Schoolboy Q – “CrasH”

Schoolboy Q – “CrasH”

We are two days away from the release of CrasH Talk, the new album from Los Angeles rap marauder Schoolboy Q, and we still have no idea how the thing is going to sound. First single “Numb Numb Juice” was a feverish two-minute attack. Second single “Chopstix” was relatively anemic radio-bait with a Travis Scott hook. And now Schoolboy Q has come out with a third track, an inward-looking meditation called “CrasH.” So who knows!

“CrasH” has a beat from first-tier Drake collaborator Boi-1da, and it does that Drake thing where Schoolboy vents furiously about his peers but makes it sound like he’s looking hard at his own rise: “Got my daughter that mansion / Gave my mother that million / Sold my soul to my feelings / Can’t go blind about these women.” (He also raps about finding inner peace while playing golf, which is new.) But it’s Schoolboy Q, so it still has that unstable intensity boiling beneath it, which makes for a pretty compelling combination.

Boi-1da’s beat flips the same sample that DJ Premier used on the 2002 Royce Da 5’9″ single “Boom.” But “CrasH” takes that beat and slows it significantly, giving Q plenty of room to ruminate. It’s yet another aesthetic direction for another new Schoolboy Q single, which is just slightly concerning. Schoolboy Q has never released a bad album, but all of his past albums work together as aesthetic statements. Here’s hoping CrasH Talk does the same. Listen to “CrasH” below.

CrasH Talk is out 4/26 on TDE.

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