Review Summary: lsd
Throughout the past few years or so hip-hop's past has made a huge come back. The egos, compositions, and even the feel of the culture has taken a retro step back, while somehow managing to progress and further itself. Former Raider Klan rapper, Xavier Wulf, is setting himself apart, combing both the new age style with a vintage approach to his brand of hip hop, creating a unique anomaly within the culture. Elmo Kennedy (who I will refer to as Elmo Kennedy for the remainder of the review) also has a unique take on hip hop, although not nearly as successful in his sound as Xavier Wulf.
The sound on
ダサい is neat mixture of both of their styles. Part cloud rap and part southern style rap. The beats chosen by Xavier Wulf and Elmo Kennedy are top notch; producers like Friendzone, Eric Dingus and Sucide Year are able to present an eerie yet peaceful atmosphere. The lyrics and deliveries of both the rappers properly fit the album and showcase the best both have to offer. Xavier Wulf and Elmo Kennedy's lyrics are a little bit more meaningful than peers like A$AP Rocky or Spaceghostpurrp's. Xavier Wulf's vocals work well with the cold, desolate and dream-like production. However, his vocals become overbearing at a few points on the album; the "I got 87 dollars for some LSD" line is repeated way to many times and gets in the way of the aesthetic feel that the song is trying to convey. The lyrics are not a revelation (like most of the rappers in this scene) and it would have be great to see more innovation on this aspect of the album to fit with the instrumentals.
Similar to most releases by rappers in this scene,
ダサい drags towards the last few tracks. The shallow nature of the lyrics and the hazy sound of the instrumentals tend to blend together. But this is easy to forgive considering how strong the first half of this album is. But at the end of the day, Xavier Wulf and Elmo Kennedy have still managed to create a unique album by combining many of the currently popular hip hop styles like cloud rap, acid rap, and trap while at the same time looking to the past for inspiration.
Elmo Kennedy stupid bitch
