Holy fuck lol I didn't realize my iTunes was on shuffle and listened to this twice in the wrong order, and it was STILL the best hip-hop project I've heard all year. I could shuffle these tracks all day.
This is the wildest fucking album I've heard from a mainstream artist (does Earl count as mainstream?) in a long time but I think I love it. I was completely transfixed for my entire first listen and further listens keep uncovering new layers. What a brave and awesome way to come back after basically four years of relative silence
I like the album but I feel like the vocals vary in the mix depending on the song and that kinda throws me off
This is wild, I’m definitely all over it and into how short a lot of this is. The Mint, Veins, and Dec 24 are my early favorites
Gonna need a bit of time with this. It's great, no doubt. But the song lengths mean you don't get enough time with each song. It's got more a beat tape feel to it than an actual album. More than willing to give it lots of listens, though!
I don't think you're really supposed to listen to individual songs from this, it definitely feels like it's supposed to be a full album experience. Probably one of the reasons it's so short too
While I agree that having longer songs would be interesting, this is the album we got and I’m sure he deliberately intended for something unique that didnt cater to current rap trends (long albums with lots of features). Though the songs are admittedly short, none of them feel incomplete. It also features Earl’s most mature lyricism and the way the production reflects that (literally sampling his deceased family member’s music and a monologue from his mother) is profound as hell. Ive also been thinking about this album in context with Earl’s first few releases as an artist after reading his interviews—how he was so angry at his family back then. This album really does feel like a concise and confident end to that emotional chapter, if that makes sense.
I agree with the above but where I disagree is that I think many of the songs on here do feel incomplete. Imo they all end so abruptly and it feels like just as I'm getting into a song, it ends. It's a frustrating album for me because I love the production and what Earl is doing vocally but I just can't vibe with the short song lengths.
I definitely think this is supposed to have a more mixtape scattershot feel to it by design. I dig it. Like the classic definition of a rap mixtape in the cassette era
This is fucking great. I definitely feel like you need to listen to it from start to finish and can’t pick songs to listen to.
I don't intend to knock your opinion here, but I see this sort of critique all the time, for all kinds of media (songs, TV, Movies). "It would be better if it was longer." What does this mean? I've never understood why quantity is preferable to quality. If Earl had more to say, wouldn't he say it? I love demos and unreleased tracks and all that more than most. But I think extraneous material is interesting because of its context. I respect the final cut with few exceptions. Just looking for some clarity on this common bit of criticism
I already explained before- many of the songs just feel incomplete to me. I do enjoy this album (it's grown on me since my previous comments), I'd just would prefer it if the songs weren't so abrupt. It's my personal taste, there's nothing more to it tbh.
There's nothing wrong with any of the songs. They're fucking great and if Earl wants them to be short songs, so be it. I don't think the songs feel incomplete, I just feel that a couple of the shorter ones could have been fleshed out a little more. Give the beats a bit more time to bury itself in your brain. But that's just me.
Ya'll seem to be missing that that's not the point of these songs Anyway shit is perfect and my favorite rap release of the year
I'm not questioning Earl's authenticity; this is obviously the album he wanted to make. I just personally don't like that the songs are so short. I don't get why that's so difficult to understand lol