Fetty Wap - "Up Next"

[StevePulaski]

Up Next (2014)
By: Fetty Wap

Rating: ★★★

The two hip-hop artists that deserve credit for bringing trap music to the Top 40 radio stations, whilst adhering to the genre's principles of gritty, vulgar lyrical content, are Bobby Shmurda ("Hot N****") and Fetty Wap. Fetty became an overnight sensation at the beginning of the year with his infectious, trap/R&B-infused banger "Trap Queen," a song that, despite its explicitly detailed lyrical content about manufacturing dope and cocaine, made it onto the radio and etched itself into the mainstream (hearing the censored version performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! still makes me laugh).

Up Next, Fetty's debut mixtape, is a brief profile of what the artist can do, merging the slurred, gangsta-rap of Chief Keef with the R&B, almost jazzy sounds of singers like Ne-Yo. We kick off with the song most of us know and enjoy and it reminds us that, while whatever we hear on this mixtape might be great, it has a small chance of living up to the strength and infectious power of "Trap Queen." Following up the hit single, however, are some great successors to the single's success, such as "679," which sounds very similar to the aforementioned hit only with a lot more lyrical variety and "Make It," a song that has Fetty taking on a different kind of floor, more of a spoken word/rap blend that works for the most part, but really kicks in around the chorus. Fetty gets creative on "Wap Thru," his own personal rendition of Rich Homie Quan's cocky anthem "Walk Thru," where Fetty raps such hilarious lines as "I be yellin' out 'squad' when I walk thru, got some bitches on the side totin' guns too," continuously building on the groundwork laid by Quan in that song. It may not come with the Montana of 300 surprise of often besting the original song, but it's still a fun remix of an underrated song.

Wap's weakness on Up Next are his freestyles, which become long-winded as they droll on for an upwards of four minutes each. "M.I.A. Freestyle" and "Barz" are fairly lackluster attempts at treading the "bars"-heavy mixtape territory that so many rappers go for today. Wap is, for lack of a better term, more of a "ringtone rapper," known for catchy instrumentation and memorable lines and flows that amount to superb club tracks. This kind of style could potentially blend with more gangsta rap songs, but Wap doesn't choose to venture into that here. He stays confined to club hits, freestyles, and the occasional love track (the so-so "Instagram") that usually work in his favor but sometimes fail him.

Up Next feels like the beginning of a long, prosperous career for Fetty, if he remains true to his sound and continues to find inventive flows to work with. His style of rap is one that's often mocked due to its mainstream nature, but to see nearly uniform praise for "Trap Queen" leaves me optimistic that he'll stick to this style and continue making songs of the like. But whether people like it or not, we're going to see more of Fetty and his Remy Boyz very soon.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Trap Queen," "Wap Thru," "679," "Make It," and "Throw it Back."