Hot Takes, vol. I
Opinions are best served hot.
It’s a new day, it’s a new age and, in case you didn’t notice, times are changing. And it’s no different for the arts — new styles, subgenres and subcultures emerge everyday. So why don’t we do the same? Here at the house of innovation aka MOLDE, we’ve decided that when projects release on the same day or in close proximity — we’ll discuss them all at once, giving you a quick overview of what you need to know. Then we’ll recommend how best to absorb these works for the best experience. This is Hot Takes at MOLDE.
BROCKHAMPTON — Saturation II
The Brockhampton factory with their seventeen team roster are really about to go for a three-peat like the Chicago Bulls in the 1990’s and take over the game. While you wait on your favourite rappers drop projects that won’t come but they stay stunting on the ‘gram’; the Brockhampton factory are grindin’ more than religious American footballers. Along with the apt inclusion of its members, JOBA, considerably the underdog of the group, gets more airtime and you hear Bearface on more than one track. The sole standout track in their sophomore is ‘TEETH’ with a soulful sample chopped up as we hear Ameer Vann rapping. He rhymes with a ear for the poetic and with the unmatched vigour of a young Kanye West. Abstract’s personal verse on ‘JUNKY’ takes spotlight in the confessional track; here every member is given space and is less clogged unlike Saturation I. It sounds way more fun and weirder and more inventive in their off-the-wall lyrics. This is also evident on the frantic ‘SWEET’ with lyrics such as: “Don’t call me stupid, that ain’t the way my name pronounced.” Saturation I had the emotional ennui that represented the way teenagers in this day tend to fret over; Saturation II of course has the coming-of-age elements but instead they actively voice the worries they face, confessed into the mic, then charge into it head first.
How to: Listen to this project with your friends or a bunch of people you just met at a rave because you bonded over an uncanny liking to the Clash in their busted out Volkswagen. Look at each other as the finale ‘SUMMER’ waves through the early morning sky and despite no musical talent, you impulsively start a boy band with them and attempt to relocate to California.
A$AP Mob — Cozy Tapes vol. 2: Too Cozy
Cozy Tapes vol. 2 feels strangely vintage, as nostalgia-imbued as the bootleg shirts of LL Cool J and Big L hustlers would sell on the roads of Flatbush or Harlem. Their use of stomach-clinching skits goes way back, reminiscent of Late Registration and De La Soul is Dead. A$AP Mob don’t keep their rose tinted spectacles on the past however, instead focusing a tentative eye towards the future, tagging artists like Lil Yatchy and Jaden Smith to spit a few bars or just add rhythmic interest with ad-libs; you can even hear Carti on the N*E*R*D-esque ‘Blowing Minds (Skateboard)’. Regardless with this album and its brief glories, it quickly loses its charm to the point where the skits are more entertaining to listen to than the actual tracks. We all know A$AP Mob really out sipping expensive wine or chilling with foreign women because they said it in Cozy Tapes vol. 1 and also in Lords Never Worry and probably in every song that any A$AP affiliates has dropped. Man, I just found it ironic how they stage the skits in a high school because sending disses to Bari instead of publicly calling him out is something that children do. It’s lacklustre as an album, yes, but it that doesn’t mean if somebody plays ‘RAF’ in close proximity, we’re not shoulder shimmying when it comes to Quavo’s verse.
How to: Find a penthouse in Osaka during the winter, chill with one of those grand big white dogs, drink some saki, eat some sushi, put some candlelights on and lift up your feet while you warm in a fur coat because we out here cozy.
Daniel Caesar — Freudian
After his seductive ‘Get You’ went viral and got everyone deep in their feelings, Caesar dodged the pitfalls that some artists fall after a viral song: the precipice of an edge that artists have fallen off and never really gained their foot in the world that’s a far reach for some. In fact, he solidified his place in the R&B world; his feet stuck firm into the earth and screamed his dominance. Or rather wooing it angelically. Complex labyrinthine harmonies float around, morphing into a lullaby in ‘Neu Roses (Transgressors Song)’. What makes this album a good rookie attempt is that Caesar isn’t afraid to embrace eccentricities and a different range of genres, which he holds to great use to his arsenal. ‘Take Me Away’ is a futuristic jam with illuminating vibes backed up by Syd’s breathy vocals. We hear interpolations of Kirk Franklin’s ‘Hold Me Down’ in ‘Hold Me Now’ almost bringing back childhood memories where my mum would serenade Franklin and Richard Smallwood on the way to church. Ultimately, Caesar uses the solace of gospel to deal with the pains of love. It’s also why on the closing track ‘Freudian’, he sings with impenetrable pathos over chilling organs; it carries the same gravitas as Frank Ocean’s realisation in ‘Bad Religion’ over an one-sided love: “It’s a, it’s a bad religion / To be in love with someone / Who could never love you.” Caesar also acknowledges an epiphany that wrestled with him but unlike Ocean, he doesn’t surrender but instead welcomes, embracing the brutalities of love: “Human sacrifice oh yes / Say I’m a martyr / Charge that to my ego / I just want all the lights.”
How to: Man, you’re going to be thinking of that beauty with glasses you saw on the Overground Line on that sunny Thursday. Don’t listen to this album throughout the hours 8PM-2AM because those are allocated real lonely hours. If you do, this album gonna make you shoot your shot so you arrive at the station the next day with some roses and a speaker playing ‘Best Part’ waiting for them.
Lil Uzi Vert — Luv is Rage 2
Lil Uzi Vert really is the rockstar of rap with his devil-may-care attitude to the industry while in the class of his contemporaries that have their place in rap (Lil Yatchy etc.) — he’s the one closer to bringing the amalgamation of rock and rap together. The album screams primal and luxury in ‘444 + 222’ and ‘Neon Guts’ both featuring crystalline synths, boastful lyrics and vertiginous delivery. But at Uzi’s core, it’s not just another “rags-to-riches” album, it also feels like a diary with prose that wobbles between adolescent heartbreaks and meaningful sentimentality. Soft-hearted ballads such ‘X’ and ‘The Way Life Goes’ is the gap in the cleft of the rock that lets Lil Uzi Vert to vent and lament over his ex-girlfriend. For me, if Lil Uzi Vert vs the World is like Vert’s career taxiing then Luv Is Rage 2 is his nascent and his style launching and the evidence is plentiful. Even so, he’s still met with disapproval anyway but why would Lil Uzi Vert care? He even opened the entire album, asserting this: “I ain’t gonna lie, I got the money and the power.” Save your opinions to yourself because they don’t mean nothing to the truly idiosyncratic and assertive twenty-one year old from Philadelphia.
How to: Bruh, if you’re listening to this, you probably in a subspace portal crashing like a meteorite with flashes of colours encompassing you a transcendent cocoon. I ain’t got nothing, just get ready to for an outer body experience as Lil Uzi Vert’s voice guides you through the madness.
