Album Of The Week: Oxnard — Anderson .Paak
In his third album, Anderson .Paak takes listeners back to his Californian birthplace in a listening experience that is shaped by dichotomous themes and the production of Hip Hop giant Dr Dre. Here’s what Connor Flashman-Wells had to say.
If Dr Dre personally selects you to join Aftermath Entertainment, it’s probable that your work could one day alter hip hop’s trajectory. Such heavyweights as Eminem and Kendrick Lamar have been in the position that funk-soul rapper Anderson .Paak currently finds himself, signed to Dre’s label, two years after his critically acclaimed album Malibu. His latest release, Oxnard, has thus been met with anticipation. Whereas his previous releases took place along the idyllic areas of the Californian coastline (Venice and Malibu), his latest is derived from Paak’s hometown of Oxnard. Instead of nostalgia, however, we traverse between Paak’s real-life experiences there and Californian romanticisation through funk-soul beats and lyrical honesty.
The album is somewhat allegoric in this duality — Paak witnessed his mother beaten “within an inch of her life” by his father, who was jailed for 14 years — but then observed his mother rise to own a strawberry plantation in the eponymous town of Oxnard. This duality of horror and beauty underpins the album as Kadhja Bonet introduces Paak on ‘The Chase’.
Tracks such as ‘Headlow’ deal with the idea of over-romanticisation through a tale of “driving on the I-9” and sexual pleasure, cruising steadily to a thudding kick drum fronted by a chorus-drenched guitar line. Paak does this with dignity; however, its ending skit indulges the thematic material with stark vulgarity. This indecent reality shocks listeners — yet this dialectic of beauty and horror permeates the album, continued in the following track ‘Tints’.
‘Tints’ follows on from the jazz-funk of ‘Headlow’, this time adopting a choppy guitar line that would make Niall Rodgers swoon. Kendrick makes an appearance here, the first of many big names on this album, and the two comment on the threat to privacy that fame brings. It is strange to experience such an intimidating concept put to such buoyant music; nonetheless, Paak pulls it off phenomenally well. This dichotomy continues into the anthem ‘6 Summers’; Paak rasps “Trump’s got a lovechild/And I hope that bitch is buck-wild” humorously to a foreboding bass guitar riff. This tapers wonderfully into cascading keyboard staccato, bringing this anthem into a melancholy political reality, “This shit gon’ bang at least six summers/ But ain’t shit gon’change for at least three summers”, commenting on the minimum time that Trump could remain in power.
It’s important to note that, as well as politicking, Anderson .Paak’s lyrics are incredibly intricate, especially on ‘Trippy’ and ‘Cheers’. J. Cole features on the former, and the two rappers bounce off each other with shifting cadences and howling dirges to lost lovers, “Sweet trippy, you’re lost in the deep end, like water to a fish scale/ Love to watch you swim”.
Anderson .Paak pours a good dose of soul into the latter, a jazzy, rhythmic celebration of Mac Miller. Paak performed their 2016 collaboration ‘Dang!’ at Miller’s memorial concert this year, and this track reprises many of its elements posthumously. A Tribe Called Quest member Q-Tip provides a paralleling feature on this, reminiscing his comparative loss of former tribesman Phife Dawg. The tone is celebratory, yet the thematic material is tragic; whilst revelling in their histories, they mourn. This is where Paak is most authentic.
Dre’s influence is something of a pitfall to Paak’s distinctive style. Where his effect is less prominent (as an executive producer), Paak blossoms — the g-funk track ‘Anywhere’ comes to mind — yet where Dre produces — on ‘Left to Right’ and ‘Who R U’ — he dwarfs Paak. That isn’t to say Paak underperforms on these tracks; ‘Who R U’ features some of Paak’s best vocals on the album. But his personal voice, the one that defined him in Malibu, takes a backseat. Is this is an inevitability with someone as infamous as Dre? Ultimately, with distinctive hip hop artists, Dre’s production can only enhance, yet with such niche artists as Paak, he may serve to cloud their individuality.
Anderson .Paak’s latest release is the first he has produced with Dr Dre. As this trilogy of beach albums comes to its close, we should all watch closely as Paak and Dre emerge evermore hungry to make rap history in the coming years. I’m certain that their voices will coagulate into something ground-breaking as the two write and produce more; for now, listeners can immerse themselves in Paak’s excellent-yet-not-revolutionary discography.
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