Review Summary: emotional fun in the age of the internet
There’s something fascinating about witnessing a new genre come into fruition, develop, and mold itself into something almost indistinguishable from its founders’ intentions. Within hip hop, there’s been this explosion of trap/cloud rap with punk-leaning aesthetics, and over the past few years this sector of rap has expanded into many unexpected corners. The genre can now be categorized in many ways: the leaned-out, sadboi rap (Lil Uzi Vert, Yung Lean), the gritty, emotional aggro-rap (XXXTentacion), and the lo-fi, wailing emo-rap (gothboiclique). Although these rappers and crews have been thriving in the underground, as of recently the “emo” tag has been popularized in the rap community, with people even going as far as to claim that Drake is an emo rapper (he’s not, by the way). So where do Danger Incorporated fall within this fucked up emotional bullshit?
Truth be told they’re all over the place, and in more ways than one. While their strain of dark pop music falls in between the cloudy rap beats of a
Wicca Phase and the rap-sing leanings of a
nothing,nowhere., the motif engraved within this album is a sexually frustrated mess. On ‘Forever’, Louie Dufflebags confesses, “
When I was in the seventh grade, I fell in love with a girl // I'm almost 20 years old, and I'm still in love with this girl”. And while a lot of 20-something year-old guys like myself can relate to having a childhood crush that they still hold feelings for, blatantly proclaiming that you want to “
fuck like it’s 2003” is entirely awkward and borderline unnecessary. Yet, that’s the reoccurring theme within this album: modernized ramblings of disheartened adolescents. Asking if “
we can fall in love on the internet?” is only a question of the times if anything, and the idea of capturing the confusion between online lust // love is somewhat charming regardless of the obscene and forlorn language.
Despite their best efforts (or worst efforts, it’s hard to tell) in the lyric department, this 7-song album would be nothing without the sparkling backing beats. Single and highlight ‘Diamonds’ showcases the intoxicating nature of the addictively floating beats, allowing for the production to electrify its melodious chorus. Whether it be swelling synths or odious samples, as seen in ‘Graveyard’,
Are You Afraid of the Danger Boys clearly shows that it is more than competent at making an adroit beat to accompany these sadbois. Lone banger ‘Golden’ sees second member Boothlord at his most fervent, and the bellowing bass hits complement and amplify his vocal performance. While this is a modern tale of fantasies from two guys in desperate need of sexual gratification, the album’s aroma is a dark, emo-tinged journey into cotton candy cloud trap. This is an assessment of today’s pop culture and society’s views on sex, whether it intends to be or not, and although it’s a
fun album to listen to, it transcends past its own emotional noise. So don’t tune it out.
