For the last month, collaboration albums have been dropped by some of the trap artists with the most clout in hip-hop. These pairings joined forces to do with they do best: make bangers.
“Super Slimey,” a collab between Young Thug and Future, dropped on Oct. 20 and, for the most part, felt like a compilation of standard songs for both artists. The intro track, “No Cap,” starts off strong with aggressive delivery by Future and wavy flow by Young Thug with lines like “Out in Beverly Hills, I adapt/But I still had to ride with that strap.” From here, the album starts to get repetitive.
The interesting parts in the album come when Young Thug exhibits his strange yet bizarrely catchy lyrics and flows. In “Three,” Young Thug hits you with lines like “Never lose like my motherf-ckin’ McGregor, ya heard?/Inside the whips come red like ketchurp.” On these two lines, Young Thug’s vocal intonation is as memorable as McGregor’s own voice. Young Thug cleverly catches your attention in the first line. But then the second line referencing “ketchurp” either makes you want to never listen to his lyrics again or make you more tuned into him than ever.
Surprisingly, “Super Slimey” also gives the listener small provocative moments of the struggle the two artists have had to face in their lifetime. In “Killed Before,” Young Thug takes the track by himself and provides some of his most personal lyrics yet. In the catchy hook, Young Thug tells us “I been bent like a centerfold” and “Everyone knows I’ve been killed before.” He hesitates from going in depth with this but his vocal performance on this song suggests there’s more than he may be saying. The album closes with “Group Home,” the most personal song for Future. “I got more money than I ever had, I can take some more pain.”
This album also failed to really showcase any theme or specific sound that hasn’t been done before. But there are not high standards for breaking new grounds before we listen to trap collab albums (or trap albums in general). If you’re a fan, you just want bangers. Really these albums are meant for the beats and the melodies, nothing that makes you think too much.
“Without Warning” by Offset and 21 Savage produced by Metro Boomin is the album that is basically as good as it gets in that regard. The album, which was released on Oct. 31, is an icy, grimy album that set the perfect mood for Halloween and the cold weather to come.
The songs “Ghostface Killers” and “Rap Saved Me” set the tone for the album with dark verses and grimy beats. Following these intro tracks is the heart of the order for the album. “Ric Flair Drip” is the main hitter with a catchy bell melody with a boomin’ bass that is a certified banger. The song plays on 16-time WWE World Champion, Ric Flair and the lavish lifestyle he embodies that hip-hop stars frequently pay homage to. The next song, “My Choppa Hate” has a haunting instrumental that transitions smoothly to the Halloween-themed “Nightmare” which features a bell melody that sounds like it came from a throwback horror movie.
The only song that sounds out of place in the vibes of this album is “Still Serving,” which has a low tempo, somber guitar sound.The beat is not bad, but it does not mesh well with 21 Savage’s lyrical style. His often-monotone voice keeps the song sounding flat. Offset helped the track with his usual smooth flow. But maybe somebody with Young Thug’s vocal intricacies could have added something more interesting on this beat.
21 Savage and Offset compliment each other better than Young Thug and Future. 21 is as insulting to casual listeners as ever. 21 tells us on the hook “My Choppa Hate” that he calls his gun KKK because it hates black people. On the song “Disrespectful,” 21 brags that he has a Hurricane Irma on his neck and Hurricane Irma on his wrist because his jewelry is flooded out. Offset counters 21’s rugged irreverence with smooth flows and his entertaining ad-libs. He brings the swagger to every song he appears on. But the real star on this album is producer Metro Boomin. Young Metro is an undisputed legend in the hip-hop world at only age 24 and there is nothing else to say about his production other than that we want more.
This album is not a successful collab album because these two artists are together on most of the tracks. What makes this a successful collab album is the fact each duo of rappers have styles that compliment each other on a trap beat. When hip-hop fans think of collab albums, they dream of Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino, Quavo and Travis Scott, or Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. But for the time being, these two collab albums are slimey enough to keep them entertained.
