Dec. 15 marked several major releases as finals week started in Madison. Eminem and N.E.R.D. released their first albums in four and seven years, respectively, and BROCKHAMPTON closed their SATURATION trilogy with SATURATION III, their third album in six months. Then, as finals wrapped up on Dec. 21, we were greeted by Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, the highly-anticipated collaborative effort from Travis Scott and Quavo under the moniker Huncho Jack. This outpour of music was a fun way to close out 2017, and it supplied ample listening material over break. The four albums were vastly different from each other and, likewise, had varying levels of success.
Eminem – Revival
Eminem’s latest studio album accomplishes a couple of strange, unintended feats. Rick Rubin and Dr. Dre have composed some of the most uninspiring songs of their careers, with lazy sampling from iconic hits culminating in 19 unbelievably generic rock-rap cuts. On a lyrical level, Eminem has succeeded in saying nothing worthwhile or insightful as he contradicts himself for 77 minutes.
In a heated political environment, Eminem simultaneously attacks President Trump’s controversial presidency and perpetuates his own contentious image. With characters like Slim Shady and Stan, Eminem was one of the biggest stars to balance multiple personas and voices in his music, but his attempts at storytelling in Revival are forgettable and unoriginal. Instead, Eminem attempts introspective meditation and fails terribly. Eminem may have made us laugh in the past, but there’s nothing funny about each cringeworthy pun or illustration, whether it’s “started from the bottom like a snowman, ground up,” or “I’m looking at your tight rear like a sightseer/your booty is heavy duty like diarrhea.” They all hit like a punch to the gut, and the wind was knocked out of me before the album was halfway over.
As far as flow goes, Eminem is as articulate as ever and thrives off of his verbal quickness combined with short enunciation. Sadly, it doesn’t translate well, as he toys with contemporary rhyme structures and ends up sounding like a poor imitation of Migos. Numerous features could have provided a distraction from Eminem’s disappointing verses, but Beyoncé, P!nk, Ed Sheeran and other guests on the album only exemplify his unoriginality with choruses that feel like the same song over and over.
Grade: F
N.E.R.D. – No_One Ever Really Dies
Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley cook up a batch of bouncy tunes with a more political edge and plenty of guest artists. The end result has more downs than ups, and it makes you want a little more of the things that work and a lot less of the things that don’t.
That said, there are parts which work very well. Album opener “Lemon” contains the most lit Rihanna feature ever, with a rap verse that commands attention and swagger. “Don’t Don’t Do It” tells the story of Keith Lamont Scott getting shot by an officer while Williams and Kendrick Lamar ponder the greater epidemic of police brutality against African Americans. However, other songs such as “Kites” and “ESP” wear down too quickly with repetitive melodies and weak lyric cohesiveness.
Most of the musical ideas start off interesting before they become tired, but the greatest flaw is that they become tired at all. Williams’s voice has always had a distinct range, but there are points — such as the line “Every time I turn around I’m rollin’ in them 7’s” in “Rollinem’ 7’s” — that his voice is just annoying, and the drabness of the lyrics only makes it worse. One can appreciate the group’s political engagement in their lyrics and their attempt to make upbeat tunes in the face of their downtrodden attitudes, but many of the ideas don’t hit as hard as they should. Rarely does N.E.R.D. fulfill their ambition.
Grade: C
BROCKHAMPTON – SATURATION III
America’s favorite boy band closes out the year with their catchiest and most confident collection yet. With SATURATION III being their third album in six months, each voice in BROCKHAMPTON continues to take hold of their individuality.
Each performer possesses a voice that is more composed than ever, and the differences between them enhance the completeness of each song. When a song starts — be it the victory lap of “BOOGIE” or the slow jam of “BLEACH” — not much changes in the instrumental, but instead in which voice is singing or rapping, and this basis has not gotten old. The producers, especially Romil Hemnani, have crafted another relentless collection, even when the tempo lays back. If anything, SATURATION III can feel like too big of a whirlwind at some points. With 15 tracks that never let up and have so many voices, it can be hard to absorb everything the group has to offer in one listen, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
With two other SATURATION projects already released in past months, BROCKHAMPTON runs the risk of losing their novelty as an ambitious new group. Instead, the sheer drive in their sound aids them in solidifying their identity: they won’t stop, and if their music continues to succeed, I hope they continue to sprint towards greatness.
Grade: B
Jack Huncho – Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho
Migos member Quavo and Auto-Tune aficionado Travis Scott team up for 11 songs of hard-hitting hip-hop, and while it isn’t bad by any means, Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho only goes so far for two of mainstream music’s most distinct voices.
Quavo and Scott settle into a comfortable middle ground that plays off both of their strengths: Scott takes on a lot of the hooks and fills the album’s production with his dark aesthetic, while Quavo uses the backdrop for his storytelling antics and rags-to-riches narrative. The first two songs, “Modern Slavery” and “Black & Chinese,” are particularly strong and show off the fun that can be had by genuine friendship between individual musicians.
Other songs see this setup inverted, with Quavo handling the choruses and Scott rapping more, but the freshness in this switch spoils from the blandness in Quavo’s hooks while Scott exposes his flaws as a rapper. Scott can croon about drug-laced trips for days and Quavo can spit in his triplet rhyming schemes like nobody’s business, but when they swap roles, both musicians downshift their talent and settle for short, sometimes clunky lyrics. At least the space-like production is a solid distraction from their shortcomings.
Inversely, the duo certainly share the mic well when they trade off, such as the title song’s chorus, and their chemistry is evident in the consistency of the beats and enthusiasm of the artists. Overall, it’s disappointing to say that the end product of their labor is a collection of mostly average Travis Scott-sounding songs that have a lot of Quavo verses.
Grade: C+
