Album Reviews

Album: SremmLife
Artist: Rae Sremmurd
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Label: EarDrummers/Interscope
Genre: Hip-hop

SremmLife is the debut studio album by hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd. Most of the tracks were produced by Mike WiLL Made-It (if you can’t tell by the annoying audio-watermark at the beginning of a few of their songs). The album was definitely not made to listen to as a full work, because doing so would infuriate anyone. They have money and like weed and nobody can tell them what to do. That sentence can replace the whole album in terms of lyrical content. There’s nothing of substance here, it’s like the outside world is foreign to the young duo. As for how the songs actually sound, they range from tolerable to just bad. Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy’s half-strained-yelling/half-kind-of rapping do not work over the surprisingly bland production. The beats feel copy-pasted from one song to the next.

I’m just surprised by how little work seemed to go into the songs. Most of the songs contain an overlong and often annoying hook that pretty much take up the whole track length. Themes and phrases are repeated infinitely, and to be completely honest, I just finished listening to the album and I can’t even think of any verses specifically, because it’s just so bland. All I know is an instinctual feeling not to play any of these songs ever again.

Am I being too harsh? We get it, you’re rich; I should be jealous! Ha ha ha! The banality of the tracks can’t be overstated. There’s not even a so-bad-it’s-good factor, it doesn’t feel like they care about their own music. Usually I have a list at the bottom for “great” and “not-so-great” tracks, but I’ll have to change those terms to more accurately represent how I feel.

I still have the sound of Slim Jimmy yelling in my ear.

Least Annoying Track: “No Type”
Most Annoying Tracks: “Unlock the Swag,” “My X,” “Up Like Trump”

FINAL RATING: 2.5/10

Album: Fashion Week
Artist: Death Grips
Release Date: January 4, 2015
Label: Third Worlds
Genre: Industrial/Instrumental Hip-hop

I’m one of those people who stops doing things once they do those things for a short while, which is why this website hasn’t been updated in over a year. I guess I share this in common with Death Grips, who decided to break up last year simply because they made music, got popular, and got bored. However, due to the unconventional and aggressive nature of the band, being broken up doesn’t seem to really mean anything. Fashion Week is a surprise instrumental “soundtrack” album that the band just released for free on their website. I’m not going to complain about a new Death Grips album ever, but their volatility can be tiresome after a while. Regardless, it’s an album and it shall be reviewed.

Fashion Week is a collection of instrumental tracks recorded without any input from MC Ride. Despite the good idea and the total viability of instrumental music, this album has a few tracks that sound like they just should have had vocals in them. This seems more like a vocal-less version of an album than an instrumental main event. The songs never really develop either, they either go on way too long or they’re really great for the two minutes they exist. The main problem with this album is that some of it is just boring. Tracks like “Runway Y” and “Runway A” don’t really go anywhere and aren’t all that interesting to begin with.

All that being said, the album is not a bad one. It works better if you think of it as a compilation of tracks as opposed to a cohesive album. Some tracks just attack you and engage you right until their end. “Runway H” (both of them!) are fantastic tracks. The second featuring a fitting guitar. That track in particular doesn’t even really feel like a Death Grips song, but it’ll slide.

I’m afraid there’s not much more to write about this album. It’s good, but it’s not stellar. It’s not even really an album. Think of this is as a mini-review for the new year.

Great Tracks: “Runway E (I),” “Runway N (I),” “Runway H (I & II),” “Runway W”
Not so great Tracks: “Runway Y,” “Runway A”

FINAL RATING: 7/10