Trippie Redd is an Ohio singer, songwriter, and rapper whose rise to fame came from the success of his mixtape, A Love Letter To You, its follow up, A Love Letter to You 2, and a few mainstream singles. One of those popular tracks, I Kill People!, is a diss track aimed at his contemporary, 6ix9ine. That beef got him a lot of publicity as did his feud with XXXTentacion. X and Trippie were able to apologize to each other publicly and have collaborated on many tracks together. Actually the first time I heard his unique and nasally sound was on X’s song, Fuck Love. After that I listened to his first mixtape and its sequel and I wasn’t a fan. I reviewed it and had nothing good to say about it. Recently, Trippie Redd earned a spot on the 2018 XXL Freshman Class, and I went to their show at the Novo in Downtown Los Angeles. After hearing him perform some of the new singles that were released after I had written him off, he had started to win back my favor. Now here we are, Trippie Redd’s first full length commercial album, Life’s A Trip, has been released. Of course the Big 14 rapper would have a 14 track album. I have to give it up, Trippie really stands out from the crowd.
He runs close to the pack with artists like Young Thug, Lil Uzi, and Travis Scott: the rappers that are also known for their singing. Trippie tends to use his natural vocals more than any of them which I really respect and appreciate. His singing sounds more aggressive and his voice tends to strain and get almost shrill when he delivers a hook. He does so in such a controlled manor that it strikes the listener as just raw talent. That being said, it doesn’t always come off so composed.
The opening track, Together, is a minimalist instrumental that really plays secondary to Trippie’s vocals. Vocals that really struggle here. It sounds like mindless groaning half of the time. Aside from that, Trippie talks about the necessity of “together”-ness through his anxiety and drug use. The song is just mind-numbingly repetitive, one could argue that he’s just trying to emphasize the importance of being “together” but surely this is excessive.
After a painful intro track, Trippie really pulls himself together on Taking A Walk. He reiterates his anxiety, talking about death, people wanting to see him dead, suicide, and his own coffin. The dark theme of the track contrasted with the airy and optimistic instrumental and lighthearted singing tone makes for a catchy and interesting song. I just can’t help but feel cheated over its short 2 minute play time.
The third cut, Wish, is a emotional ballad revisiting some of Trippie’s past relationships. The song was initially premiered all the way back in October of 2017. The track was produced by Diplo and appeared on the DJ’s California EP in March but Trippie vented his frustration over how the track was handled on his Instagram Story. The final mixing of Diplo’s Wish was altered to make Trippie’s voice quieter. Trippie’s Wish has the original sound on it which is more melodic and harmonious. None the less, the track has some of Trippie’s best singing to date on it, and it’s catchy as hell.
The fourth song, Missing My Idols, is a pure monsoon of bars that just don’t hit right. Some are clever and some are funny but just nothing original or inspired at all. This song use to be titled Can You Rap Like Me 2, the follow up to Can You Rap Like Me off his first mixtape, and to answer his question, after that weak display, yeah, I think I can.
On Forever Ever, Trippie teams up with Young Thug to rap about love and money. What else is new? Both artists’ singing is decent but the only notable thing here is that Trippie outshines Thugger, which was really surprising. Bird Shit is just the same, kind of catchy, adequate singing, and about all the superficial things these rappers talk about. Actually, let’s get the rest of these out of the way. Uka Uka, Shake It Up, Oomps Revenge, and Gore are nothing but filler tracks. This project was supposed to have upwards of 26 songs on it, I can’t even imagine how menial the tracks that got scraped were if this is what he wanted on the album
The singing on Bang! Is notable, but I’m probably just getting it confused with how catchy the hook is. How You Feel is very rock-and-roll inspired but other than that quite boring. The outro only stands out because it’s incredibly long and painful to listen to. This project really came full circle: a boring intro and boring closer. He’s going on about being depressed and not being able to go on anymore after a breakup. I want to feel bad for him, but at the same time I’m thinking, “Come on, wrap it up.”
The gem of this whole album was definitely the hit single, and probably the number one song of Trippie’s career, Dark Knight Dummo featuring Travis Scott. The Erie synthesizers, ominous beat, Trippie’s aggressive belting voice, and La Flame’s signature sound all melt together into an absolute banger. No other single word describes it better.
Trippie is really starting to find his sound and use it well. Still, there was a lot of filler on this project and repetition but the highlights were good enough to make it passable. It would be unfair to expect much more from a soundcloud kid’s debut album than to meet expectations.
