Billie Eilish - “Your Power”
There’s still multiple months until Billie releases her new album, but she’s released another atypical lead single. Instead of releasing a song that people will be able to easily listen to for the next three months, she released an emotional ballad about emotional abuse. Specifically, “Your Power” looks at Billie’s relationship when she was 16 and dating a 22 year old. Obviously, you can guess the type of mental anguish that can happen while dating someone that different in age. The second verse especially has some lyrics that are clearly about her situation, “I thought that I was special. You made me feel like it was my fault, you were the devil.” Even with that, the track is still vague enough to relate to any sort of abuse. The instrumental is a bit bare for a Billie track, but it allows the listener to focus on the lyrics, which is the focus of the track. It’s a weird choice for a lead single, but I think it could be a perfect ballad in the context of an album.
Isaiah Rashad - “Lay Wit Ya” (Feat. Duke Deuce)
It’s been just under five years since Isaiah Rashad’s last album. There has been only one official single since then, and a few features and loosies. This is his big return to the spotlight to get people ready for his upcoming album, The House is Burning. He had a cover story about him through Fader when this single came out and if it weren’t for that story, I would definitely be disappointed. The song is fairly straightforward, a southern-fried banger with a Three-Six Mafia sample and feature from new crunk artist Duke Deuce. Isaiah’s voice lends nice to this sultry chorus, but his performance is minimal on this track. I’m not surprised this is the lead single, since it will likely get more people excited for the project, but background bangers isn’t where Isaiah thrives. His emotional potency with his lyrics is why he’s gained this passionate fanbase, and a Fader cover story about him says there’s lots of that on the album. The article also explains why he’s been gone for five years, which includes everything from going broke, sleeping on a friend's couch for 4-5 months, and a stint in rehab in 2019. I’m glad to hear that he’s doing well and even with the middling single, The House is Burning remains one of my most anticipated projects of 2021.
Baby Keem - “Durag Activity” (Feat. Travis Scott)
Another month or two, and yet another Baby Keem single, this time with one of the biggest stars in hip hop, Travis Scott. Yet again, this single is pretty hit or miss. Keem seems to be going for another monotone banger, almost something in the vein of 21 Savage, but he’s not that great at this sound. The beat is pretty nice, but it’s just the same couple second loop the entire time, so it wears out the positives by the end. Baby Keem usually sounds so energetic and off the wall, but he sounds straight up bored on this track. Lyrically, it’s not anything different from Keem’s other work. Travis’s verse is actually a nice switchup, at least in terms of his voice. Many of his features have felt phoned in as of recent, but he both outraps and outperforms Baby Keem with only one verse. All of these singles make me slightly worried to see what happens with Keem’s new album, but hopefully he’ll prove me wrong when it comes out this summer.
Boombox Cartel - “Reaper” (Feat. J.I.D)
Well, I can honestly say I never thought JID would be on a full out EDM track, but here we are. Even though EDM isn’t popular anymore and most artists have stopped making that type of music, Boombox Cartel has continued making the gigantic, festival ready bangers. My main negative about this track is that the structure is really weird. Normally, the rappers are the verses and then the huge drop is the chorus. For this song, JID has the first verse, but the song then turns into a full out electronic banger with multiple buildups and drops. It feels like two different songs mashed into one. But, that doesn’t mean that JID didn’t drop another fantastic verse to open the track. It’s not lyrically up there with his best, but the way he effortlessly switches his flow is still something special. Boombox Cartel clearly has a lot of talent producing, but overall, this track still relies on someone really liking the heavy EDM sound that was popular at the beginning of the 2010s.
Migos - “Straightenin”
It’s shocking that Migos have taken more than three years since their last group project, but they have. The time away has allowed people to actually miss their sound and hopefully made Migos start to focus a bit more on the quality of the songs instead of the quantity. This one does feel like an improvement compared to their previous material. It doesn’t come up to the instant classic of 2017’s Culture, but everything here is in place for a perfect banger. The beat is a traditional trap banger, Quavo’s chorus once again straddles the line between mind-numbingly repetitive and instantly catchy, and all three of them flow nicely for their verses. Offset, of course, comes out on top and is the reason the four minute track doesn’t feel too long. The hilarious lyrics are back again, including Quavo’s “Turn a pandemic into a bandemic.” Still, the enjoyment level of Culture III will likely revolve around the length of the project, so hopefully they took the criticism of Culture II well.
Nicki Minaj - “Seeing Green” (Feat. Drake & Lil Wayne)
The Young Money trio is back again with another track, this time as an addition to Nicki’s debut mixtape she just put on streaming services. They’ve been making songs together for a decade and this song fits into the mixtape sound too well. It has the part I love about mixtapes, which is that they are just rapping long verses instead of focusing on choruses. But, it also has the unfinished feeling of mixtapes. The beat stays in the few second loop for the entire five and a half minute runtime and the mixing is noticeably bad. Either way, each rapper brings their traditional brand of bars, which includes a hilarious bar from each of them. Wayne saying, “I’ll put you six feet deep, I’m bein’ socially distant,” is both extremely clever and demands a chuckle. Nicki’s is an almost normal bar with, “Brand new vanilla Maserati, I be Haagen-Dazsin,” but Drake still manages to say something only he can say, “Your girl better in the mornin’ like a slice of pizza.” I can’t think of any rapper not on this song that could get away with a bar like that. “Seeing Green” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s another welcome collaboration from one of the most iconic trios of the past decade.
Earthgang - “Aretha”
Earthgang has announced that it will still be a few months until their new album, Ghetto Gods, is released. In the meantime, they decided to release freestyles and loosies to help keep fans fed. This included a freestyle over Drake’s “Lemon Pepper Freestyle,” but this track is easily the more significant. As the title suggests, the track is an ode to Aretha Franklin and samples “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from her catalogue. Both Olu and Doctur Dot give fantastic performances. Olu starts off the track straight up mentioning their latest track, “‘Options’ dropped, barely made a sound. Damn, I guess we let Nas and Cole down.” They were promoting “Options” almost daily for months trying to get it to pop off, but it never got the fame they wanted it to, and Olu manages to combine his disappointment with a nice reference to his label boss, J. Cole. It shouldn’t be a surprise Olu fits this beat perfectly since he partly produced it. Dot didn’t have quite as many quotables, but the flow during his verse is superb. Hopefully they continue to have their loosies be up to this level. The second half of the year is looking great for hip hop.
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