Azealia Banks
Slay-Z


2.0
poor

Review

by Jade USER (17 Reviews)
April 30th, 2016 | 33 replies


Release Date: 2016 | Tracklist

Review Summary: her beats be better than she is

Azealia has never been a wordsmith. Even “212,” the anthem that launched Banks’ career, ran on her deliciously vicious vocal delivery rather than her lyricism. At her best, Banks crafts metric stanzas whose syllables pop and fizz, capturing the sonic lushness of MF Doom’s best verses but lacking their cleverness. Azealia’s standout tracks place her as a sassy captain over quirky, relentless dance grooves. The instruments do the heavy lifting as far as dynamics and detail go while Azealia’s flow provides a backbone; it’s a strange inversion of the usual hip-hop style.

Slay-Z finds Azealia further retreating away from the role of rapper towards the role of pop-vocalist. Quotable lines are few and far between (“My pussy wetter than the Great Lakes” is actually the only line that stood out to me during my repeated listens) and on several tracks, Azealia simply sings instead of rapping. Banks’ singing voice has always been strong, but the painful lack of content or originality in her lyrics prevents it from being anything more than functional.

And that’s a shame. Slay-Z boasts some of strongest instrumentals in recent hip-hop, bouncing from the glittering, icy trap masterpiece of “Big Talk” to the stone-cold UK Dubstep of “Can’t Do It Like Me” to the wild Anamanaguchi-cum-Basement Jaxx twister of “Queen of Clubs.” While each instrumental twists and turns without a hitch, Azealia’s store-brand generic lines paint her as a bore even when her voice sounds like gold. Perhaps she’s exhausting all her personality on her ridiculous twitter-rants; hopefully she can harness that attitude in the future and create a record that demands to be listened to. The poor beats deserve better.



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user ratings (39)
2.7
average


Comments:Add a Comment 
Asdfp277
April 30th 2016


24309 Comments


i disagree hard on the quality of her voice (her talking-cum-singing is just acceptable rather than excellent), but what a great review lol

pos'd :]

Zettel
April 30th 2016


661 Comments


Effective, to the point and well written. I totally see where you are coming from. Have a pos.

Sinternet
Contributing Reviewer
April 30th 2016


26579 Comments


ahh nice a short snappy review instead of random waffle good job

don't care at all for this woman or her sucky opinions

Asdfp277
April 30th 2016


24309 Comments


yeah azealia went from kinda charming to complete bitch w/ her twitter bullshit lol

SitarHero
April 30th 2016


14703 Comments


Surprised at the quality of her singing. She's seems like a much better singer than MC at this point.

SitarHero
April 30th 2016


14703 Comments


Also, what's up with the minimalist cover of this album and Affinity? Is that the new thing?

Asdfp277
April 30th 2016


24309 Comments


the artwork for this is awful, and yeah what happened to her

SitarHero
April 30th 2016


14703 Comments


Something something white people probably.

SitarHero
April 30th 2016


14703 Comments


Damn mods. That's a bit better. Pos for the review btw.

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


I still love Angel Haze's diss @ azealia lmao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvtRKhNf9gs

furyroad97
May 1st 2016


552 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

More proof Azealia Banks is one of the most frustrating acts in modern hip hop for me. And her personality in real life doesn't help.

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


i loved all the disses on it, bitch held nothing back lol

brandontaylor
May 1st 2016


1228 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

good review but i disagree. shes always drawn me in more with her beats, flow and voice rather than her lyrics themselves. i dont think there are any bad tracks on this

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


"good review but i disagree. shes always drawn me in more with her beats, flow and voice rather than her lyrics themselves. "

that's literally what the reviewer said

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


he probably meant that her low quality bars don't hinder his enjoyment of this, but on that you both just disagree without more discussion to be had tbh

brandontaylor
May 1st 2016


1228 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah i meant that because its not what i mostly enjoy about her music, i can look past a lack of good lyrics on this. probably couldve been more clear

Lord(e)Po)))ts
May 1st 2016


70239 Comments


moar liek Stay-A(way) amirhgiet

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


would rather have them beats with another rapper tbh

Calc
May 1st 2016


17342 Comments


every time i hear about something this chick says it's something dumb

Asdfp277
May 1st 2016


24309 Comments


that's no coincidence



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