Review Summary: Yung Kayo draws from newer hip-hop sounds on his new EP.
On this short and sweet EP from the Young Stoner Life camp Yung Kayo raps over knotty beats equal parts
Whole Lotta Red scraps and
Slime Language 2 sheen. The latter’s best sounds are clearly an outgrowth of Pi'erre Bourne’s work on
So Much Fun and Kayo’s performances hew closer to the lines drawn by YSL’s recent work than those obliterated by Playboi Carti’s experimentation. His voice is deeper and smoother than Carti’s (baby or hoarse) and he uses it in safer ways too, content to ride atop the beats and deliver quick chorus and verses. There’s repetition, of course, but none to the percussive extent on
Red or the preceding leaks. “new world” fails in its stab at Atlanta crooning while comically muffling the song before it even finishes. The other tracks all fare better, with Kayo slickly riding the stuttering, mechanical beats. Yak Gotti shows up, brutish, on the deranged “don’t miss” bringing the energy nearer to Thug’s insane peak. ...Maybe it’s a generational thing with Young Thug’s roster: I always thought the
Drip Harder duo sounded too much like Thug clones and with Gunna having settled into a supporting role and Lil Baby’s taken his watered down sound to glorious solo success perhaps the new kids (Kayo is 17) would take more inspiration from the more fractured sounds that have popped up recently. Whatever it is I’m excited about this new generation of rappers.
