Review Summary: Squirt Gun Kelly better lace up for a serious fall.
It’s a safe assumption Machine Gun Kelly knew exactly what he was doing when he came at Eminem with “Rap Devil”. After all, coming out with a diss track that’s aimed at Eminem is guaranteed to cause a stir amidst the rap and hip-hop communities simply because it's proven to be career suicide in the past. Releasing an EP shortly after the song is an obvious marketing ploy on his part, and certainly helps his name to get out there. Normally I wouldn’t entertain such an artist, given that I’d never heard of him prior to “Rap Devil”, nor would I have checked out
Binge going off his previous works; he’s a bog-standard rapper using all the glittery production ideas contemporary trap hoards are utilising these days, and little distinguishes him from the fact. But “Rap Devil”
is a good track. Auto-tune is kept to an absolute minimum, it’s raw, the beat is heavy and the chorus catchy. Compare this track to any one of MGK’s albums, or the artists he runs with, and it’s simply a breath of fresh air: he sounds hungry, sincere and his flow and the stripped back composition does all the talking for him. As a result, I was foolishly led into thinking MGK was taking a new creative direction, and reserved a little bit of anticipation for this EP. The spotlight is on him and it's time to gauge the calibre of his abilities.
The irony here is that
Binge is probably the worst release he’s ever put out, and signifies his impending fade into obscurity if this is what the
’Rap Devil’ has to offer us in the future. This 9-track EP is soaked in auto-tune from the get-go and made all the more obnoxious and exhausting as he subjects the listener to the same tired, hedonistic tropes the last 30 years of hip-hop has been spewing out time and time again. Don’t get me wrong, “LOCO” and “GTS” have glimmers of potential with their heavy beats and half-decent flows, but they get bogged down by eye rolling lyrics and clichés that thwart any promise being built up. At the EP’s absolute worst, you’ll come across “LATELY” or “SIGNS” which throw out egregious amounts of auto-tune, cheap hooks and piss-weak repetitious bars that grate after about 30 seconds of listening to them. But the biggest disappointment stems from the fact Kelly sounds completely drowsy, complacent and lacking in the same edge showcased on “Rap Devil”. Bar the track in question there’s not a single song here that matches that same level of aggression and approach in his writing, and that is a seriously missed opportunity. If you’re a fan of MGK’s work already this will still appeal to you, but for anyone else outside of that niche network of fans
Binge just highlights the 5 minutes of fame Kelly garnered from attacking Eminem, and will be quickly forgotten about thereafter.
FORMAT//EDITIONS: DIGITAL
PACKAGING: N/A
SPECIAL EDITION: N/A
ALBUM STREAM//PURCHASE: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/machine-gun-kelly/id465954501?app=itunes&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
