DJ Khaled’s “Grateful”, My First Impression
It’s no surprise that DJ Khaled has another album chocked full of amazing features. Grateful, at a glance, is maybe the most star-studded collection yet. When I first looked at the tracklist I had a hard time thinking of any artist that wasn’t on the album that should be. Here’s the list of features:
1. (Intro) I’m so Grateful ft. Sizzla
2. Shining ft. Beyoncé & JAY Z
3. To the Max ft. Drake
4. Wild Thoughts ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller
5. I’m the One ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper & Lil Wayne
6. On Everything ft. Travis Scott, Rick Ross & Big Sean
7. It’s Secured ft. Nas & Travis Scott
8. Interlude (Hallelujah) ft. Betty Wright
9. Nobody ft. Alicia Keys & Nicki Minaj
10. I Love You so Much ft. Chance The Rapper
11. Don’t Quit ft. Calvin Harris, Travis Scott & Jeremih
12. I Can’t Even Lie ft. Future & Nicki Minaj
13. Down for Life ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR, Future, Travis Scott, Rick Ross & Kodak Black
14. Major Bag Alert ft. Migos
15. Good Man ft. Pusha T & Jadakiss
16. Billy Ocean ft. Fat Joe & Raekwon
17. Pull a Caper ft. Kodak Black, Gucci Mane & Rick Ross
18. That Range Rover Came With Steps ft. Future & Yo Gotti
19. Iced Out My Arms ft. Future, Migos, 21 Savage & T.I
20. Whatever ft. Future, Young Thug, Rick Ross & 2 Chainz
21. Interlude ft. Belly
22. Unchanging Love ft. Mavado
23. Asahd Talk (Thank You Asahd)
Who is left out? Lil Uzi Vert? Lil Yachty? J. Cole? I’m cool without them. The only person I could think of that I was actually disappointed about was Kendrick Lamar. So from that aspect, I was already expecting the album to be a success.
The first chunk of the album is all the hits we have already heard, “I’m the One”, “To the Max”, “Shining”, and “Wild Thoughts”. The next eight songs, we get a heavy dosage of singing and, my favorite, a heavy dosage of Travis Scott. Here’s where I’ll come off a little biased. Anything with this much Travis Scott, I’m going to love. “Don’t Quit” with Calvin Harris, Travis Scott, and Jeremih, sounds like an instant hit. I also loved the pairing of Travis Scott and Nas on “It’s Secured”.
After this overload of Travis Scott and “poppy” sounding songs, Migos, without hesitation, starts the trap portion of the album with “Major Bag Alert”. I wasn’t a big fan of that song, but what followed was pretty great. “Good Man” with Pusha T and Jadakiss was surprisingly not bad. I’ll admit I skipped the song with Fat Joe about 45 seconds in for reasons you will understand when you listen. But besides that, it was fire verse after fire verse with Future taking over with the hooks. Metro Boomin and Southside teamed up on “Iced Out My Arms” to produce probably the best song on the album.
After that, there are the two or three songs on every DJ Khaled album that everyone typically skips, including a Mavado song. Somehow Mavado is on every DJ Khaled album, and I still don’t know who the hell he is.
But wait, before you skip the last couple songs, the song with Belly is actually great. Good lyrics, and a wavy beat that calms you down after all the aggression from 21 Savage and company.
I listened to the Mavado song, and he still didn’t do enough to make me want to look him up.
So overall when the album was good, it was really good, but it had its typical DJ Khaled album flaws. DJ Khaled talked too much, it was heavy on motivational talks, and there are 4 or 5 songs that I will skip every time.
7.5/10
Top 5 Songs
(Not including the singles that had already dropped)
- Iced Out My Arms
- Down For Life
- Don’t Quit
- Pull a Caper
- Whatever
