Trial By Fire- Yelawolf- Album Review

    Here is another artist who I didn’t realize how good they were until very recently. I

originally had written Yelawolf off as a hillbilly party rapper, but after hearing his verse on the

Shady records cypher a while back I began to appreciate his lyrical ability. Around this same

time I saw a YouTuber who I follow called the Rap Critic put the song Shadows on his best of

the year list for 2016, and it’s easy to see why. Shadows is a complete masterpiece, mixing dark

bluegrass and folk elements with vivid imagery and lyrics that remind me of a southern Kendrick

Lamar.

    Shadows was the first single released ahead of the full album Trial by Fire, along with

Row Your Boat and Punk. While I enjoyed both of the other singles, Shadows was far and away

the best single and ultimately the best song on the album proper. The full album starts with the

title track that serves as an introductory skit to the whole album, setting the scene of Yelawolf,

Bones Owens and DJ Klever performing in a blues bar. This opener has a distinct and powerful

southern rock sound with Yelawolf rapping the story of his birth that blends into Shadows.

    As I said I loved Shadows before the album came out, and hearing it in the context of the

album is even more awesome. The third track is a hyper aggressive Nu-Metal/Rap Rock

throwback with a bit of southern rock flavor thrown in for good measure. The thing that makes

this track a bit strange is the featured artist of Kid Rock. This certainly feels like something in

the style of late 90s early 2000s era Kid Rock and it’s a pretty solid track.

    After Get Mine we have one of the best tracks on the album that really lets Yelawolf dip

into his storyteller side with Son of A Gun. Similarly to the opening track, this is a

autobiographical track, this time detailing his destructive nature and the similarities to his father.

This really shows the perfect way that country and rap can blend together as the biggest element

of these two genres when done right is storytelling. The next track is a heartwarming one about a

friend of Yelawolf’s who despite taking a different path in life has always had his back.

    The album then has a spoken word interlude which perfectly sets up one of the best tracks

on the album, Daylight. Daylight is a good split between a drinking party song and a positive

turn on the album. Do For Love is a pretty average track on the album that has good lyrics but

kind of a mediocre sound. The next track Punk has a blistering tempo and powerful rhythm,

courtesy of Travis Barker, but Juicy J’s hook is kind of lacking in my opinion.

    Row Your Boat is proof that they knew what they were doing when they picked the

singles off of this album. Aside from Punk I would say that the singles off of this album were all

of the top songs here. Row Your Boat has a kind of laid back beat on it but features one of the

most interesting flows on the album with Yelawolf having a slippery flow that slides into each

line on the verses. He also does a good job performing his own hook in a way that suits the low

key vibe of the song.

    True to Yourself features guitarist Bones Owens actually singing the hook as well as

playing on it and has some sick trumpet playing. Sound wise this track is very similar to

Shadows and is pretty solid. The next track Sabrina is a bit of an odd track as Yelawolf raps

nearly acapella the story of his fictional daughter drowning in a lake near his house. On Violin

Yelawolf raps about various people who have been used or “played like a violin”, including a

soldier abandoned by his country and a woman in an abusive relationship. The song features

violins throughout it behind a military drum roll and a soulful hook by Lee Brice.

The final track is a huge standout, featuring Yelawolf at his best telling his life story in

vivid detail over a a mix hip hop synth bass, country lap steel and bluegrass mandolin. The

chorus features country star Wynonna Judd giving the perfect summation of the song, singing

“This is my story, This is my glory, This is what keeps me alive”. This track, and this album as a

whole is what happens when a storyteller with a gift for poetic writing takes full control over a

project.

          The self produced effort by Yelawolf feels not only like his strongest work, but also his
most complete and fleshed out work. It’s weird to say that a rap album only has touches of hip
hop production, but the majority of this album’s music is Bones Owens’ guitar and lap steel
playing with touches of 808 drums and hip hop bass accompanying acoustic snare rolls and
piano. While the elements used on this album might not sound like they would go together that
well, this album truly is more than the sum of its parts.

Bobby "Borris" Pickett The Monster Rap- Song Review

    Now we get into the cheese. Today we’re looking at Bobby “Borris” Pickett (The Monster Mash guy) and one of his various attempts to score a second hit. After the huge success of the Monster Mash, Pickett did various other parodies and spoofs throughout the years including the Transylvania Twist, Monsters Holiday, a Star Drek and even a King Kong parody. The biggest follow up hit he ever had was The Monster Rap, a cheesy 80’s rap song that served as a sequel of sorts to that graveyard smash.

    The track effectively mixes 80’s synths with the typical horror movie/sci-fi sounds you’d expect and a funky bass line. Funnily enough, as goofy and cheesy as this song is the rap verses by the monster aren’t that much worse than typical 80’s rap songs. The basic idea of the song is the story of Frankenstein’s monster told as a rap song, intercut with lines by Igor, samples of the monster roaring and complete rap verses by the monster.

    The sad part is I actually kind of prefer this one to the monster mash as a song; they’re both cheesy songs that no one should ever listen to outside the month of October, but this one actually some cool things going on with the music. The 80’s hip hop beat mixed with sci-fi noises and monster samples actually sounds pretty cool and that funky bass line is completely danceable. Like I said, I wouldn’t recommend this outside the month of October, but leading up to Halloween, why not throw this on and get into the graveyard smash made for everyone out there looking to bust a rhyme.

Suicide Squad The Album- New(er) Album of The Week

New(er) Album of The Week is posted every Friday

    Today we are looking at the soundtrack album for the DC film Suicide Squad. Much like one of my other favorite film soundtracks, The Great Gatsby, there is a bit of confusion over which version is the official version. I will be looking at the 10 track version that seems to be all original songs or covers done specifically for Suicide Squad. The 14 track version features the Classic Rock tracks Slippin Into Darkness and Fortunate Son as well as Eminem’s Without Me and a really good cover of You Don’t Own Me by Grace and G-Eazy.

    The album opens up with probably the most in your face track here, Purple Lamborghini by Rick Ross and Skrillex. Ross does a pretty good job of detailing various aspects of the Suicide Squad, referencing various characters and locations from the DC Universe. His rhymes are solid enough and match with Skrillex’s amazing beat. The only real weaknesses are that Ross slips into some of his generic boasts a few times and seems uncertain on if he’s taking the role of Joker or if he’s rapping about the squad in general. Skrillex’s beat makes this song amazing however, from the horn and synth lines on the verses to the huge drop that makes up the hook, this is just further proof of Sonny Moore’s brilliance.

    The next track is a collaboration between rap heavyweights Lil’ Wayne and Wiz Khalifa and Imagine Dragons with Logic, Ty Dolla $ign and X Ambassadors. Sucker For Pain surprisingly doesn’t feel overcrowded at any point, largely because each verse adds a piece of the rapper’s personality without straying too far from the main theme. This song relates to the film more so in tone than in content, with each artist adopting some form of pain obsessed crazed criminal. While there is a decent bit of bragging it’s all set to a somber tone, with some of the rappers alluding to having a chance to do some good, paralleling the villains turned heroes of the Suicide Squad. All the rappers are fantastic and Dan Reynolds does the hook perfectly while the rest of Imagine Dragons handle the backing music brilliantly.

    We then have the biggest hit to come off of this album, twenty one pilots’ Heathens. As I’ve well established by now I am a huge TOP fan, but I actually heard this song pretty early into my discovery of them. This was the second thing I heard from twenty one pilots after the Blurryface album and I love it’s more traditional rock feel. While the verses still feature Tyler rapping, the track feels mostly like a down tempo Alt Rock track. The octave effects put on Tyler’s voice help sustain a really eerie feeling as. Along with production tricks, they also throw you off a bit by playing with syncopation on the chorus, hitting lines either early or late. It’s a very simple song with some really sophisticated elements to it and it just get’s stuck in your head for days.

    Nothing else on this album matches the power and excellence of the first three tracks; nonetheless it’s still pretty solid throughout. Kehlani’s Gangsta is a damn fine gangster’s girlfriend track that I think is supposed to be Harley Quinn’s theme song of sorts. The beat is pretty solid but Kehlani’s vocals are what makes the track work so well. Two-thirds of the next track, Standing In The Rain works pretty well; Dan Auerbach's delivery on the hook works beautifully at conveying a sense of desperation and sadness at being betrayed. The other thing that works is Mark Ronson’s beat and production, which even makes Action Bronson’s crappy rap verses sound decent. But that is what ultimately sinks this song, Action Bronson’s raps do not match the tone of anything else in the song at all, honestly Kevin Gates verses on the next track would have worked better for this song.

    Speaking of Kevin Gates, this is the first time I’ve ever bothered to listen to him and I see why so many of my friends like this guy. First off his lower voice and power behind his lines gives off this raw masculine vibe that’s missing in modern hip hop. Gate’s flow and lyrics are masterful on this track, perfectly blending his actual life into the song in a way that makes it fit with the Suicide Squad. This is the only track that gets close to the epic level of the first three tracks.

    Skylar Grey’s Wreak Havoc seems to be portraying Enchantress, if I’m going to continue trying to link songs to characters. The lyrics convey this really arrogant attitude that would really only fit Enchantress since she’s basically a goddess. There are also lines about people hating that they need her and the overall idea that all she’s here for is to wreak havoc. After this we have Grimes’ song Medieval Warfare that is just kind of there. I honestly forgot this song existed and pretty much have forgotten it again already. While I Started A Joke is technically the closing track, it’s pretty boring and not really worth talking about, to me the closer to this album is Panic! At The Disco’s cover of the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody.

    For some background, Panic! Have been covering this track live for some time now, with the members of the touring band going as far to replicate Brian May’s guitar sounds and other aspects as closely as possible. On top of the attention to details, Brendon Urie is one of three or four singers who could actually hope to do a Freddie Mercury song justice. Even though his voice isn’t quite Mercury, Urie hits every single note of the song and gives the best performance I’ve seen anyone who wasn’t a Muppet give covering this song. While I’m certainly not going to say it holds a candle to the original, this is the best cover I think we'll ever get.

    Overall this album is a little bit of a mixed bag at times, but just like the Suicide Squad movie I think the positives outweigh the negatives for me. I would definitely recommend six, maybe even seven of the songs on this album, and obviously I’d recommend the four extra ones on other versions of the soundtrack. I have to give it credit though, because basically every track on this album has a similar enough tone and style to make this feel like an album and not a collection of random songs used in a movie.

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B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

Looking at another non rock genre that I quite enjoy, today we are reviewing B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, the debut album by Atlanta rapper B.o.B. This album from 2010 put B.o.B firmly on top of the world, having 4 songs that got major radio play off of this album. Despite always being great at writing catchy songs that would stick in your brain, B.o.B never really seemed at home in the mainstream, for example his first smash hit Airplanes had him rapping about being tired of fame. Eventually his eccentricities drove him out of mainstream, but for about 2 years B.o.B was possibly the biggest mainstream rapper alive, and if it wasn’t for this album I probably wouldn’t be the fan of hip hop that I am today.

           First things first, B.o.B is not your typical rapper and especially not your typical pop rapper. The first way in which B.o.B differentiates himself from the typical rapper is that he’s not only a quality rapper, but also a singer, a guitarist and a pianist. The man doesn’t need any fancy production behind him to flow either, with various videos and tracks showing him rapping along with his acoustic guitar.

            After releasing a multitude of mixtapes that got him a large underground following as an Andre 3000 type of rapper he signed to Atlantic Records’ Grand Hustle imprint. His debut album wound up having 4 hits on it, Nothin On You, Magic, Airplanes and Don’t Let Me Fall. While each of these tracks are great in their own right, the deep cuts off of this record are fantastic as well.

The only real dud on the album is Bet I, just because it gets really repetitive and annoying to me. The best tracks are Don't Let Me Fall, Lovelier Than You and Airplanes Part II.

For Don't Let Me Fall I actually prefer a live in the studio version I found on YouTube to the original, because this is the song that benefits the most from B.o.B’s live band. While the version on the album is good, the electric guitar and backup singers of his live band make it so much better. Plus the image of B.o.B strumming a Gretsch electric guitar and singing/ rapping is really cool to me.

I enjoy Lovelier Than You because it shows off B.o.B’s singing chops as well as his softer side. Instead of having R&B as his softer side like Drake, B.o.B has a full on coffee house acoustic love song. Overall I like this song because it shows some of B.o.B’s dynamics.

The best song off of this album and one of the best B.o.B has ever done is the closing track Airplanes Part II. This track feels like a culmination of the entire album and has many callbacks and similarities to the first version of Airplanes. In this version B.o.B through telling the story of him being a kid in school makes it known that music is all he has and all he has ever had. The thing that sells this track is the guest verse by one of the greatest of all time Eminem.

Eminem slowly fades in on the bridge with his voice overtaking B.o.B in a very smooth transition. His verse is on the same sort of topic as B.o.B, starting off by stating “Let's pretend Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen…”. He builds on that premise for a few lines before taking a turn into his usual angry flow as he describes why he also had nothing but writing raps to get him through his upbringing. Both Eminem and B.o.B seem to also put in there just how unlikely it is that they would have made it as rappers.

Overall this is one of my favorite albums for nostalgic reasons as it was the album that got me into rap music. To this day B.o.B is one of my favorite rappers, even with his penchant for crackpot conspiracy theories. To anybody interested in checking out his work, this album, Strange Clouds, Psycadelik Thoughts and Ether are all worth a listen.Album on Google Play
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