Back in the heyday of nappyafro, we use to review a lot of albums. These days we do about one track-by-track album review a month (Sadly sometimes less), but a few years back we could sometimes review around five albums a month.
But that’s not to say I don’t listen to a lot of albums. As project releases have increased in the Hip-Hop scene, so has my musical intake. That leads to me always having some sort of backlog of albums I intend to eventually listen to.
And that’s why we are here (That and the lack of content on the site lately). I’ll quickly give my thoughts on albums I’m finally getting around to listening to (THESE ARE NOT A REAL REVIEWS) and give my favorite track from the albums. This intro is much longer than I envisioned so let’s get on with it.
Props to Metro Boomin for coming out of retirement, releasing an album with NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES, and having that album go on to be #1 in the country. That’s a big feat because most Hip-Hop compilations (Besides ones by DJ Khaled) don’t do that well in terms of album sales. I personally didn’t love the album but I liked it more than expected. A lot of noise has been made about 21 Savage whispering on “Don’t Come Out the House” but my pick off this album is the other 21 song “10 Freaky Girls” (featuring a great sample of Kashif & Whitney Houston’s “Are You the Woman”).
What happened to Action Bronson? I was excited to check out his latest, White Bronco, but it sounds lazy as hell. It was a big downgrade from his previous outings. But now that I think about it, his music has been declining since Rare Chandeliers. Here’s hoping Bronsolino gets his groove back. My pick from White Bronco is “Irishman Freestyle” (Which sounds like a mixtape song).
Here’s my main problem with Swizz Beatz‘s latest album POISON: It’s an okay compilation album (I still fuck with “Pistol On My Side (P.O.M.S)”), but how in the hell do you have a song featuring Jay-Z, Nas, DMX, & Jadakiss and NOT put it on the album? So Giggs makes the album and not Jay-Z or DMX? Nah. My pick off POISON is the Kendrick Lamar, Styles P, & Jadakiss featured “Something Dirty/Pic Got Us” (Even though K.Dot only does the hook and the track sounds stitched together).
I have a weird relationship with Vince Staples‘s music that I don’t think is that rare. I enjoy his interviews and sound bites. He seems like a cool person. I don’t even think his music is bad. But it’s just not for me. The same goes for Vince’s surprise album FM!. Just checking my iTunes right now, the only Vince Staples track I have really listened to is Earl Sweatshirt’s “Hive” (And that’s not even his song). If I’m keeping with the theme of this article and I have to pick a song off of FM!, I’ll choose “Tweakin'” featuring Vonnie, Buddy & Kehlani. I will point out that the Earl and Tyga interludes on FM! aren’t bad at all.