Post by StevePulaski on Feb 19, 2015 19:08:57 GMT -5
Sorry 4 The Weight (2015)
By: Chief Keef
By: Chief Keef
Rating: ★★½
In my mind, it was even more necessary for Chicago rapper Chief Keef to release a mixtape titled "Sorry 4 The Weight/Wait/Waite/W8," or what have you than it was for Lil Wayne to release a sequel mixtape to his own Sorry 4 The Wait due to the delay of his forthcoming studio album Tha Carter V. Since he released his 2014 mixtape Back from the Dead 2 on Halloween, Keef had stated that four additional mixtapes were in the works with set releases during November, December, January, and February. Predictably, none of them were release, as Keef's specialty besides smoking marijuana is announcing projects and never coming through with them on time or giving adequate reasons as to why they were delayed.
We can kind of feel some resemblance of honesty when Keef apologizes, not nearly as much as Wayne did on his own Sorry 4 The Wait 2, as Keef's latest mixtape includes a handful of spoken-word introductions to tracks, which work to demystify the nineteen-year-old drill rapper who has shaken the streets of Chicago since he came on the scene in 2011. In these concise prefixes to his songs, Keef talks about fans' desires to hear "Old Sosa," the colloquial name given to his original sound, which was prominent on his mixtape Back from the Dead and his debut studio album Finally Rich. Keef immediately states that style is dead and gone, as he was seventeen-years-old then and now he is "six-thousand-years old, grown up, gloed up (referencing his Glo Gang label)," and is hellbent on trying new styles and experimenting. He has been this way since the release of his mixtape Bang (Part 2) in 2013, but frankly, between that and Sorry 4 The Weight, I saw nothing more than two mediocre mixtapes and one abhorrent digital album.
Sorry 4 The Weight is the first tolerable release by Keef since Bang (Part 2), and by tolerable, it means I'll likely three or four of the eighteen tracks on my phone for recurring listens. That right there is an enormous leap forward in my book, after several dead-on-arrival projects that brewed nothing more than frustration. Give Keef credit for persistent experimentation and his desire to challenge his craft, but fairly criticize him for releasing music that sounds either poorly mixed, annoyingly choppy, incredibly lazy, or a combination of all three traits.
The mixtape features a barrage of in-house production and very few features (one from a rapper named "Benji Glo" and another from MTV's star from yesteryear Andy Milonakis on the perplexing song "Hot S***," which isn't even good enough to be a novelty track), making this album equally about Keef as Back from the Dead 2 was. Intermixed with a great deal of guttural tunes that lack any kind of remarkable, noteworthy characteristics are songs like "Vet Lungs" and "Send it Up," where Keef experiments with a brazen and higher-pitched autotune that greatly works in the favor of him and the respective production (the former produced by the ambiguous GGP, the latter produced by the equal questionable "Chopsquaddj"). Other tracks like "5AM" and "Win" may be repetitive, but they evoke more infectious and playful styles than the deplorable, unabashedly lazy songs Keef was dolling out on his digital album Nobody or the muchness that plagued Back from the Dead 2.
However, there's still some stupidity on this tape in terms of lyricism. On his last mixtape, Keef would keep referencing how he'd smoke on "cat piss" and other downright childish lyricism, and here, there's a bit more of the same. Consider the track "Get Money," an okay release, which has Keef spitting in the middle of name-dropping Gucci and Louie Vuitton "I like blue cheese with my chicken nuggets." Questionable lyrical inclusions like that echo some of the moronic lyrics Soulja Boy would rap, specifically in his song "Hey You There," which would totally derail everything he conjured up on the same album. It's as if Keef gets in a freestyling mindset during his songs and simply says whatever comes to mind, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense or adheres to the hard, unfeeling gangsta image he has worked to paint for himself.
Sorry 4 The Weight is a blend of some of the dismissible lean-induced cloud-rap Keef has been toying with recently, mostly to forgettable and droning effect, and a nice, welcomed drill edge that serves as a nice return to form from all the experimental nonsense. While I normally encourage artist experimentation, Keef's definition of experimentation seems to strive from complete and total randomness that doesn't reflect his alleged hardwork, but rather, a tone deaf laziness that spills over onto the entirety of his releases, making them seem rushed and showing poor mixing as an evident detractor. Luckily, despite being hosted by DJ Holiday, Holiday is notably quieter than he was on Bang (Part 2), and this time, however, he doesn't have a great deal of poor content to try and cover up as Sorry 4 The Weight, while messy and a mixed bag all around, is worth something of a look.
Recommended tracks (in order): "Send it Up," "Vet Lungs," "5AM," and "Win."