Written Before Listen
So if you don’t know, Young Thug and Gunna are Atlanta rappers being prime innovators of the current state of mainstream hip hop. Personally, I like Young Thug. Jefferey is one of the best mixtapes of all time without a doubt and both “Pick Up The Phone” and “good times (I Know There’s Gonna Be” (which both feature Young Thug) are two of my favorite songs of all time with him being the main reason why. Although, It doesn’t mean that he can come off decent or underwhelming at points. Gunna on the other hand, I’m not a fan of. I liked “Drip Too Hard” and “Skybox” was dope too but I mainly saw him as boring and one-dimensional. With that being said, let’s see if Young Thug, Gunna and company give us a good project.
Similarities & Differences
First off, this album is 8 tracks and 20 minutes longer than the original Slime Language. There are also wayyyy bigger features. Other than that, it’s a similar concept. It’s still the boastful trap music that the YSL roster is known for. It’s also containing a lot of filler like the original SL did too.
Features
Let’s start by talking about the YSL roster because basically everything I said about their performance on Slime Language applies here. Every member still comes off underwhelming. Although, I should mention two YSL members that came with strong performances. Yak Gotti and his contributions were all aggressive and ear-grabbing. Yung Kayo despite a couple of underwhelming performances also came with some nice contributions too. Now let’s talk about the big names. Both Lil Uzi and Lil Baby return again and despite Lil Baby delivering a forgettable verse, Lil Uzi comes with the best hook on the album without question. Now the new guests. We first get Travis Scott on “Diamonds Dancing” where he delivers his usual (which is a good thing). We then get the most talked about track on here “Solid” with Drake and he really fits the beat, coming out with a memorable feature. On “Warrior” we get the predictable monotone and cringey Big Sean verse….that I’d rather not talk about. Speaking of monotone, NAV starts off a a streak of good features with his delivery actually working pretty well on “Pots n Pans”, Skepta is next bringing something new to the table on “WokStar” and Future then killing it on “Superstar” which is a track that I think will have a lot of listeners hitting the skip button. It won’t stop me from personally liking it though. I don’t know what it is about it, but Future experimenting with his vocal inflections is something I want to hear more of in the future (see what I did there?). The big name features unfortunately loses its streak with YNW Melly’s excruciating feature on “Really Be Slime” but fortunately goes up quickly with Cudi and Meek Mill both bringing top tier performances on here. Overall, YSL members underwhelming and big names (in most instances) deliver.
Production
There are 3 types of tracks on here. One instance is a good beat with goof contributions which is probably the least common on this album. Songs like “Ski”, “WokStar” and “That Go!” are examples of that. The second instance is when a beat hits but the features match it in the worst way possible. Songs like “Real”, “Warrior” and “Trance” would be some examples. The last one of course is having an underwhelming performance over an already underwhelming beat. Examples of these type of tracks would be “I Like”, “Really Be Slime” and “Como Te Llama”.
Young Thug & Gunnas Performance
Let’s start off by saying that Gunna surprisingly comes with some great performances on here. A lot of these beats fit will with Gunna and his delivery really contrast well from the rest of the YSL roster. Thug despite coming with some really strong performances himself does come off inconsistent at points. Especially in the middle of the tracklist where majority of my least favorite tracks occur.
Favorite Tracks
Luckily with a 23 song tracklist, I did come out of this album with a few tracks worth revisiting. First off, I loved the song “Proud Of You”. I loved Uzis hook, the beat was super charming and it was the purest form of an outlier on this album. I also liked the first two tracks as well because with an album like this, you gotta have the best tracks opening it all up. Also (like I mentioned in the feature section) I liked “Solid” a good amount, “WokStar” a good amount, “Moon Man” a good amount and “Superstar” yep…you guessed it. A good amount. With that being said, This album could’ve been pretty good if it was half the length. Instead it’s oversaturated with insanely forgettable and grading trap songs.
Verdict
Honestly, I came into this album thinking I would hate it but it’s actually better than the first Slime Language. It still doesn’t mean I came out liking this. This was a pretty difficult listen and I had to portion out the best tracks on here to truly finalize my verdict
4/10
Previous Review:https://www.247otb.com/post/young-thug-young-stoner-life-slime-language-album-collaboration-review