BROCKHAMPTON’s debut album “SATURATION” is weird; there’s no two ways about it. This is not radio friendly rap music, or music that you show someone to introduce them to the genre. In fact, this album isn’t even entirely a rap album. The loose collective’s 14 different members all bring different skillsets to the table, and this means that, while the album is primarily a hip hop album, it also contains deviations into indie rock as well. The group have even been inconsistent with how they classify themselves; some of their members have described the group as an “American Boy Band-” whether or not that is in jest is open to interpretation. With such a colorful group behind the album, it is no surprise that SATURATION breaks many conventions of modern rap.

Most noticeably, you won’t hear a single trap influenced instrumental on this album. That means that the heavily used high hats so common in a 2 Chainz or Future album are nearly absent here. This isn’t a bad thing here though, and I consider the production on this album to be one of its strong points. The instrumentation here starts with the grimy and industrial sounding track “HEAT,” then turns into the piano dominated song “2PAC,” and eventually ends up at the indie rock track “WASTE.” The group’s style and instrumentation is actually so varied that at several points I found that I’d really like one song on the album, but the next song on the album was such a U-turn that it didn’t even sound like the same artist made it. In this case, the group’s versatility served as both a strength and a weakness.

“SATURATION” is as diverse lyrically as it is sonically. That is to say, it’s pretty all over the board. The album’s opening track, “HEAT,” kicks things off with a bang- vocalist Ameer Vann opens by declaring that he has “Pipe dreams of crack rock and stripper poles.” However, this kind of aggressive bravado does not hold throughout the album, and the group are surprisingly able to pull off some pretty profound lines, like “Some people have angels, what if only shadows follow you?” BROCKHAMPTON also show that they have an ear for humor, with some pretty witty bars throughout the album, including “Anthony Hopkins, I’m eating ‘em raw,” and “Navy camo I’m drowning” (our current US Navy camo is blue, figure that one out). Without further ado, let’s check out some of the highlights and lowlights of the album.

Highlights

HEAT

The album’s lead track is heavy, in your face, and unapologetic about it (“Suck a d*ck about it, I hope you get offended”). The grimy instrumental and combative vocal performances lend this song a sense of aggression that is contagious. The second verse of this song sounds like it’s performed by a crazy Jamaican guy, so that’s pretty cool too. There is a rather out of place interlude in the song, but on the whole, it’s certainly one of the highlights of the album.

STAR

The third track on the album, “STAR” features line upon line referencing superstars, and comes across as pretty witty. Lines like “Liam Neeson with the rescue” and “Jason Bourne with the headshot” are peppered throughout the track. The bouncy beat of this song also gives it a sense of high energy that makes is rather easy to listen to.

MILK

Probably the saddest track on this album, “MILK” features several of the group’s members basically airing out their insecurities and expressing their fears about the future. The song’s plodding, almost sluggish beat adds to this sense of malaise. While the chorus of the song does sound a little too much like an early 2000’s boy band chorus for my taste, but this is still a quality song.

Lowlight

BOYS

This track comes across as one that wasn’t fully written, but was put on the album anyway. The chorus consists of the line “Hella boys sing” repeated far too many times, and the rapping on this song isn’t particularly technical either. This one comes across as a filler track that goes on for too long.

Conclusion

“SATURATION” is a difficult project to draw conclusions about. On the one hand, it is clearly a very well produced and well performed project. On the other hand, it is so weird and stylistically inconsistent that at times it sounds like it is a completely different group from song to song, and some of the music on this album is really experimental. I would advise listening to this album only if you are really into rap music, or are looking for something totally in its own lane.

Score: 7.5/10

Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy is about what you would expect from an A$AP Mob project, provided you have any knowledge of A$AP Mob. If you don’t, here’s a quick explanation for you. A$AP Mob is a rap collective spearheaded by the duo of A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg (the only two members you have maybe heard of). The members of the group all have solo careers of their own, some more successful than others, and periodically the “Mob” get together to put together a collaborative album. As you can probably gather, the talent in the group varies widely. To be honest, there’s a reason why only Rocky and Ferg have successful solo careers- the other members of the group (A$AP Twelvy, A$AP Nast, and A$AP Ant) simply aren’t that good. That unevenness leads to a very inconsistent album, because if neither Rocky nor Ferg are on a track, there isn’t much reason to listen, other than the instrumental. The group also doesn’t tend to put out cohesive albums; their projects are usually more of a large collection of singles. Because of this, it’s better to view their songs as individual tracks, rather than as pieces of a cohesive whole. Bearing this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the highlights and lowlights of the album.

Highlights

RAF

The lead single for Cozy Tapes 2 is undoubtedly one of its strongest moments. If you’re anything like me, the hook on this song (“Please don’t touch my Raf”) will have you telling people to stay away from your nonexistent luxury clothing for the next few days. A high energy feature from Lil Uzi also helps to keep the energy of the song up, and dovetails nicely with Rocky’s laid back flow.

Feels So Good

The other lead single for the album, Feels So Good, sounds exactly like it’s title would suggest. The airy, almost whimsical instrumental, is grounded by trap influenced hi-hats, but the bounce of the song is contagious. This is a song to put on to help you get through the 10 minute walk to your 8 AM class. A$AP Ferg’s signature staccato flow also lends the song a sense of drive that makes this song extremely catchy.

Get the Bag

Probably the most ominous sounding track on the project, Get the Bag features a slow and almost plodding beat, that is given some bite by some nasty sounding hi-hats. I haven’t been able to figure out who is yelling “It’s a new game” in the background of the song, but it gives the song an almost comedic sense of sinisterness. A$AP Ferg’s third verse is almost certainly the highlight of the track, as there’s nothing like him belting out “Oh Lord, it’s the Hoood Pope.”

Lowlights

Please Shut Up

I cannot for the life of me figure out how this song got onto this album. This song is essentially a lesson in how to avoid severely underwriting a song. The chorus literally only consists of the phrase “please shut up” repeated eight !!! times.  To add to that, there really isn’t a single verse worth listening to on this song, as even A$AP Rocky and a feature from Gucci Mane couldn’t salvage this one.

What Happens

This song is really only let down by a poor beat, but let down it is. The way-too-punchy and fast bassline just doesn’t fit in with any of the rappers rapping over it, and it just lends the song a weird and cluttered feeling. It is evident that Rocky and the other artists are trying to switch their flow to match with the beat but it just doesn’t come off.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning of this review, Cozy Tapes 2 is about what you’d expect from an A$AP Mob project- inconsistent, incohesive, but with some very high highlights. A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg provide the only really quality rapping on the album (aside from a lil Yachty and Lil Uzi feature), meaning that many of the album’s verses are more or less just filler. Still though, the stronger points of the album are enough to make it worth a listen.

Score: 6/10

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