Music

The intro gives nothing away about the ride we’re about to go on. “Bring the dope, bring the hoes, bring the moneybags in,” he chants throughout. You think you know where he’s going with this album and then, boom! “Pop” comes on and hits you upside your head.

Perfect comedown track for an outro. “Smile” keeps you on hold as the beat plays and Q takes some time to start doing his thing. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait another five years for his next album.

This is like the interlude before we have to flip the tape to Side B. A quick smoke break before we head to the finish line. Over a sparkling Childish Major and DJ Khalil beat, ScHoolboy Q raps about how folks doubted him early on in his career, and now he’s a certified rap superstar. It seems like he’s finally starting to embrace that this life is real and he’s going all in.

As the saying goes: “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Q uses the majority of track 11 to stunt and goes through a list things he was first to—a number of which aren’t safe for work. However, the stunting turn into reflection towards the end as Q comes to grips with the fact that the money and fame come with a false sense of security. “I’m full of myself, mirror in front just to even the scale,” he raps at the end of the last verse. Life is about balance and self reflection.

This joint starts off promising, especially as we come down from the abrasiveness of “Yeern 101,” but the switch up is a bit jarring. I wish the video version was on the album instead because it allows Lance Skiiiwalker’s chorus and the “Can I Call You Rose?” sample to breathe more. I wonder how Q and Devin’s verses work without the beat switch as well. They would probably have to change up the cadence, but still. I’m torn whenever I hit play on this and that’s kind of how I feel when beat changes.

Another banger with some social commentary mixed in as Q raps about beefing with the cops. Childish Major brings the energy on the hook, making this track perfect for moshing at live shows.

Like on “Blueslides,” Q gets deep as he reminisces on the sacrifices his mother and friends made that allowed him to claw his way to the spot he now finds himself in. He touches on how he was born in Germany in 1986 while his mother served in the military and how, like many veterans, she came back to the States to live in poverty where death and destruction were the norm. Q and his moms can finally rest easy, though, as his rap career has since taken off. Dealing with love and pain seem to be a recurring theme for him on this project.

Another high energy track from Q as he and his Black Hippy comrade hit us with that machine gun flow that calls back to their 2012 collab “Druggys Wit Hoes Again.” The chaotic production fits right in with the recent trend of rappers blacking out over electronic music. We need more Black Hippy music like we need air.

Some of the best raps are the braggadocious ones that also drop jewels. ScHoolboy shows off his evolution as a lyricist as he weaves between shit talking and givin’ cats wisdom. “Black man made it the hard way, he think he Hov/So mad looking at my shit, it could be yours/911 fuck a black folk, I got the Porsche/Two-time felon, behind the gates it’s a resort/Gotta watch for these devils that steal your shit and get control,” is an exercise in that very thing.

Over a pensive piano riff, Q raps about catching cooties from the unloyal, jealous, envious types—you know, losers. He seems to be content with the life he built for himself and his family, but still has to be careful with the the aforementioned group bringing him down. He also touches on the paranoia mass shootings give him when sending his kids to school making this album feel as personal as ever.

This needs to be played with the top down coming down Pico with Fredrico. Shouts to Az Chike and the production team on this joint for delivering the true West Coast vibes. This song feels like hittin’ switches in an Impala. We need this added to GTA 5 online immediately. Somebody send this to Rockstar.

The audience in the background cheering and applauding adds to the overall experience of this record. It’s as if Q and Freddie are performing in a small smokey lounge opening up for the Five Heartbeats. Feels like he crammed two or three songs within this four-minute, 51-second track, but each transition works. We get ScHoolboy going through peaks and valleys with his cadence and Freddie Gibbs flowing over a Coltrane sample. Can’t ask for much more than that. Well, except maybe being able to “stack our Os like Ohio” in this wicked economy.

This is the energy we expect from the TDE veteran. I’m looking forward to seeing the chaos this creates when performed live. I need to see people moshing and hanging from the rafters once the beat drops, especially when he’s screaming, “Get buck, get buck, get buck, get buck!” And shouts to the incredibly underrated Rico Nasty. She jumped on the track like the true rock star she is with the energy of a Puerto Rican mother ready to clean the crib on a Saturday morning. This tracks sets things off nicely for what follows.

Who else peeped that “Look At Wrist” call back at the beginning? There’s even a sample of it sprinkled in there. Happy to see Father, ILoveMakonnen, and Key! get their flowers. Q and Devin Malik have dope chemistry and it shines through here with both of their verses sounding great over the rumbling production. ScHoolboy sounds refreshed and confident as ever in his abilities at this point in this career. In fact, it’s fair to say that he’s “back in love with this shit.”

Jozzy is the star of the show here. That’s not to say ScHoolboy didn’t kill it, but her hook shows why she’s been tapped to write songs for some of your favorite artists. Uncle Alchemist provides his expertise as well with a soulful Kiyoshi Hasegawa sample. This is the perfect song for twisting one and putting it in the air for the lost times.

Following up “Blueslides” with this hits like a Tank Davis body shot. Q’s always good for a couple bangers and he’s delivered three of them thangs already. Cardo and company went bonkers on production, with the video really bringing this joint to life. This was an excellent choice for the lead single to set things off as Q finally settles into being TDE’s rap superstar.

ScHoolboy has another anthem on his hands. With a crazy infectious hook, Q shows off the versatility of his flow over an exquisite Kal Banx, J.LBS, and Fu beat. The way the production swerves in and out of different samples should be studied in universities. This is a textbook ScHoolboy track, upbeat and smooth—just what one would expect from quintessential West Coast rap. Finally, the streets get a proper use of Project Pat’s classic “Chickenhead” record and we thank God for that.

Q tweeted that this song should be in the Songwriting Hall of Fame and, once again, he’s right. This is easily one of the best songs he’s ever written. He touches on anxiety, loneliness, death, pressure from friends and family, and feeling like an absent father when he needs to hit the road and make money. “Lord, please forgive me for the day I finally fall apart,” he says in the last verse. I can’t remember the last time we heard Q sound this vulnerable. This is one of those songs that make an album special.