Review Summary: Devin the Dude; lost in his thoughts, yearning for a purpose as the rest of the world passes him by.
When Devin Copeland released his debut album
The Dude in 1998, stoners looking for a mellow southern/psychedelic sound found their hero. With the follow up
Just Tryin’ Ta Live, Devin established himself as one of the important rappers to come from Houston, a city with an already impressive cache. A decade later, we find him in the point of his career where he searches for a wider sound, but remains complacent.
Seriously Trippin, composed of the regular Devin specialty, is his first such composition that has an identifiable theme; that being: sex, sex and some more dirty ***ing sex. The EP is an “ode” to the females that Devin so infallibly wants to pleasure and fornicate with. From the xylophonic smooth grooves of
You’ll Be Satisfied to the beeping, slightly boom-bap inspired
Dat Nigga Dere Copeland is determined to let all the ladies within his reach know that just because he likes to partake in recreational drugs, doesn't mean he won't be there to make them feel good.
While the hedonism is fine and even comically satisfying at times, Devin seems more creatively schizophrenic than he has ever been. ‘Exercise’ seems to come out of nowhere, disrupting the groovy flow of the album. Not tongue-in-cheek or even vaguely misleading, it sees him just simply encouraging the people to get up and exercise. The interlude
Stay Hard is almost 2 minutes in length and a minute too long. The closer
420 Highway is the only track that conforms to the norms we expect from Devin, but on the EP just seems weirdly out of place.
Devin the Dude has always been consistent, never releasing a bad project, but there's only so much he can do without regurgitating the same ideas. With a new generation of weed rapper coming out of the woodworks, we see Devin Copeland lost in his thoughts, walking the road, yearning for a purpose as the rest of the world passes him by.
