Whole Lotta Red sees Playboi Carti showcase "a unique depth that has developed since the release of Die Lit", with him minimizing the use of his "baby voice". Instead, as noted by Hypebeast's Nicolaus Li, the album contains a "frenetic vocal styling that ... defines Whole Lotta Red".
This kind of after-party VIP-section gathering of personalities reflects positively on just about everyone involved: The lesser-known talents prove themselves capable of running with the big dogs, the established stars are able to stay in touch with the streets, and Thug and Gunna remind us how beloved they are as frontpersons for one of the most talented rap collectives to come out of Atlanta since the Grand Hustle.
For athletes of both the professional and amateur ranks, the time between seasons is an opportunity to recuperate and to sharpen their tool set for the next run. Superstar MC J. Cole, whose career has long been informed by both basketball metaphor and actual basketball playing, has crafted his The Off-Season mixtape in the same mould, affirming that if he’s done anything in the time since 2018’s KOD album, it’s get even better at what he does.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, the 2021 alliance of Lil Baby and Lil Durk is historic. Though it would appear Baby and Durk spared no expense with regard to production, the two never lose sight of the fact that the real draw is what happens when they get in the same room, which is the kind of rapping that has made each a king in his own right, compounded by the kind of chemistry that makes them sound like an actual group.
The vibes across the album are a disparate combination of sounds Tyler enjoys —boom-bap revival, ’90s R&B, gentle soul samples as a backdrop for vivid lyricism in the Griselda mould and lovers rock. And then there’s “RUNITUP”, which features a crunk-style background chant, and “LEMONHEAD”, which has the energy of Trap or Die-era Jeezy. “WILSHIRE” is potentially best described as an epic poem. Giving the Grammy the benefit of the doubt, maybe they wanted to reward all the great rapping he’d done until that point.
On the second posthumous album from Pop Smoke, we get a glimpse of the late rapper's mindset in the period before he died and of the seemingly limitless potential of his singular voice. It's rarely disappointing to hear Pop doing what he did best, but it's also impossible not to wonder how he would've approached these songs had he been here—still creating, still innovating, still evolving. Nevertheless, Pop Smoke's magic lives on, even if only in frustratingly fleeting moments.
Donda is lush and expansive with a consistent gospel undertone, West seemingly including everything and everyone he’s enjoyed over the course of his illustrious career. Outside of his long-standing religious devotion, West alludes in rhyme to his hopes for the world at large, an unending dedication to his children and even the struggles that led to the much-publicised dissolution of his marriage. It’s the closest thing yet to an open book on one of pop culture’s most enigmatic figures. But that would imply that there was an editor: Instead, Donda is the raw, sometimes unwieldy genius of a man two years—and a heap of world-shifting events—removed from Jesus Is King, a project about the MC yielding to a power greater than his own.
A combination of toxic masculinity and acceptance of truth which is inevitably heartbreaking. Executive produced by me, Noah “40” Shebib, Oliver El-Khatib and Noel Cadastre. Dedicated to Nadia Ntuli and Mercedes Morr. RIP—Drake