THESE DAYS... ALBUM REVIEW
See the thing about this dude is... I actually wasnt a huge fan at first... It actually took me until I listened to Control System and was enlightened to the amount of lyrical prowess this dude possessed... To be honest this dude probably is actually deeper lyrically than K. Dot... and that's saying something... anyone who knows me knows that's saying a lot...
So here we are in 2014 and pretty much any TDE fan has been waiting on this with great anticipation... And it is finally here...
Before I get started... I want to do something I havent done in any of my reviews before and mention the album cover... Now, I just want to talk about something I had the dissatisfaction of experiencing... This shit had and still has people uptight and offended and feeling disrespected all types of emotional over their religious views... Wars of words clashing and keyboards being brought to their utter limits just because of a picture... People were making sure strangers around the world knew what they felt about this album cover and then arguments about God and the big bang broke out and evolved into something to the point where it wasnt even about the album cover anymore... it was just a big mess... (if I ever find it again I'll post some screenshots)... The amount of bigotry and ignorant fury, in that forum, was something Im shamed to know exists but at the same time, I'm not surprised... But whatever... Moving on...
1. God's Reign ft. SZA - Vintage Soulo here... A great way to start off the album with the melodic voice of SZA... Just listening to his first five or six bars you can hear some examples of his lyrical prowess I was mentioning earlier... The song is about his low points and his high points in life and where God sits in his life... He also talks about the constant cycle in his life with money amongst other things... As I said before its a great way to start the album because of the meaning behind it and the consistency with his previous work...
2. Tree of Life - This was leaked long long ago, so if you havent heard it yet, I dont know where youve been... Honestly, its not hard to get what this song is about... Getting high but not just through smoking weed... Im pretty sure every song on this CD will have lyrical greatness and the wordplay will be superior so I'm done saying it after this point but it was...
3. Hunnid Stax ft. Mac Miller and ScHoolboy Q - THe party antHem for tHis album... If you know anytHing about Mac Miller and Quincy, tHat's wHat tHey like to do... This song is all about tHe good life and getting money... THis is wHere you start to realize tHat Soulo really is tHe least popular of tHe Black Hippy crew and needed to bring some serious features to get some attention to His album... Out of all of tHem He's the only one to ensure His teammates were all on His album... THats because of How "out tHere" his subject matter is... Needless to say His music isnt really for tHe average music listener... Its for tHe super open-minded critical tHinkers... THis is Him trying to attract a wider audience, wHicH is understandable. I mean wHo doesnt mind Hearing a Mac Miller mumble(otHer tHan me?) and a ScHoolboy Q adlib altHrougH tHe song? Also tHe Lana Del Rey(aka my goodness tHem lips) sample fits pretty well for tHe meaning of tHe song too... Let me know if I missed any "H's" Q...
4. Dub Sac - Before ya'll get any ideas... Ab-Soul tweeted this song isnt all about smoking weed... So its like symbolism instead or something like that... Nah... Its just a message to his competition of why theyre not on his level... Theres more to that, of course... but I gotta say its not my type of song... Although, I really liked the take your quarterback like McNabb line. Take your quater(of weed) back like McNabb which nab means taking...because he can afford all the weed he wants now. Not that crazy but I like lines like that...
5. World Runners ft. Lupe Fiasco and Nikki "Thank God not Minaj" Dean - Bruh...
Forreal though... Go run for president or emperor to this shit... Go buy a skyscraper and look down at the city...Go in a bar and fight everyone to this shit... This is some shit you hear while Rocky is chasing around chickens and running up some steps in Philly... This is the new eye of the tiger... this is the summer anthem for everyone and when I say everyone I mean me... GOOD LORD SOULO HOE YOU KILLED THEM WITH THIS... Ill be back in a few hours... Until then... Enjoy this...
Now that I'm done having a eargasm because of this shit... allow me to cover the amount of topics and references this dude and Lupe uses in this song to talk about running the world and shit; John Lennon, nursery rhymes, relationships, POSSIBLY the illuminati, Prince, egyptians and rich people schemes and Freddy Kreuger all in one line which also refers to the Prince reference in the last line... Im done... lol...thats just the first verse and a half... This song goes in... Then Lupe comes in and you can really hear where Ab-Soul gets a lot of his inspiration from... Im gonna move on before this looks like an obsession...
6. Nevermind That ft. Rick Ross - Cold... Ignorant... Rick Ross is always that... This is definitely for the people into that sort of shit... Like I said earlier though... Ab-Soul definitely went out of his way to make sure he had some quality features on this album... He wanted as many people to hear his message as possible...
7. Twact ft. Jinx and Short Dawg - I dont like this shit... Too I dont know what it is... I guess radio you can say? Shits straight wack and gay and all sorts of repugnant insults to the listener and this album...
8. Just Have Fun - At least this shit is just that...fun... Way better than that last song and better lyrics too. I mean it doesnt have completely the best message but its also saying make the best of your life... I cant be mad at that... Do your thing and enjoy it while youre at it... Its the lighthearted version of World Runners...
9. Kendrick Lamar Interlude -
10. Closure ft. Jhene Aiko - Favorite song on the album. The heart and soul and feeling he put into this is evident. This is about the past and present loves of his life. Ab-Soul's girlfriend died and this song is the continuance from Book of Soul. You can hear the suffering he went through with that and as a guy in a relationship and the extent of importance she is just speaks to me on so many levels. Damn Soul.
R.I.P. Alori Joh
11. Sapiosexual - J. Cole produced this shit and its pretty tight... Cant be mad it... If you dont know... Ab Soul's nickname is YMF short for Young Mind Fuck... This is about him using his mind to seduce women and why he acquired that name in the first place...
12. Stigmata ft. Action Bronson and Asaad - Man... this shits hot... I mean I really feel that Em should be on this it wouldve gotten Ab some attention and its just perfect for Slim Shady to go in on... However...I will say Action Bronson is one hell of a consolation prize and doesnt deserve to be slept on... Asaad did his thing too... This is probably the first song since the first or second that goes back to his normal type of music as you heard before on Control System... Lots of religious references...
13. Feelin Us ft. Jay Rock and Ravaughn - This has a nice easy bob your head to it and shines because of Jay Rock's verse... This is pretty much the 4th song hes on that he has taken over... This doesnt hit like the other ones UOENO, Money Trees, etc... However you can definitely tell that Jay Rock refuses to be the Tony Yayo of the crew if you know what I mean...
14. Ride Slow ft. Danny Brown - Its about time they get him in a song man... This shit is the darkest feeling track on the CD... Its not Terrorist Threats but its nice regardless...
15. WROH - We really out here my n*gga... You can hear him say it all the time... This is the song dedicated to that at first... Afterwards you get to hear a 17 minute battle with Daylyte which has some great gems here and there... Spoilers Daylyte won...
16. These Days - STRAIGHT SOUL Nothing ELSE!!!
17. Leak - I feel he was going for a sort of what anyone's shit sounds like when they first start rapping and music altogether... like trash... no point in reviewing this otherwise...
So that is it. I dont know if this really lived up to expectations but it was certainly a dope album... There were some low points in These Days but the pros outweigh the cons... Id listen to it again and I cant wait for his next piece of art along with any member of TDE... I'd rank it behind GKMC but ahead of Oxymoron...
-0.1 out of 10 Fuck black hippy...ya bish...
