Click HERE to stream this mixtape on Apple Music
This album was released on Ace Hood’s 30 birthday, 5/11/2018. I’ve been an Ace Hood fan for a pretty long time. I don’t know why I’ve waited until now to talk about his music. I think he’s one of the best Southern MCs, and people usually don’t mention him among artists like Big K.R.I.T. or T.I. for some reason. To me he’s like Meek Mill if Meek Mill was less corny. The lack of respect he gets probably has something to do with the fact that he’s signed to DJ Khaled’s We The Best Music Group. Anyway, this project in particular is a sequel to Trust the Process, which dropped last year. I know him more from his Starvation mixtape series. His albums are usually pretty hit-or-miss as far as I can remember. It’s been forever since I last checked out any of his work. Hopefully I don’t regret returning to his catalog. I unfortunately don’t have the production credits, so you’ll have to forgive me for that.
Intro (Earth Strong)
80’s Baby
3 Bless
Undefeated
Beast Mode (Intro)
Beast Mode
Chosen
Right On featuring Slim Diesel
Fwea featuring Slim Diesel
Live, Love, Shine
Eye
Nobody Panic
Element
Tango
Ace Hood Speaks Interlude
Be Calm
Devil Get Off Me featuring Slim Diesel
A Rose
Can’t Keep Running
Testify
Keep It the Same
When U Wake
Bag Play
Questions Interlude
Real Until the End
Guess Who
They Said
Each Other featuring Scotty ATL
Outro (New Beginnings)
First thing’s first; I gotta talk about the most glaring issue. This shit is too fuckin’ long. There’s not a single artist who I wanna hear 29 tracks from. I get bored listening to my favorite rappers go in for more than 14 tracks. 16 tracks is pushing it, but I can tolerate it. Anything beyond that is a huge turn off. For me, the perfect length is 10 to 12 tracks. It’s annoying as fuck when artists try to stream troll. For those of you who don’t understand what I mean by that, sometimes they throw as many tracks as possible onto one project just so that they can reach a certain number of streams. It’s all about money at the end of the day. The intro was kind of unnecessary, but it’s only 15 seconds, so I don’t really have the energy to complain about it. 80’s Baby is trash. The beat is generic as hell, and Ace Hood’s flow was nothing special. I’m not feelin’ the hook either. The autotune sounds awful.
His flow on 3 Bless was pretty nice, but the beat was average as fuck. The title track is the first decent song. I kinda liked the melodic ad-libs, and his flow was on point.
The intro to Beast Mode made me laugh. It’s just kinda hard for me to take repetition like that seriously. The production was good on Beast Mode, but I wasn’t feelin’ Ace’s lazy flow. He called himself a genius. I’ve made a rule for myself: anytime I see or hear the word genius, I have to yell “I’M A GENIUS” like Kanye West. It scares people. Chosen was another generic Trap song. The production was decent, and Ace’s flow was cool. It’s just not that interesting sonically. Nothing about it stands out in any way. Slim Diesel’s features could’ve been performed by anyone.
The beat on Fwea—not sure what that means—is actually pretty nice. That track is hard as fuck. The hook on Live, Love, Shine kinda sucks. I don’t like when he uses autotune. The production on Eye is phenomenal. It’s definitely a standout track. His flow was nice, and he didn’t ruin the song with a generic, trendy hook. Nobody Panic is pretty good, but I’d never listen to it again. Element stood out a little bit because of Ace’s fast paced flow. He snapped. His flow on Tango was way too repetitive for me, and the production was boring.
I got tired of his flow on Be Calm pretty quickly. Devil Get Off Me is generic as fuck. A Rose is actually a good song. He slaughtered that second verse. The beat on Can’t Keep Running is kinda cool, but nothing else about the song really stood out to me. I mean, the second verse was pretty good, but nah. I won’t be returning to it.
I kinda like the dark Trap beat on Testify, and Ace Hood’s flow on the final verse was dope. It’s just not really memorable to me.
“No… No, he did not… ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME??”
The production on Keep It the Same is cool, but the song ends 50 seconds before the audio file does, so there are just 50 seconds of dead air in the track. I guess shit like that is to be expected on a mixtape.
A nigga need to get focused, man.
When U Wake is generic. I kinda liked Bag Play though. He opened up the track talking about putting towels under doors. I don’t smoke anymore, so the song doesn’t really apply, but I get it. It unfortunately lacks replay value for me. The production was boring. Real Until the End was alright. I wasn’t impressed by the production, or Ace’s flow. Guess Who was boring. Same goes for They Said. I like the way the electric guitar was incorporated on Each Other, but the autotuned hook from Ace Hood wasn’t really doin’ anything for me. It was kinda cool to get to know more about Scotty ATL I guess. His flow was nothing special though. It’s a decent song, but not one that I’ll be returning to. The outro is just Ace giving a toast to “new beginnings.”
This mixtape is super average. Ace went in over a shit ton of trendy beats. Most of this material is just really generic. It’s kind of a shame that he put out such a long winded mess. There’s apparently supposed to be on more Trust the Process mixtape before he puts out an album. I’ll probably end up skipping the third entry, but I’ll definitely give his album a chance. This project right here is pretty mediocre though.
Favorite Song: A Rose
Least Favorite Song: 80’s Baby
D+
Focus Hip Hop 