This album was released on May 25th this year (2018). When I was first getting into Hip Hop at the beginning of the decade, A$AP Rocky was one of my favorite rappers. His breakout mixtape, Live.Love.A$AP, was a defining release in the Cloud Rap subgenre. He’s always been kinda trash lyrically, but I was mesmerized by his great flow & magnetic aesthetic. The guy really knows how to attract people. I was kind of disappointed by his 2015 album, At.Long.Last.A$AP, but it definitely wasn’t a bad album. He’s always had a great ear for production & a really dope flow, so I think I’m gonna really fuck with this project.
Distorted Records produced by Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky, Nesbitt Wesonga & Mario Loving
A$AP Forever Remix featuring Kid Cudi, T.I. & Moby produced by Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky & Jordie X
Tony Tone produced by Finatik N Zac, Hector Delgado & A$AP Rocky
Fukk Sleep featuring FKA Twigs produced by Hector Delgado
Praise The Lord (Da Shine) featuring Skepta produced by Skepta
Calldrops featuring Kodak Black produced by Boys Noize, Hector Delgado & A$AP Rocky
Buckshots featuring Playboi Carti & Smooky Margielaa produced by Kelvin Krash
Gunz N Butta featuring Juicy J produced by Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky, Mario Loving & Nesbitt Wesonga
Brotha Man featuring French Montana & Frank Ocean produced by Rico Love, D-Town the Great, French Montana & A$AP Rocky
OG Beeper produced by Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky, Mario Loving & Nesbitt Wesonga
Kids Turned Out Fine produced by CharlieMumbles, Estlee, Hector Delgado & A$AP Rocky
Hun43rd featuring Dev Hynes produced by Dev Hynes
Changes produced by Jim Jonsin, Finatik N Zac, Hector Delgado & A$AP Rocky
Black Tux produced by Clams Casino, Tank God, Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky & Kelvin Krash
Purity featuring Frank Ocean produced by Dean Blunt, Finatik N Zac, Hector Delgado & A$AP Rocky
The production on the first track is fantastic, but uh… The lyrics…
My newest president an asshole
I guess that’s why I’m leaving turd stains
I guess it’s an okay song overall. I really fuck with the beat, and his flow wasn’t bad. Something about it just feels off. I can’t figure out exactly what the problem is. I guess it is just the lyrics. I don’t think Rocky’s that great of a writer. At least his ear for production is still good.
The beat on A$AP Forever is great. I loved the original version, and I was pretty excited to hear Cudi on the remix. I kinda wish T.I. wasn’t credited as a feature since he didn’t really have a verse. All he did was say some irrelevant shit about the meaning of “A$AP” on the intro. Rocky’s got pretty good taste when it comes to creative design in general. That music video is really dope. I’m feeling the urge to classify Cudi’s verse as “Mumble Rap.” His pronunciation could have been a lot more clear. The outro from Moby was dope af. It’s a really good song.
I like the production on Tony Tone, but the hook is wack, and none of the verses impressed me. I’m not feelin’ the song as a whole. That shit he said about sexual harassment was supposed to be funny, but it just made me roll my eyes.
The beat on Fukk Sleep is really nice. I loved the feature from FKA Twigs. Her high pitched vocals sounded great. The hook from Rocky is pretty catchy. The verses didn’t really do anything for me, but as a whole I fuck with the song.
The beat on Praise the Lord is really dope. I wasn’t feelin’ Skepta’s verse, but he did his thing on the hook. Rocky’s verse was cool I guess. He’s just really generic lyrically. I liked his flow though. His vocals on Calldrops are terrible. The acoustic guitar driven beat is great though. Calldrops feels more like an interlude than a full song. It’s really fucking bad. The feature from Kodak is performed through a jail phone. It’s wack af. Buck Shots is trash too. It’s the first beat on the album that I didn’t enjoy. It’s really shitty. The feature from Playboi Carti was wack as hell. Smooky Margielaa was relatively decent I guess. As a whole the song is really bad.
My picture’s like a mugshot
And all my bitches got butt shots
I’m not really feelin’ the production on Gunz N Butta either. The looped, pitch shifted vocal sample from Project Pat in the background of Rocky’s verse is annoying as hell. Juicy J’s feature was kinda like the T.I. feature on A$AP Forever. He just talks on the outro. It’s another wack song. The production on Brotha Man is a lot better. I’m not feelin’ the autotuned, pitch shifted vocals from Rocky at the beginning of the song though. The hook from French Montana is pretty bad too. I really don’t know why he bothered getting a feature from him. That motherfucker really seems talentless to me. The way the song is structured is really bizarre. I didn’t really like the feature from Frank Ocean either. The song feels like a mess. I’d say it’s a slight improvement over the song it follows, but it’s still pretty bad.
The beat on OG Beeper is kinda hard. It gets old really fast though. Nothing about Rocky’s two verses stood out in a positive way. There were some ad-libs by that BlocBoy JB guy. It’s just a really boring song. The production on Kids Turned Out Fine is tolerable. The hook is wack as fuck though. The vocal effects on Rocky’s verse are really horrendous too. Jesus. This album kinda sucks. Lmao. This is a lot rougher than I thought it’d be. Parts of the song are distorted to fit a druggy theme. It sounds really bad. The guest vocals from Dev Hynes on Hun43rd actually sound kinda good, but I can’t get behind that screwed production. It’s one of the more tolerable tracks on the record, but that’s not really saying much.
The beat at the beginning of Changes is great, but I hate the way it switches up halfway through Rocky’s first verse. The song is split up into three parts. The middle section has a really nice beat. I just hate the way he decided to distort parts of the production. The third section goes back to the beat from the first part of the song. The way the song is structured is really weird. It’s all over the place. I’m not feelin’ it. Man… What happened? I used to be a big fan of Rocky, but this album is kind of a disaster. It was cool to see him working with Clams Casino again on Black Tux, White Collar even though I wasn’t really impressed by the actual beat. There’s not much to say about the song itself. It’s not good. It doesn’t sound that different from most of the other shit on the album. The harmonized vocals on Purity actually sound really good, and Frank Ocean’s verse was great. He kinda made it his song. He really stole the spotlight in my opinion. Rocky’s verse was decent. It’s one of the only enjoyable songs on the album. I fuck with it.
This album is a fucking mess. It sounds like a bunch of half baked ideas spliced together. The writing is mediocre, and the production is honestly really hit or miss too. There are a handful of songs that I actually enjoyed, but for the most part this project is a collection of unfocused musical passages. It’s not good.
Favorite Song: Praise the Lord (Da Shine)
Least Favorite Song: Calldrops
D+
Watch the video below for more thoughts on this album
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