fiveprestos

4y

He's at the point in his career where he's gotta start making songs that are good on their own merit, not this formula where he's balancing making trap-with-the-alien-flow mixed with boring obligatory boom bap songs. When I first heard never I thought we'd get a GKMC level album out of JID. I know nothing about JID after 3 albums, there's nothing interesting about him and at this point, that monotonous triplet flow/same boom bap flow he uses on every song reveals a lack of direction more than it displays his talents. Bruddanem gave us a small glimpse of what it could look like if he widened his scope as far as mic presence is concerned. He's tryna be a capital-A artist without honing the ability of giving songs a life of their own. "Woahh, interesting splice loop! Lets put a Kenny beats 808 on it and have jid go offfff on it!" Best song was Money even though that refrain was dead on arrival.

Even when he sings on Kody Blu 31, which is maybe top 5 on the album, he's not even saying s***.

Now I'll concede a bit of partiality tho bc I reeeeeally hate these boom bap beats where the whole track is sidechained to death, but this is the type of album people will rate a 7.5/10 because they're too insecure to call it what it is, a Born Sinner-tier 4.0.
Don't get me started on the stupid beat switches for no reason (ruined his best song with that bullshit how has he not learned).

All becomes obvious when Yasiin and Wayne wash the whole album.

His music is pushing hip hop forward to people who "see the potential" in NFTs

krishna bound

4y

i get the 7.5/10 criticism because that's valid but imo i think that speaks way more to the current music scene than it does this album specifically. like people skew in ratings so things that are a 7 usually means average instead of 5 statistically. but, most people have higher opinions on this album because they're listening to it comparative to other contemporaries and people really badly want ANYONE to be a breakout artist rather than breakout "entertainer". so people are a lot more willing to go to bat because they really want to relive that early 2010s "birth of the next generation of artists" era (which i don't think we're gonna see in the same way again).

i agree this isn't anything groundbreaking and i don't like everything on the album (like i said a few pages ago for exmaple, i couldn't stand the singles and knew based off of thsoe alone this wasn't gonna be a GKMC). but with that said, you know, i do think it's fair to give artists a chance w/o comparison to others. so i didn't expect a conceptual masterpiece or anything. that said, i don't know if i necessarily agree with you about him not saying anything. i think by comparison he is saying a decent amount it's just that like, his life isn't actually that interesting and he's retelling the same story every time throughout the album. like he had an okay upbringing, wanted to be a football star, got into college and tried to go pro, did bad things, went back to the struggle, then turned his life around through rap. that's one thing but he brings up the exact same story EVERY song, and it's just not that interesting of a story (no hate). so rather than knowing nothing, i feel like it's we know almost too much. and i think that's fine, not every artist needs to be from some troubled esoteric background that's woven into their songs. but, yeah, i get the criticism it's not interesting to hear over and over. like what does Better Days say topically that isn't already said on Crack Sandwich.

however i do also think its important to note resources are important, and like, he's still on Dreamville. Dreamville has an issue where the producer line-up and musical resources are just too small. their albums always have issues where they just sound too...similar. like Bas, Omen, Lute, etc. have different styles but it's always very same-y production. Even earthgang who tries to be more experimental still falls victim to this, and so does Cole, who is supposed to be their superstar. I do think if anything else, given what he has to work with in-house, he did a good job from that perspective, because vs other Dreamville albums I do think this stands out more than like, whatever the last Lute or Bas album was (no hate again i just legitimately don't remember because of this problem).

i don't get the NFT insult though tbh. if anything JID is way more like middle-tier but technically talented breakthrough artists of the mid 2000s. he's talented for sure, he's not running on fumes or scams or gimmicks, he really just needs better resources and someone to help guide his creative process. Dreamville CONSTANTLY makes this same album. I'm pretty sure Lute has 3 albums about "making it out the struggle and here's my life story too separately" over like half boom bap half atlanta production. Bas has one too. Don't even get me started on Cole there He just needs to evolve in that creative sense and I think Dreamville isn't helping

fiveprestos

4y

Agree with mostly everything, only two points I'll push back on are A.) its hard not to play the comparative game with JID when you can tell he compares every bar he writes to 3k and Kendrick, and B.) Its fair to clarify that having a formula =/ having a gimmick, but I think Dreamville brain poisoning is real when it comes to falling in line w those in-house producers, and I'm a bit more apathetic about the possibility of him linking with Madlib and making the best s*** of his life like logic did, or evolving as a songwriter like Vince did so well on Ramona. If we're being cynical then the best he may be able to do is link w Preemo to rap the same s*** he did over the boom bap beats from this album.

krishna bound

4y

i agree with A to some degree esp since hip hop is competitive(more than other genres too) but i do think it's not necessarily concrete to compare like the "style" of music per-se compared to the technical skill. like technical skill wise it makes sense to do comparisons and maybe there's more to say there, but artistically i don't know, feels more arbitrary.
with B yeah i more or less agree, which is what i was getting at, he needs a team around him that helps him formulate ideas and creative possibilities better than Dreamville. everyone on dreamville no doubt is dedicated and passionate but they just aren't it when it comes to fostering creative talent and uniqueness of artists.

blkswnoir

4y

Love to see the growth from Khaled “it’s not about that”
And JID saying lemme get on the next one

blkswnoir

4y

Love to see the growth from Khaled “it’s not about that”
And JID saying lemme get on the next one

krishna bound

4y

i get the 7.5/10 criticism because that's valid but imo i think that speaks way more to the current music scene than it does this album specifically. like people skew in ratings so things that are a 7 usually means average instead of 5 statistically. but, most people have higher opinions on this album because they're listening to it comparative to other contemporaries and people really badly want ANYONE to be a breakout artist rather than breakout "entertainer". so people are a lot more willing to go to bat because they really want to relive that early 2010s "birth of the next generation of artists" era (which i don't think we're gonna see in the same way again).

i agree this isn't anything groundbreaking and i don't like everything on the album (like i said a few pages ago for exmaple, i couldn't stand the singles and knew based off of thsoe alone this wasn't gonna be a GKMC). but with that said, you know, i do think it's fair to give artists a chance w/o comparison to others. so i didn't expect a conceptual masterpiece or anything. that said, i don't know if i necessarily agree with you about him not saying anything. i think by comparison he is saying a decent amount it's just that like, his life isn't actually that interesting and he's retelling the same story every time throughout the album. like he had an okay upbringing, wanted to be a football star, got into college and tried to go pro, did bad things, went back to the struggle, then turned his life around through rap. that's one thing but he brings up the exact same story EVERY song, and it's just not that interesting of a story (no hate). so rather than knowing nothing, i feel like it's we know almost too much. and i think that's fine, not every artist needs to be from some troubled esoteric background that's woven into their songs. but, yeah, i get the criticism it's not interesting to hear over and over. like what does Better Days say topically that isn't already said on Crack Sandwich.

however i do also think its important to note resources are important, and like, he's still on Dreamville. Dreamville has an issue where the producer line-up and musical resources are just too small. their albums always have issues where they just sound too...similar. like Bas, Omen, Lute, etc. have different styles but it's always very same-y production. Even earthgang who tries to be more experimental still falls victim to this, and so does Cole, who is supposed to be their superstar. I do think if anything else, given what he has to work with in-house, he did a good job from that perspective, because vs other Dreamville albums I do think this stands out more than like, whatever the last Lute or Bas album was (no hate again i just legitimately don't remember because of this problem).

i don't get the NFT insult though tbh. if anything JID is way more like middle-tier but technically talented breakthrough artists of the mid 2000s. he's talented for sure, he's not running on fumes or scams or gimmicks, he really just needs better resources and someone to help guide his creative process. Dreamville CONSTANTLY makes this same album. I'm pretty sure Lute has 3 albums about "making it out the struggle and here's my life story too separately" over like half boom bap half atlanta production. Bas has one too. Don't even get me started on Cole there He just needs to evolve in that creative sense and I think Dreamville isn't helping

Laced

4y

Definitely agree on that Dreamville sound. That's why I want the No ID joint

A E M 7

4y

Educate me on the No ID joint.

Did J.I.D talk about doing an album fully produced by No ID or something?

blkswnoir

4y

Love to see the growth from Khaled “it’s not about that”
And JID saying lemme get on the next one

krishna bound

4y

Yeah it was confirmed multiple times and it was supposedly going to drop before this (or in place of?) but it completely disappeared and nothing’s been heard since.

Also was supposed to be a concept album

blkswnoir

4y

Love to see the growth from Khaled “it’s not about that”
And JID saying lemme get on the next one

A E M 7

4y

Educate me on the No ID joint.

Did J.I.D talk about doing an album fully produced by No ID or something?

Laced

4y

Definitely agree on that Dreamville sound. That's why I want the No ID joint

Kako

4y

Kody Blu 3 - Sistanem best 3 track run in the album

sizzurpsteve

4y

Yeah this was a fire project it is a shame 2007 couldn’t make it at the end