The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Rap

  • Music of the Moment 9

    Music of the Moment 9

    A week after dropping his third album “Welcome to O’Block” and finally receiving national recognition for his talent as a storyteller, Chicago Drill rapper King Von was shot and killed outside an Atlanta night club in the early hours of Nov. 6. Von is the only the most recent of many tragedies to damage the hip-hop community in the past few years.

    The recent trend of young artists in the genre passing away began in Nov. 2017 when punk-rock trap rapper Lil Peep suffered a fatal overdose. The tragedies started to stack when controversial rising superstar XXXTentacion was shot several times for a designer bag in his home state of Florida in June 2018, and with the overdose of hip-hop’s fun younger brother Mac Miller less than three months later.

    The industry mourned again when Nipsey Hussle was murdered in March 2019. His death came less than a month after losing his first Grammy nomination for best rap album, having spent the better part of a decade and a half releasing music independently without mainstream recognition. Given Hussle’s revered legacy in the game, his death shook the industry harder than any of the others and inspired several tributes including “Letter 2 Nipsey” by Meek Mill and Roddy Ricch, “Nipsey Blue” by Snoop Dogg and “The Marathon Continues” by Dave East.

    The year 2020 has been extraordinarily unique in hip-hop. Given the circumstances of the pandemic that prohibit touring, the artists that have had the most success this year are unfortunately no longer with us. Following their extremely brief moments in the spotlight, the sudden passing of Juice WRLD and especially Pop Smoke propelled interest in their music to heights unseen by the others who recently passed. Since their albums were released in the first two weeks of July, followed up by the deluxe version of Smoke’s album on July 20, both Smoke’s project and WRLD’s new album remain in the top five of the Billboard 200 chart four months later. WRLD’s previous albums “Goodbye and Good Riddance” and “Death Race For Love” also saw dramatic spikes in sales following his overdose, meanwhile, Smoke received heavy criticism for his mixtape “Meet the Woo 2” sounding too similar to the original project. Smoke unfortunately didn’t live long enough to smell the flowers WRLD already got a taste of from his first two albums.

    The victory laps WRLD and Smoke experienced with their posthumous albums haven’t been the case across the board. Going all the way back to The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, posthumous projects have had an often negative association. While some artists like Peep and Miller leave behind enough material to piece together complete ideas, in other cases, record labels are only cashing in on any remaining threads of ideas they have to work with. XXXTentacion’s legacy in particular was considerably tarnished by the release of his two posthumous albums “SKINS” and “Bad Vibes Forever,” each obviously incomplete and paling in comparison with the albums he released while he was alive.

    The worst part about posthumous music is we never know when it’s going to be the last time we hear from an artist. The extended silence from Hussles’ camp regarding new music should come as a bittersweet comfort to fans who can rest easy with confidence that any music released will be both complete and compete with anything Hussle released in the past.

  • The Overnight Sensation is Back at It Again

    The Overnight Sensation is Back at It Again

    DaBaby releases his third album in 13 months, “BLAME IT ON BABY”

    Capitalizing on a unique sound and unique circumstances, with COVID-19 providing more available listeners than ever before, DaBaby is flooding the market—a strategy that’s proven most useful to artists like Lil Wayne and Young Thug in the past. Coming less than seven months after his previous effort, “KIRK,” and only a year after his extremely successful debut, “Baby on Baby,” DaBaby has returned with his third album, “BLAME IT ON BABY.”

    Since his introduction to mainstream hip-hop with his platinum-hit-record, “Suge,” DaBaby has kept his name relevant in the media with a string of negative headlines, most recently “accidentally” slapping a female fan. Despite the negative nature of these incidents, each headline only seems to contribute to his success.

    A great deal of DaBaby’s launch into the mainstream can be credited to arguably the most impressive feature run from a rookie, landing himself a verse on songs with the likes of Chance the Rapper, J. Cole and Post Malone and playing a standout role on each of the associated albums. This earned DaBaby the attention of hip-hop fans everywhere.

    “He’s just different from everybody else—his style, the way he goes about it. I just like him cause you can never tell what direction he’s gonna go with it.”

    Jesus Ontiverof, College of the Redwoods student

    Although nothing on “BLAME IT ON BABY” is as personal as “Intro” from “KIRK,” DaBaby switches up the vibe in the second quarter of the album, revealing his emotional side while he sings on “SAD SH*T,” “FIND MY WAY” and “ROCKSTAR.”

    “BLAME IT ON BABY” is still mostly filled with the party music that we expect from DaBaby, with raw lyrics about guns, girls and guap laid over high-energy beats intended to be played at high volumes.

    Jesus Ontiverof plans to transfer to Humboldt State University after completing the nursing program at College of the Redwoods. As a casual fan of DaBaby, Ontiverof enjoys all his music.

    “He’s just different from everybody else—his style, the way he goes about it,” Ontiverof said. “I just like him cause you can never tell what direction he’s gonna go with it.”

    “A lot of his music sounds the same, which is kind of a bummer. But I do like some of his shit when he mixes it up.”

    Jay Coch, kinesiology major

    HSU kinesiology major Jay Coch has a different view and experience with DaBaby’s music.

    “A lot of his music sounds the same, which is kind of a bummer,” Coch said. “But I do like some of his shit when he mixes it up.”

    Even though Coch wasn’t eagerly awaiting the new release, he can’t knock the hustle.

    “For him, it seems like he’s being pretty successful putting out a lot of music,” Coch said. “A lot of people like that. They’re like ‘Drop more music, drop more music,’ but it would be cool [if] he took a little more time and really mixed it up and thought about his lyrics more, and actually put himself out there as a musician more than just a big name in the rap industry.”

    Despite having its moments on the song “ROCKSTAR,” with a feature from the other hottest new name in rap, Roddy Ricch, and another feature on the song, “NASTY,” with DaBaby’s biggest featured guest to date, Ashanti, “BLAME IT ON BABY” is easily his most forgettable album yet.

  • Joyner Drops Disappointing Debut

    Joyner Drops Disappointing Debut

    Grammy-nominated rapper Joyner Lucas shares his debut album, “ADHD,” with the world

    Joyner Lucas, the 31-year-old rapper, first caught traction with his 2015 music video, “Ross Capicchioni.” In the video, Lucas reimagined the true story of a gang initiation gone wrong that nearly claimed the life of a high school student.

    The video’s success can be attributed to the unique strategy Lucas chose, taking on both the perspective of the victim and the criminal. Lucas has managed to keep his name relevant over the years with a string of viral music videos, including the critically praised “I’m Not Racist” and the polarizing “Devil’s Work.”

    Humboldt State University alumnus De’Aundray Gooden has been a fan of Lucas since “Ross Capicchioni.”

    “I think he brings a lot of awareness to certain subjects people don’t feel comfortable talking about,” Gooden said.

    Gooden’s favorite Joyner Lucas songs are “I’m Sorry” and “Devil’s Work.” The first track follows a suicide note as it’s being written into the hands of the victim’s brother or cousin. In the latter song, Lucas calls out to God, questioning his choices in the young men and women he’s chosen to take.

    “We don’t pay attention to people until they die,” Gooden said. “We need to pay attention to the people who are alive, and appreciate them for what they’re doing now.”

    Lucas also racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube over a short series of remixes, between 2016 and 2018, and eventually caught the attention of rap god Eminem. Lucas secured a spot on the highest performing song from 2018’s “Kamikaze,” “Lucky You.” The high-tier rapping ability that earned Lucas the legendary co-sign has also contributed to beef with platinum-selling rapper Logic and R&B singer Tory Lanez. The beefs have since been squashed, both resulting in gained exposure and new content, including the third single from “ADHD,” “ISIS,” featuring Logic.

    HSU’s soccer goalkeeper, Tab Heinz, is a fan of old school hip-hop, and appreciated Lucas’ meaningful lyrics and authentic sound.

    “I appreciate the older stuff a little bit more than the newer stuff,” Heinz said. “I like the older style of making music. He has a super cool flow and rhyme scheme. I like the way he doesn’t sound too mainstream. He kinda has more of the underground style.”

    Lucas followed up “ISIS” with the rags to riches track, “Broke and Stupid.” The song paints a picture of all the hard work that has paid off for Lucas. With no chorus, it still competes for best song on the album. Apparently unready to release the project, Lucas proceeded to drop five more singles over the next nine months, at least three of which would’ve been better off left for the album.

    Just two days before the release of “ADHD,” Lucas dropped his ninth single, “Will,” along with another viral music video paying homage to Will Smith. With four skits on the album, including voicemails from Chris Tucker and Kevin Hart, Lucas left fans with a total of five new songs out of 18 on the album.

    Fans were given hope, with features from R&B legend, Chris Brown, industry favorite, Young Thug, and veteran-rapper, Fabolous, that “ADHD” would deliver. Unfortunately, out of the five new songs, only the “I Lied” intro track lives up to the hype. Brown and Thug’s features on “Finally” and “The War” are the most memorable moments of the remaining new tracks.

    After two years of waiting, as Tucker points out in his skit, and with how much of the project we had already been teased leading up to the official release, the anticipation for “ADHD” worked to its detriment. Despite Lucas arguably not producing a bad single, anything less than greatness from all of his new efforts on the album would’ve been a letdown. With most of the new content generating nothing to write home about, fans will be disappointed. Those just now discovering Lucas are much more likely to enjoy what “ADHD” has to offer.