Schoolboy Q discussion
Feb 25, 2014 15:35:25 GMT -5
Post by Live Your Life on Feb 25, 2014 15:35:25 GMT -5
TDE/Interscope's Schoolboy Q released his major-label debut, "Oxymoron," today. It features the singles "Collard Greens" and "Man of the Year":
A video for "Break the Bank" was also released:
1. “Gangsta”
2. “Los Awesome” (Feat. Jay Rock)
3. “Collard Greens” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
4. “What They Want” (Feat. 2 Chainz)
5. “Hoover Street”
6. “Studio” (Feat. BJ the Chicago Kid)
7. “Prescription/Oxymoron”
8. “The Purge” (Feat. Tyler, the Creator & Kurupt)
9. “Blind Threats” (Feat. Raekwon)
10. “Hell of a Night”
11. “Break the Bank”
12. “Man of the Year”
13. “His & Her Friend” (Feat. SZA)
14 “Grooveline Pt. 2″ (Feat. Suga Free)
15. “F**k LA”
Rolling Stone gives the album 4/5 stars:
All Music Guide gives the album 3.5/5 stars:
The LA Times gives the album 3.5/4 stars:
The album is currently #1 on iTunes.
A video for "Break the Bank" was also released:
1. “Gangsta”
2. “Los Awesome” (Feat. Jay Rock)
3. “Collard Greens” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
4. “What They Want” (Feat. 2 Chainz)
5. “Hoover Street”
6. “Studio” (Feat. BJ the Chicago Kid)
7. “Prescription/Oxymoron”
8. “The Purge” (Feat. Tyler, the Creator & Kurupt)
9. “Blind Threats” (Feat. Raekwon)
10. “Hell of a Night”
11. “Break the Bank”
12. “Man of the Year”
13. “His & Her Friend” (Feat. SZA)
14 “Grooveline Pt. 2″ (Feat. Suga Free)
15. “F**k LA”
Rolling Stone gives the album 4/5 stars:
"Gangsta, gangsta, gangsta," shouts Los Angeles rapper Schoolboy Q right off the bat, offering one more than N.W.A.'s "Gangsta Gangsta" ever did. With tough-as-nails beats (via Pharrell, Tyler the Creator and more) and boundless energy, Q's major-label debut positions him as the hardened triggerman in Kendrick Lamar's Black Hippy crew. "f**k rap," he says, "my s**t real." Truman Capote-level realness is what made Lamar a critical sensation, and Q is just as deft with detail, whether he's describing ice-cream-truck stickups or selling drugs from a Nissan. When Q makes pimp boasts ("Grooveline Pt. 2"), he'll note babywipes in the purse; when he looks at his own depression ("Prescription") he'll tell you the calls he ignores; when he spins a six-minute tale about a drug-addicted uncle ("Hoova Street"), the storytelling is Slick Rick-vivid, down to the roaches in the cereal. It helps that his voice is simply elastic – reminiscent at times of everything from Pusha T's steely grimace to T.I.'s effortless assonance to Eminem's giddy singsong: a finessed tool consistently going "hamhock" on some of the hardest beats this side of Illmatic. A not-as-good-kid traversing the same m.A.A.d. city as Kendrick, Schoolboy complements Lamar's narrative distance with evocative, unflinching first-person dispatches from the front lines.
All Music Guide gives the album 3.5/5 stars:
While his labelmate and friend Kendrick Lamar was jumping on Imagine Dragons remixes and counting up his Grammy nominations, rapper Schoolboy Q remained the Top Dawg Entertainment label's strongest link to the left-field hip-hop. His highly anticipated 2014 effort Oxymoron was even previewed by the brilliant single "Collard Greens," a track where luxury and soul food clashed over a shuffling house music beat courtesy of the aptly named production crew THC, but that's about as easy as it gets on this grim and gutsy full-length. Think of Styles P, Young Buck, or maybe even Mobb Deep attacking abstract art the ski mask way and the brain-melting, coke game commentary called "The Purge" -- produced by Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator -- becomes a horrorshow highlight, with lyrics like "my glock is your f**k buddy" coming off just as dire as they need to be. "Prescription/Oxymoron" addresses Q's pain pill addiction and recovery with lurching electro and vivid, disgraced lyrics that are in the throes of depression ("My daughter calls, I press 'Ignore'") while other highlights are more a sum of their parts, as producer Pharrell Williams returns to gangsta music with the hard beats he lays under "Los Awesome," then the organic and ominous "Hoover Street" bubbles like a lava lamp and the not-so-awful sub-genre of psychedelic hip-hop is born. The wonders never cease on this adventurous and street-tough effort, but they never sort themselves well, either, and with accessible highlights like "Blind Threats," "Break the Bank," and "Man of the Year" all bundled toward the end, this LP requires a surprising amount of patience, especially for an album with "featuring 2 Chainz" on its track list. Check one of this maverick thug's more approachable efforts then come back here for something coarse and complicated.
The LA Times gives the album 3.5/4 stars:
One of the year's most anticipated hip-hop releases, Schoolboy Q's "Oxymoron" lives up to its buzz. Both heavy with bass and filled with memorable hooks, Q's long-gestating major label debut is tight in length and rich with intent. "Oxymoron" arrives in the wake of fellow Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar's Grammy album of the year nominated "Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City." That's a lot of pressure for anyone's major label debut, but Schoolboy Q meets those expectations. "Oxymoron" presents 12 bass-heavy tracks upon which the artist born Quincy Hanley explores his neighborhood, his hedonism and his rough-and-tumble early life hawking Oxycontin tablets on street corners near his 51st Street and Hoover neighborhood. ("I can get a hundred of them, make three Gs," he explains at one point.)
It's a powerful album with big beats and lyrics that focus on hard truths through a fog of synthetic opiates, crime, cough syrup, chronic and paranoia. "If God won't help me this gun will, I swear I'm gonna find my way," he raps desperately on "Blind Threats." The Pharrell-produced "Los Awesome" features a "backyard full of Crips, county blues, barbecues" on a celebration of all things gangsta. One of the album's best mergers sees Q join Odd Future founder Tyler, the Creator and longtime L.A. rapper Kurupt for "The Purge."
The seven-minute centerpiece "Prescription/Oxymoron" is the big payoff: a harrowing snapshot of a man "stuck in this body high" of prescription pills, slipping in and out of consciousness while his child tries to wake him. This is not an album to give your teenage kid without a companion conversation about the dangers of drugs. But after the disclaimer, sit down and wonder on the miraculous ways in which musical talent can germinate amid such a landscape and grow to create work filled with boundless promise.
It's a powerful album with big beats and lyrics that focus on hard truths through a fog of synthetic opiates, crime, cough syrup, chronic and paranoia. "If God won't help me this gun will, I swear I'm gonna find my way," he raps desperately on "Blind Threats." The Pharrell-produced "Los Awesome" features a "backyard full of Crips, county blues, barbecues" on a celebration of all things gangsta. One of the album's best mergers sees Q join Odd Future founder Tyler, the Creator and longtime L.A. rapper Kurupt for "The Purge."
The seven-minute centerpiece "Prescription/Oxymoron" is the big payoff: a harrowing snapshot of a man "stuck in this body high" of prescription pills, slipping in and out of consciousness while his child tries to wake him. This is not an album to give your teenage kid without a companion conversation about the dangers of drugs. But after the disclaimer, sit down and wonder on the miraculous ways in which musical talent can germinate amid such a landscape and grow to create work filled with boundless promise.
The album is currently #1 on iTunes.
Heavy on the unless.
