Day 27: IDK — IWASVERYBAD
I listened to IWASVERYBAD on my walk two and from one of Montreal’s most famous bagel shops this morning, mainly because it had an economical runtime of 35 minutes. But much like the delicious “all dressed” bagel (props to the Quebecois for acknowledging that not everything is on an everything bagel and giving it a name that sounds like it’s about to go to a formal function instead), Maryland rapper IDK’s album tells an engaging story that truly comes (god forgive me) full-circle.
The album traces a neat narrative arc from (Jay) IDK’s behavioral troubles in the Prince George’s county school system through to the present moment of his emergence as a rapper. He’s far from the first to theme an album around escaping a life of crime to find fame and fortune, but IDK is able to observe both what he’s done and what he’s found himself swept up in from a perspective that has more in common with Kendrick Lamar than Meek Mill. Over the course of the album (broken up into three distinct “episodes”), it’s clear that IDK sees himself more as the black sheep of a middle class, suburban family seduced by the allure of fast money and friendship rather than someone forced to trap to escape grinding poverty.
Serious and sobering when it needs to be, able to employ levity and humor when it doesn’t, IWASVERYBAD has bars for every occasion. On “Pizza Shop Extended”, Jay almost comically reduces his path to shouting “GANG GANG” out the window in a way that would make Fox News viewers tremble in fear for their grandchildren: “Shit, really I’m a good boy, but that Trapaholics tag turned me to a hood boy.” That could be why he pokes fun at his past lifestyle of robbing on the Chief-Keef assisted “17 with a .38”, eventually revealing that the gun in question is fake. The lyrics across IWASVERYBAD’s tracks show IDK capturing a balance between retelling in-the-moment stories of youthful delinquency gone too far, and applying some of the lessons he’s learned since.
A storytelling-driven album like this needs a boost from the production in order to reach its full potential, and that’s exactly what Kal Banx and other cohorts contribute. In moments when IDK needs to heighten the bravado, the hi-hat heavy trap beats come through. When he needs to come clean about how much his mom and her lessons mattered to him, Banx and Thelonious Martin play up the soul. When someone betrays IDK and he doesn’t want to let the world forget how wronged he feels, “No Words” dials up an OVO-aping beat that can’t help but put IDK in the same lane as Drake.
This is another one I wish I had more time with, especially since it feels complete and cohesive without lapsing into repetitiveness. There aren’t a ton of jaw-dropping bars that stopped me in my bagel-acquiring tracks, but the potent combination of self-awareness and storytelling chops IDK deploys is the mark of a talented MC who hopefully will only evolve with more time. With IWASVERYBAD’s name and narrative structure (hopefully) implying that dark days are behind him, I’m already looking forward to 1. listening to this again when I have more time and 2. seeing what the present and future have in store for him.
