly Reviews | April 2024
The first month of the second quarter drew to a close, though it’s been a crazy month due to the whole Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar situation, it has been a quiet month in terms of releases. No huge high profile releases, except for J. Cole’s latest mixtape, Might Delete Later, which included his now deleted diss track to Kendrick Lamar, “7 Minute Drill”. Other releases that I have reviewed below include GloRilla’s latest mixtape, which includes two of her latest biggest singles, “Yeah Glo” and “Wanna Be” with Megan Thee Stallion. Additionally, April saw the release of two influential R&B singers during the genres Trap Soul era, Bryson Tiller and PartyNextDoor released their new albums respectively. Let’s see how all four projects fared out.
J. Cole — Might Delete Later
Release Date — 5th April
On the back of receiving a few shots from Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole released a surprise mixtape. Might Delete Later is a 12 track mixtape, that contains multiple interesting features from the likes of Young Dro, Daylyt and Central Cee. But the biggest topic related to the mixtape is the last track, “7 Minute Drill”, which contains a few shots back at Kendrick Lamar. Overall as a song, it’s actually one of the weakest. The first part of the beat isn’t great, though it does switch to production from Conductor. The second beat is much grimier and is so much better. In terms of the shots thrown, the first verse is better but Cole doesn’t throw bars that I think will sting Kendrick too much. “7 Minute Drill” mostly consists of J Cole essentially just warning Kendrick and saying that Kendrick has fallen off and is discography isn’t impressive. I’m sure many won’t agree with that, and I for one definitely don’t. All in all, “7 Minute Drill” is pretty lacklustre, especially from someone who is meant to be a direct peer to Kendrick and one of the so called “Big Three”.
In terms of the rest of the mixtape, it’s a complete mixed bag of good, decent and forgettable records. The ones that are enjoyable include, Cole’s rendition of a classic Dipset track, “I’m Ready”. Featuring fellow Dipset member, Cam’Ron, Cole sounds good and does the beat justice. Other great tracks to note from the mixtape include, “Huntin Wabbitz”, which contains great production. “HYB” and “Pi” consists of great features, the former has Bas and Central Cee, whilst “Pi” features Daylyt and Ab-Soul going back and forth with their bars. The last couple of tracks that I enjoyed and would like to mention are “Stickz and Stonez” and “Trae The Truth In Ibiza”.
As mentioned previously, the mixtape was a mixed bag, and there are a few tracks that were decent. This includes the first two tracks, “Pricey” featuring Ari Lennox, Young Dro and Gucci Mane, and “Crocdile Tearz”. “3001” was also another decent record, but just wasn’t up to par with records mentioned in the previous paragraph. And, then there were tracks that just weren’t great. I’ve already mentioned “7 Minute Drill”, and “Fever” was another bad record. “Fever” has J. Cole melodically singing, and I for one have never been a fan when Cole sings.
Overall, Might Delete Better is a small little interlude as we await for Cole’s next full length album, The Fall Off. This new mixtape is a small bump in the road as we wait for the new album. It’s not the best follow up from Cole’s last project, The Off Season which was a really good project. I hope that The Off Season contains more records that are similar to the ones that I enjoyed from this mixtape, but I will just have to wait and see.
Glorilla — Ehhthang Ehhthang
Release Date — 5th April
Coming out on the same day, GloRilla followed up her 2022 EP Anyways, Life’s Great… with a new 12 track mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang. One of the main female voices currently in Hip-Hop, GloRilla made a huge splash in 2022 with two hit records, the first being F.N.F. and the second being the Cardi B assisted “Tomorrow 2”. With her new mixtape, GloRilla has another successful single under her belt with “Yeah Glo!”. “Yeah Glo” is a great single and showcases her Memphis influence, as it reminds of a track that could just have been as popular during Memphis’ Hip-Hop scene during the 1990s and early 2000s. At the time of writing, her latest single “Wanna Be” with Megan Thee Stallion looks to be another successful single under her belt. Though I can understand the single’s appeal, it’s not something I would personally run back to listen to.
In terms of the mixtape itself, I would say that it gave me the same feeling as her 2022 EP. On the mixtape there are fun party records from the likes of “All Dere” with fellow Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo and the previously mentioned “Yeah Glo!”. Not to mention the projects inclusion of hardcore trap inspired bangers, this includes “No Bih” and “Opp Shit”. What I do enjoy about GloRilla is that she has the ability to also show vulnerability and be more introspective, and this is shown on “Aite” with Kevo Muney. A standout song from the mixtape where GloRilla mentions hope for more unity with women in Hip-Hop, mentioning the likes of Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and JT.
Unfortunately, the mixtape does have its weaker moments, most notably during the second half of the mixtape mostly. Tracks such as “Bad Bih 4 Ya” with Boston Richey and “Finesse Da Glo” featuring Finesse2Tymes are let down by poor production. Whilst, I couldn’t get behind the third track “Nun Of Dem” due to GloRilla’s flow and use of just mentioning different types of people during the chorus, it was definintely the least enjoyable track off the mixtape. Though I haven’t fully enjoyed a GloRilla project top to bottom so far, I still believe that GloRilla is an enjoyable artist who is capable of making great records, but hasn’t made a consistent body of work. Amongst her peers from the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Ice Spice and Sexy Redd, GloRilla does shine bright. Her ability to produce both great singles and be introspective with her lyrics should be given more credit.
Bryson Tiller — Bryson Tiller
Release Date — 5th April
Another project released on the 5th April, came from R&B singer Bryson Tiller. A now veteran of the genre, since coming out almost a decade ago with TRAPSOUL. Bryson Tiller’s new and self-entitled LP comes after a four year wait since his last project, ANNIVERSARY, to what I viewed as his best project. Anniversary was short, cohesive, with multiple great R&B cuts. However, the same can’t be said for Bryson’s new fourth album. A nineteen track LP, with huge amounts of tracks that aren’t terrible nor great at the same time. Though coming off from a strong album, that being ANNIVERSARY and a four year hiatus, Bryson unfortunately sounds really uninspired throughout the majority of the album.
Many of the album’s songs just fade into the background and don’t stick out, this includes the likes of “Ciao”, “Prize”, “F4U”. They’re decent at best tracks, that sadly don’t provide much or don’t have rushing to go back to. Where the album does falter, is the lyrics, as there multiple instances of the song-writing coming across quite juvenile. This is shown to the fullest extent on the Victoria Monet assisted, “Persuasion”. The song is stacked with lyrics that end with either Monet or Tiller about to say or almost saying a sexual word only to completely say something else. For example, this is the song’s first lyric, “He's starin' at me like he want this persuasion”. On the track is sounds as if Monet is about to say “pu**y”, but ends with “persuasion”. This carries on throughout the whole song by both Tiller and Monet.
However, there are some bright moments on the album, where Bryson vocally standouts and the production grabs my attention more. One of the earliest examples is the second track, “Attention”, so the album does start off on a positive note, but another standout track doesn’t come until “Random Access Memory” featuring Clara La San, which is the eight track. The best track off the whole album is actually the last song, “Whatever She Wants". The song includes the best instrumental on the album, whilst Bryson flows really well and compliments the beat.
Other than the small standouts, which some were mentioned above, Bryson Tiller’s new album is a drop off from his last project. Whilst, I’m personally not the biggest fan of TRAPSOUL, Bryson’s debut album has developed the status of being a classic album. Though, I enjoy and prefer ANNIVERSARY, it seems that Bryson has been chasing the magic of his first album, and fans of his debut album are still looking for the feeling that they received back in 2015. Sadly, I don’t think his latest effort will able to provide them that feeling.
PartyNextDoor — PartyNextDoor 4
Release Date — 26 April
The fourth instalment of PartyNextDoor’s self-entitled series came after a four year wait from his previous LP, PARTYMOBILE. Released over a decade after the series’ first instalment it’s safe to say PND is now an R&B veteran, coming out during the era of moody R&B and trap music’s influence on the genre’s production. On his latest album, there are moments PND reminds listeners as to why he is such a great talent and why he even became a hot prospect within R&B. Unfortunately, P4 isn’t the most consistent project and whilst there are good songs on the album, there are tracks that aren’t necessarily bad, but do fall into the background.
The album’s bright spots on the album are due to PND’s vocal delivery as he’s always been a great soulful singer, and some of P4’s production is also pleasant. Production highlights include the likes of “Stuck In My Ways”, “Her Old Friends” and though I wasn’t totally sold on “Lose My Mind”, I did strangely think the DMX sample worked quite well. As mentioned previously there isn’t a song on the album that is downright bad or has me rolling my eyes, however there are times where it struggles to stick out. Songs such as “Cheers”, “For Certain” and “Sorry”, are just okay and are passable, if they come on they wouldn’t bother me, but they don’t totally grab my attention.
There isn’t too much detail to provide in terms of why some songs are better than others, it essentially just boils down to the listener’s preference. P4 sticks to the same formula that PND has used since his big introduction in 2013, and this could explain as to why the album can just fade in the background and doesn’t always stick out. It would be interesting to hear PND to step out of his comfort zone, whether that be from a production standpoint, or perhaps incorporating features, as he tends to not include any features and if he does it’s only Drake. Last time, he had Rihanna featured on his album and that led to “Believe It” being one of his best songs in recent years.