The stylistic boundaries of rap have just expanded. Someone like Kendrick Lamar is working in a more traditional mold, with a more purely percussive delivery and a literary/observational writing style. Future has a more musical delivery and is writing something more like tone poetry. Each approach has its place and I don't think style should preclude anyone from being called the best.
It's not always about going hard and having punchlines. Future is interesting because of his unique combinations of flow/melody and vocal texture. This type of rap focuses less on percusiveness and literal lyrical content and more on the tonal and aesthetic qualities of language.
To all the people saying that they "don't get" Future: that's right, you don't get it. Don't mistake that for a failure of the artist or of the professional critics who are praising him.
Future, Young Thug, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar are the four most important rappers right now, each for different reasons. Young Thug is my personal favorite but Future is clearly in the conversation.
I've been really liking Slime Season, though I agree that it's not as good as Barter 6. In terms of Young Thug's artistic development, what might be most notable here are the tracks ("Calling Your Name"; "That's All") that apply his expanded vocal capabilities to the pop attitude of a lot of his early recordings (particularly the ones on I Came From Nothing 2). Also, I really doubt Hi-Tunes will be like this at all, but I definitely wouldn't mind hearing a Young Thug album full of dancy tracks a la "Good Times" and "Udiggwhatimsayin."
Meek Mill is a louder rapper than Drake and that's about it. I'm not sure why Tom thinks so highly of Meek but Drake's overall vocal/technical prowess is definitely better.
I agree with this ranking, and I'll also add my top ten releases between the two of them, at least at this moment:
1. Dedication 2
2. Dedication
3. Tha Carter 2
4. Da Drought 3
5. Tha Carter 3
6. 1017 Thug
7. Barter 6
8. Tha Tour Pt. 1
9. No Ceilings
10. Tha Carter
Wayne to me is the best rapper ever, so I'm not going to try to argue that Young Thug is better, but Wayne never had Thug's gift for melody or his range of pure vocal ability. Young Thug is a completely musical rapper, to the point where he pretty clearly doesn't care whether his lyrics are understandable or not. He cares much more about the instrumentation of rapping than he does about the English of it.
And Wayne is definitely paying attention, even if he wouldn't admit it. "Hollyweezy" is a pretty blatant (and unsuccessful) Young Thug imitation in my opinion.
Thank you Tom for the very nice review.
It's as clear as ever that Young Thug is rap's most gifted and most dazzling vocalist, maybe ever. His dexterity, his stamina, and his musicality are all beyond what anyone else is capable of. I'm not usually one to get excited about fast rapping, but when Thug starts going off as effortlessly as he does at the end of "Halftime," I can't help but just shake my head in awe.
Like other Young Thug projects, this one is full of sneaky ear worms, little pieces of melody that you'll catch yourself humming without even quite remembering which songs they're from. The changes in flow and tone are so dense that the songs can feel soupy on the first couple of listens. And the lyrics can fly by if you don't take a determined look, but occasionally what you find is a bizarre, idiosyncratic cleverness that is actually pretty poetic.
Still, I would have liked to have heard just a couple of tighter, snappier tracks to ground the album a little bit. The production style gives Young Thug a lot of room to play around in, but his bobbing and weaving can get frustrating at times. A more focused set of musical constraints might have provided the finish that all the spaced-out buildup deserves.
I liked Black Portland a lot and I thought Tha Tour had surprisingly little bloat considering its length, but I guess I understand your perspective. Young Thug to me is easily the most interesting rapper right now, and I agree that as he nears his peak we might be at risk of never hearing an album that really capitalizes on his full potential. Vince Staples is the other guy I have really high hopes for. I'm crossing my fingers that his next release will showcase his flow a little more than Hell Can Wait did.
And you remind me, I can't stand the constant over-enunciation of the word "fuck" on Run the Jewels. I get why people have fun with it but it just reads as cringingly juvenile to me.
Some of these are definitely way too bloated (Mac Miller, Zuse, Lil Herb, maybe Migos), and I really don't understand the appeal of that G-Side tape, but overall I like the list. I'm pretty surprised you put Pinata above Black Portland and a few of the others, given what you've been saying over the course of the year. I also would've liked to see Kool A.D. on here, but I didn't really expect him to be.
Run the Jewels is a conundrum for me. The production is definitely moving and unique, even if it's not exactly head-bobbable, but I just can't find much to get inspired by in the rapping. Lyrically, the album is built mostly as a popcorn punch-em-up, which I admit can be fun, but there are just too many vague middle fingers at "the system," and too many downright groaners (especially from El-P) for me to get into it. And yeah, Killer Mike told a cop story at a very fitting moment, but he did so with disappointingly little poeticism and at the same flatly angry emotional baseline that's used everywhere else on the album. Stylistically, the rapping is a grooveless, sexless reversion to a time before inflection and melody had made their way into rapper's tool kits. It's amazing to listen to Tha Tour, which has innovative cadences around every turn, and then listen to the same staccato fast-talking over and over on Run the Jewels. Even on "Love Again," the one attempt at something funkier, Mike and El-P just repeat the same exact flow throughout their entire two verses. Gangsta Boo outdoes them both with just a couple surprising change-ups. So, yes, they made an impressively cohesive, well-defined album, but I just don't think it's full enough or bold enough (they made a very similar album only last year, after all) to be treated with quite this level of praise.
Also, not to be nitpicky, but I think the guest verse you're referring to on "Cash" is by Archibald Slim. I'd guess that "AR" is just an acronym for Awful Records.
I've been liking these Awful Records mixtapes. So far I'd say Father has the standout release and the most novel approach, but Ethereal has a nice flow and a pretty likeable aesthetic. Archibald Slim's delivery veers a little too close to Freddie Gibbs for me, but I still enjoyed parts of his tape.
"Look" is on Kool A.D.'s solo album called WORD O.K., features Kassa, and was produced by Issue. "Jose Canseco" is on Peaceful Solutions and was produced by Kassa. That link is also broken.
Yes, it would have been good to hear some of Tom's on it, even if they're mostly negative. It feels like there hasn't been a really exciting rap release since the Vince Staples tape.
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