Review Summary: Tory gets ambitious with the aping. Good for him.
As a reviewer of contemporary hip-hop and R&B music, I’ve been a bit hard on Tory Lanez. In a number of reviews, I’ve used him as an example of the most insidious and generic form of modern hip-hop. And to this point, his music has largely inhabited the space between
Future,
Travis Scott, and
The Weeknd (which is to say, an increasingly narrow space). This being the case, I was curious to see how a Tory Lanez full-length would look to distinguish itself from an album by, say,
dvsn or
Roy Woods.
I Told You answers that question very simply: it doesn’t. Surprisingly enough though, that may be its saving grace.
A look at
I Told You’s tracklist reveals an ambitious and bloated album with just as many “skits” as tracks. The skits themselves have Tory literally telling the listener the narrative context for the songs. This belies one of the album’s biggest strengths, which is the general flow and coherence of the songs. The production here is largely standard fare post-Weeknd trap with minor electronic flourishes. Because of this uniform production, the tracks would seemingly blend well together and create a nice flow if they were allowed to. But unfortunately, Tory feels it’s necessary to hold our hands through the whole album. It’s certainly commendable that he’s aiming for a
good kid, m.a.a.d city-style filmic narrative, but his “skits” lack the finesse or poetic nature of
Kendrick Lamar’s output (both GKMC and TPAB boast outstanding construction, making the poems, skits, and interludes necessary instead of superfluous).
Another problem that kills the narrative quality that Lanez aims for is his own general anonymity. As I’ve said of Lanez before, his vocals are equal parts Future, Travis Scott, and Drake. It’s the Roy Woods problem: people begin to know you as “that guy who raps like Drake” or “that guy who kinda sounds like Travis Scott” as opposed to Tory Lanez. Songs like “To D.R.E.A.M.” and “Flex,” meant to establish Lanez as a man with amazing talents who follows his dreams to the point of being homeless and penniless (he can’t even give his friend $10 for gas, as per the skit), sound like poor imitations of other rappers. “To D.R.E.A.M.” has Lanez pulling off the best Travis Scott I’ve heard since Rodeo. “4am Flex” is the same, though it boasts an impressively aggressive beat that could have lent itself well to Lanez’s more acrobatic flow (read: not his Scott impersonation, but his Future one). What’s more surprising (and doubly infuriating) is that the backend features none other than a Kendrick Lamar impression (complete with an interpolation of “The Art of Peer Pressure”).
There are many moments on
I Told You where Tory drops the veneer of being original or being decent in his own right and straight up bites other rappers’ flows or aesthetics. “Friends With Benefits” is straight-up Drake, even down to its icy
If You’re Reading This… production and whispery, pre-coital tenor. Just listen to the way he enunciates words like “side” or “want” and you’ll immediately recall “Jungle” or any other number of Drake tracks. “Cold Hard Love” samples Zayn’s “Lucozade” and features Lanez’s best attempt at being Zayn (who, on “Lucozade” was trying his damndest to be post-
Kiss Land The Weeknd). The second half of this track vaguely recalls the back half of “We’ll Always Have Paris” from Daniel Caesar’s “Praise Break.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.
The rest of the album proceeds in similar fashion. “LUV” apes Drake’s recent dancehall output (the beat is more “Controlla” than “One Dance” or “Too Good,” which is probably why it sounds so goddamn trite). You’ve heard “Say It,” and it’s no better or worse now that it’s got an album wrapped around it. “All the Girls” is just…I just can’t with this song. Again, horribly trite.
I have to give it to Tory Lanez though. He definitely
tried with this album. He synthesized a number of disparate and popular influences and tried to bring them together into something he considered to be distinct. That takes a deft ear and a lot of ambition, and that’s commendable. However, many of the tracks here sound like pale imitations of other folks’ albums. Some of it is well-done (the title track is very good, even if it doesn’t justify its 6 minute runtime), and some is absolutely insulting (“Cold Hard Love” and “4am Flex” ). The argument for this album’s existence is that same argument that could be made for the existence of
Sept. 5th or
Waking at Dawn. If you like this brand of innocuous, vacuous hip-hop, then you’ll appreciate this release slightly more than the year’s others. If
Views is your AoTY, then this album may give it a challenge. If not, then you can pass.
