Review Summary: Even in the over all terrible discography of Hopsin, this stands out as perhaps one of the worst.
I wanted to give this album time to sit with me, because the first time I listened to this I was really conflicted on what exactly I had to say about this whole thing. Every time a Hopsin album comes out, I genuinely try and give it a chance, and always hope he’ll finally drop something that is undeniably great, without all the filler, the trash, and the massive flaws that permeate even his good tracks. And on the first listen, I entertained the idea maybe it had. But I prefer to give anything that I want to give an opinion on a few listens. The new sound is needed and the most positive thing you can make a comment about on this album, because Hopsin never lacked the ability to get that whole,”Lyrical spiritual miracle” thing going on. The beats on a Hopsin album will turn you off it quicker than any of his redeeming qualities. The new sound can sound great, but unfortunately you can’t even start the album before one of the biggest issue starts up. The relationship gripes. Let me be clear, I don’t have an issue with artists talking about their relationships. But for christs sake this sounds like a Taylor Swift album with the whining from the minute you start it. The first three tracks essentially sum up the album, there are two types of songs on this, there are good songs, and there are terrible songs, most of the songs are in the former, and almost none of them manage falling into a grey area. Hotel in Sydney is the musical equivalent of listening to a friend harp on about his latest failed relationship. Right Here is fine, it’s about as good as it will get on this project, though frankly his lyrics hit a certain unpleasant chord because of their split between obnoxiousness and self glorification that detracts from the song, which was fine beyond that potentially ignorable gripe. Twisted is great, maybe not anything special, but it’s just a decent track that will give you a good sense of the tone of every track on this album except maybe Happy Ending.
It basically starts sucking after that. You get to that uncomfortable middle ground where you start getting angry break up songs one after another, than you have one of the worst tracks on the album, Money On The Side felt stuck in there as if he’s trying to interject the first thing he can into that space so the midsection isn’t one continuous break up song with different choruses, and the song is just annoying and boring. Really, the rest of the album becomes forgettable after this. That’s one of the biggest issues that he has on this album actually, that there is so much boring time wasting mixed into the the few tracks that will stick out in your mind, that it leaves more than just a bad taste in your mouth. You’ve got The Purge coming up somewhere in all of this relationship talk and forgettable filler, which is a stand out track. One thing you gotta give the man, he really picked the best songs from the album for his singles. I really like this song, the beat is great , and it’s a guilty pleasure, which come to think of it sums up Hopsin perfectly, a guilty pleasure you would never admit to nearly anyone that you take part in. Happy Ending is right after, and quite honestly I got a chuckle from it. There’s a lot of but hurt people out there who will harp on about how he’s a racist and an ass and a sexist pig and literally Hitler, but it was just a joke track made to be funny and edgy, and if you bother taking it with any level of seriousness, and you have to in order to care enough about anything done wrong, you're giving it far to much credit, it’s not worth the time to talk about, it’s just a throw away song that sounds like something off of Pink Season.
Now I want to spend the rest of this review or at least a paragraph addressing the worst track off the album, and the underlying problem with Hopsin in general. Ill Mind Nine is revoltingly bad. Not because that chorus makes me want to stick needles through my eardrums, not that cringy beat, not even that it’s just an especially venomous restatement of his previous bitching. It’s biggest problem is that he refuses to even entertain for a moment that he had a part in this relationship he won’t shut up about ending. There is not an ounce of introspection on this entire album, and the whole thing is one giant poor me story, devoted entirely to racking up sympathy and yelling insults at his ex. Every track on this album is bitter, and angry, and lacking in any self awareness. That leads us to the issue with Hopsin, and the core cause of every one of this man’s issues I’d wager. He’s a narcissistic asshole who condescends to everyone else. He has always been, and this album epitomizes his big issue as an artist, he’s just an unpleasant guy. So when I say I don’t like this album, it’s not that I find it disappointing he couldn’t have trimmed the fat on this project, it’s not that I wish he could have slimmed the relationship tracks down to a reasonable amount, it’s that he sits there for an hour, and tells you two things, he’s the best and is underappreciated, and all his problems are everyone else’s fault because it’s everyone else who are acting like assholes. Hopsin has always been held back by that at the end of the day. If you look past the bad beats, the bad delivery, and the often laughably bad lyrics, there’s one real issue that makes Hopsin suck, and everyone attributes the blame to the wrong thing. At the end of the day, this guy is a ***ing asshole, and there are no nicer words you can describe him with. Every other issue with Hopsin, is just another branch of him being an asshole who can’t improve much because he’s also a narcissist. And that makes me sad to an extent, because he really has the potential, or maybe it’s more accurate to say had the potential, to really be a great artist, and on every album you see the little glimpses of what might have been if he could shape up. But your always left with the disappointment that he squanders that potential. I really wanted to say to come back here after re listening to it and change my mind, and tell you he had finally released something great, but all this album is, is a testament to all the issues this guy has as an artist.
