Review Summary: Who's on drugs?
A collaborative effort created by emo rapper Juice WRLD and southern hip hop star Future, WRLD On Drugs has incredible high points and pitiful low points. It's the epitome of a mixed bag, but you may come out of it with more things to like than to hate. I'll just start with the negatives, and get into the positives later.
First of all, I get the fact that Juice WRLD and Future are both pretty druggy rappers. And to be fair, you kind of know what you're getting into when you see the cover art and read the album title. However, these dudes (especially Juice) NEVER shut up about being on drugs. It's a vibe, I know, and said vibe does sound good at times when not forced into lyrics 24/7. You can't really go a single song without the utterance of the word "drug" worming its way into your ear canals. If you can't stand rappers like Lil Xan, Lil Peep, or any other notoriously drug-using artists, this album probably won't be for you. I'd also like to mention that while on paper Juice WRLD and Future shouldn't really have that great chemistry, they work pretty well together...sort of. Like most other things on WRLD On Drugs, their chemistry is INCONSISTENTLY good. They work really well together on the first few tracks, but for the rest of the album, guests usually take the spotlight from both Juice and Future. When they are the center of attention on later parts of the album, they don't have the same spark they seem to have on the first few tracks (from Jet Lag to Fine China). Don't know why.
That leads to the main problem with this album. EVERYTHING is inconsistent. EVERYTHING. From the tracklist to the features to, once again, Juice WRLD and Future's chemistry together, you can't point to one aspect of this album and say "This is always _____" without having to add a parenthetical afterwards. For example...
"The tracklist is really great! Except for the title track, Ain't Livin Right, etc..."
That being said, with every bad aspect of this album, there is a silver lining. While the tracklist is kind of inconsistent, the high points are outstanding! Songs like Jet Lag, Astronauts and Fine China could very possibly make my favorite hip hop songs of 2018 list come January 1st, and some features are really good, too! Nicki Minaj's appearance on Transformer kind of reminded me of the Rico Nasty song of the same name (which featured Lil Gnar, who also happens to have a knack for releasing inconsistent albums...weird...), and Young Scooter really made Jet Lag a better song. Of course, there are certain features that weigh down a song (Lil Wayne on Oxy and Gunna on Ain't Livin Right kind of suck), but the good outweighs the bad here. Once again, a recurring theme: as inconsistent as this album may be, something good always shines through in the end. You just have to trudge through some lame *** to get there.
As a whole, this is a good album. I would not be opposed to seeing Juice WRLD and Future work together in the future, as they seem to be a good duo that could totally release a great project. As of now, this COULD be a bit better than it is, but it is what it is. A fun listen with great standouts.
