The biggest contributing factor to this is the production. I can certainly excuse the 'cheapness' of the overall sound of an album like this to an extent given that this mainstream hip-hop that isn't trying to be profound, but the tropical flare in a lot of the synth tones on this project remind me of pop music circa 2016 in the worst possible way. That's before you realize the bass lines are often way too thick and clunky, swamping out everything in these mixes. The total clusterfuck that is 'True To The Game' is the best example of this. This might be somewhat tolerable if Lil Tecca was an interesting, expressive, or dynamic presence behind the microphone, which of course he's not. He spends most of these tracks pounding certain phrases into oblivion on his hooks before letting the production run for a couple of extra bars before the song ends. It's such a repetitive and formulaic approach to constructing songs that it only goes to emphasize how Tecca has been engulfed by the major label machine. You put on top of this how Tecca is such a limited rapper, and you have an album that runs dangerously close to the line of intolerability. If I'm going to praise anything in terms of the production, the guitar that adds a bit of unique flavor to 'Last Call' was a nice touch, as was the rougher groove on 'Royal Rumble'. The ghostly pianos behind 'No Answers' also give that song a dreamy atmospheric swell that I thought was pretty decent.
The most tolerable moments on this album are probably where Tecca steps back and gives some time to his guests. On 'When You Down' Polo G delivers a killer verse about how the death of his uncle impacted him on his come up. It might not match with the Tecca's incoherent blabberings about how everyone wants to be around him now he's famous, an idea which he will later repeat on 'No Answers', but I'll take what I can get. In fact, when Tecca isn't being the least interesting thing about his own songs he's downright embarrassing himself, like when he describes his girl as setting his vibe like an 'angelic Darth Vader' on 'Take 10'. Then there's 'Dolly' where Tecca somehow gets outclassed by Lil Uzi Vert (mainly because he's at least on the beat) despite him rapping the most basic flow through a layer of ugly, gurgly autotune.
Then you have the songs that are just mindless. 'Tic Toc' is an extended flex on his expensive watch with no substance beyond that whatsoever, 'Royal Rumble' tries to celebrate his come up by using a wrestling metaphor (if anyone even still cares about WWE) with him already referencing his previous hit just confirming that he has nothing new to say. 'Insecurities' might be a little better with him discussing how his girl might be insecure and how he loves her regardless, but it's one of many songs on this album that sound borderline unfinished with Tecca only dropping the one verse and the song only just stretching above two minutes. For an album trying to coast by on catchy hooks and flows alone, you'd think the songs would at least sound a little more developed to allow the melodies to thrive a little more. Then you realize that nowhere close to that level of thought went into the writing or production of this project, and I wonder why I'm even bothering.
And on that note, I think I've given this disposable nonsense a fair few more brain cells than it deserves. If you're looking for hip-hop with charm, unique personality, substance, or just something that doesn't sound like it was made by a machine, I'm sorry, but you'll have to look elsewhere.
1.5 / 5
Best Songs: 'When You Down', 'No Answers'
Worst Songs: 'True To The Game', 'Dolly', 'Tic Toc'
No comments:
Post a Comment