March 2024
Monthly Reviews | March 2024
March is over, and I listened to four new projects in the third month of this year. The first being Schoolboy Q’s new solo album, released after a five year wait. His last album being Crash Talk, back in 2019. We also received a new EP from Kenny Mason, the Atlanta native is an exciting new artist and has released his 9 EP, which is a follow up to his previous EP, 6. Similarly to Schoolboy Q, Tierra Whack also gave us a new album after a long six year wait. World Wide Whack, is the follow up to her last album, Whack World. Was it be worth the wait? Lastly, Future and Metro Boomin gave us their first project collaboration. The duo have surprisingly never released collab project together, even though they made countless hit records together in the previous decade. Find out how all four projects fared out and what scores they received.
Schoolboy Q — Blue Lips
Release Date — 1st March
The long awaited sixth studio album from Los Angeles-based rapper, Schoolboy Q, finally arrived at the start of the month. Five years on from his last studio album, Crash Talk. During the 2010s, Schoolboy released multiple great bodies of work and was easily one of the most consistent rappers of the last decade. With his best work being 2011’s Setbacks, 2014’s Oxymoron, and 2016’s Blank Face LP. His last project, however, didn’t live up to the same standards as the previous albums. Crash Talk though commercially successful and a decent project , was just not up to par with Schoolboy’s previous albums that came across more creative.
With his new album, Blue Lips, Schoolyboy doesn’t play it safe like he did on Crash Talk, however his sixth studio album is one of his most inconsistent projects. The album does start off pretty well though with the first four tracks. Schoolboy has a knack for having great intros, and Blue Lips continues that run with “Funny Guy”. It’s then followed by two great tracks, the hard hitting “Pop” featuring Rico Nasty, and “Thank God 4 Me”, which consists of one best beats on the whole album. “Blueslides” is one of the best tracks off of the LP. A personal introspective track that is dedicated to Schoolboy’s late friend and beloved rapper, Mac Miller
Likewise with “Blueslides”, the eighth track “Cooties” is another introspective track laced with a great melodic instrumental. On “Cooties”, Schoolboy details the happiness with his current life and that he has moved on from the dark times of his past. Whilst, records such as “Lost Times” featuring Jozzy and “Germany 86” are other great reflective tracks off of the album. However, as mentioned previously Blue Lips does suffer from inconsistency and does have weak spots within the tracklist. Though there are multiple production highlights with the records I mentioned previously, such as “Blueslides” and “Cooties”, there are songs on the album where the production just doesn’t hit, from the likes of the single “Yearn 101”, “Back N Love” and “Ohio” featuring Freddie Gibbs. The album does have its fair share of features, the best being Rico Nasty and Lance Skiiwalker, who delivered great vocals on “Love Birds”. Unfortunately, Schoolboy Q's collaboration with Freddie Gibbs sadly fell short, as Freddie has dropped much better verses previously. Whilst, Childish Major performance was my least favourite on “Pig Feet”.
Blue Lips has more positives than negatives, but musically it's Schoolboy's least consistent effort. A five year wait since his last album, only adds to the disappointment of Schoolboy's latest album. After the strong run that he had in the 2010's, it slightly seems that Schoolboy has hit a a bit of a rough patch by his standards. However, he may still be able to release a project that has the same quality as his best albums.
Kenny Mason — 9
Release Date — 14th March
Following the release of his 2023 EP, 6, Kenny Mason came back with a brand new nine track EP. Whilst, 6 was an excellent display of Kenny’s talent and why he is one of the most exciting names within Hip-Hop, 9 doesn’t live up to the same quality. This new EP from Kenny comes across as the weaker material during 6’s creation that was put out anyway. There are however some good tracks, with particular highlights being the intro, “Jumpin In”, and the seventh track “Slip” featuring Toro Y Moi. Both tracks include enjoyable and melodic instrumentals, which proves as to why I believe Kenny is a great beat picker. Plus, a particular highlight with “Slip” is Kenny’s vocal performance. A shout out goes to BabyDrill, who also had a great feature on the second track “Easy Dub”.
Whilst there are highs, there are also lows with 9, and it’s not because certain tracks are terrible, it’s just that they aren’t that interesting nor do they get me really hooked. For example, “Feel It” consists of a bland instrumental and Kenny’s raging vocals on “Us” comes across quite over dramatic. I still think that Kenny Mason is a talented and versatile artist, and it’s still shown on this EP in certain spots. I wouldn’t call 9 a step back, more just a project that is just a small blip and just doesn’t overall represent Kenny’s best work.
Tierra Whack — World Wide Whack
Release Date — 15th March
The new album from Tierra Whack comes after a whopping six year wait since her debut album, Whack World, where she burst on to the music scene with a short fifteen minute LP and received praise from both music fans and critics alike. Similar to her debut, Tierra’s sophomore project consists of a variety of sounds from different genres. World Wide Whack consists of Hip-Hop, R&B and Pop records. Tierra has released a good solid project with multiple enjoyable tracks, however I wouldn’t say that it was worth a six year wait.
That being said there are still some enjoyable moments and bops on the LP, particular favourites include “X”, which includes a hard hitting instrumental. Whilst, “Moovies” is a great Pop-R&B track, and “Invitation” makes me want to get up and dance. Where World Wide Whack struggles the most is with it’s consistency for every good track, there’s a song that’s either just okay or skippable soon after. The best example of this is at the beginning of the album where you have “Ms Behave”, “Numb” and “Imaginary Friends” that are standouts, but in between songs such as “Mood Swing” and “Chanel Pit” are passible, whilst “Burning Brains” has me scratching my head with that really strange voice and vocal delivery from Tierra. “Burning Brains” was really difficult to take seriously.
The second half of the album suffers from the same thing, but perhaps just a touch more consistency. Highlights off the second half include the already mentioned “X”, “Moovies” and “Invitation”. “Snake Eyes” and “27 Club” are also good songs off of the album as well. But then tracks such as the “Shower Song”, sonically doesn’t live up to the same enjoyment as the records mentioned previously.
To close out, World Wide Whack overall is a good project and does have multiple tracks that are fun and reflect Tierra as an artist and her sound. The only gripe is the lack of consistency within the tracklist as mentioned previously, but after a six year wait I guess I was expecting a bit more from Tierra.
Future & Metro Boomin — We Don’t Trust You
Release Date — 22nd March
The album that is trending at the time of writing, Future and Metro Boomin’s new collaborative project is surprisingly their first, as they have been a synonymous duo and have made countless hit songs over the last ten years. During the 2010s, Future became one of the most influential artists and reached his career peak in 2015, where he released his third album Dirty Sprite 2. Metro Boomin became one of the best producers of the same decade, producing so many hit records for the likes of not only Future, but for Travis Scott, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert and The Weeknd.
Perhaps you could view this album as a collaborative project that should of came out a decade ago, or it could be viewed as some form of celebratory album that is an ode to the work that they made together during the 2010s. In my personal opinion, I would opt for the former, this collaborative project would have made total sense in 2015 or 2016, especially when Future was at the height of his powers. I’m surprised how long it’s taken to receive this collab album, and how it’s been so long since they last worked together, that being Future’s 2017 mega hit “Mask Off”.
With seventeen tracks, We Don’t Trust You could have been better off with a shorter tracklist and if this is was the case it would have been an even better project. The album starts off really well though, with the first two tracks, “We Don’t Trust You” and “Young Metro”. But the same can’t be said for the next few tracks. With “Ice Attack” I preferred the laidback instrumental before the track’s production sped up. I’m still struggling to come to grips with Playboi Carti’s new voice change, as he’s featured on “Type Shit” with Travis Scott. On the other hand, things pick back up with “Like That”, which features a phenomenal verse from Kendrick Lamar. The verse has been hot topic since the release of the album, as it’s pretty clear that Kendrick is sending shots to Drake and J. Cole.
From then on there is a consistent array of great tracks that Future and Metro produced together. from the menacing “Magic Don Juan”, the laidback “Cinderella” and the melodic “Running Outta Time”. “Fried” and “Ain’t No Love” are so great to hear on the album, as they sonically remind me of Trap music during the mid-2010s, a great nod to that era. Unfortunately, towards the end of the album, We Don’t Trust You does tire out as records such as “WTFYM” and “Where My Twin At” could have been left.
On the other hand, the album as a whole is a good project with many great tracks that remind people as to why Future and Metro Boomin are a fantastic rapper-producer combo. As mentioned, we should have received a collab project at least a decade ago, but we finally received their collaborative effort and it’s a good project from the Atlanta veterans.