Review Summary: An appealingly sloppy mixtape.
Rap has had, and probably will always have, wild and excessive characters. This character or group will usually have large amounts of persona, ego and flair, whether it's ODB screaming and shouting his way out of speakers on Enter the Wu-Tang or Biz Markie singing about enthusing girls with 9/10 pants and a very big bras, it's always been in hip-hop and rap music. It’s more prevalent in today's hip-hop scene than ever before with rappers like Lil B and Riff Raff mumbling and fumbling over trunk-rattling, synth heavy beats.
Trinidad Jame$’ debut mixtape
Don’t Be S.A.F.E. is a mess, an appealing sloppy mess, but a mess all the same. It's like Tommy Wiseau's cult classic,
The Room, you know it's bad but you can't look away. While this mixtape is certainly not the
Shawshank Redemption of the bunch, the attention Jame$' has been given for his unexpected hit single, “All Gold Everything” and criticism he has been given for wearing animal print in the video and it's basic approach, both lyrically and beat wise, it seems like that song would be a worthy addition to the excessive side of hip-hop's hall of fame. But once you dig further into Jame$ music, you begin to feel that the minimalism and his whole style is just laziness, nothing more.
As mentioned before, the lead single, "All Gold Everything", has a simplistic beat, one that utilizes a three-note guitar riff that, according to Jame$, sounds like a James Bond theme song or Nintento 64, a few funny lyrics, and a slow, catchy chorus; but the track doesn't do much other than that. Throughout the rest of,
Don’t Be S.A.F.E., Jame$ just recycles his lyrics over and over again, rapping and ranting on about his jewelry and forces out a few references about pop-culture. There is 0% meaning to anything that he’s rapping about. Although there are a small amount of times when Jame$ attempts to rap about something other than molly, money and women, but these moments usually come off as incredibly boring and simplistic.
The real reason why Jame$ is popular is not because of his lyrical skills or beats it all has to do with his image. Sure he lacks skills on the mic, but Trinidad Jame$ is basically everything you would expect from this type of rap music. With this type of rap it all comes down to your image and it is something that Trinidad Jame$ has for sure.
