Harverd Dropout - Lil Pump: Review
Lil Pump
is a Florida rapper who came up on the SoundCloud wave with a series of viral low-fi bangers like Gucci Gang and D Rose. He dropped a self-titled mixtape in 2017 that scratched a unique itch for senseless and hard hitting trap bangers with stunning consistency. Despite being one dimensional the tape impressed with sharp execution of a specific formula. Since then Pump has skyrocketed in popularity being named to XXL's Freshman list last year as well as dropping numerous singles. Many of those tracks land on this album and the very hit or miss track record he had over last year and early 2019 doesn't inspire much confidence for a project noticeably longer than his first.
Review By Lavender:
I like many people wrote Pump off at first as a guy who wrote a decently catchy song that blew up by chance, and it turns out that I like many people, was completely wrong. He has proven to not only make solid appearances throughout his first two years of relevancy, but also dropped a mixtape that proved he knew exactly why he was here and how to maintain it. But with the singles released in the lead up to this project it became more and more apparent that Pump's plan was to do that of so many modern rappers before him. Abandoning the sound that put him where he is in favor of a much more mainstream and commercial approach, and it misses the mark just as badly as those before him.
Starting with the songs we had already heard going into this album, separating the good from the bad shows just how inconsistent it felt going into the project. Esketit was a great single last year and it lands as one of the best tracks on this entire project. It's the best example on this whole project of the way that an increased production budget benefits his sound. The other decent track we heard leading up to the project was Butterfly Doors which despite some controversy maintains itself as a decent track. And a little bit of an honorable mention needs to be given to the Kanye West featuring I Love It, an objectively funny song but one that when stripped of its music video and initial comedic effect, doesn't have much left.
Unfortunately the two other big singles leading up to this project in the last year are some of the projects biggest misses. Drug Addicts and Racks On Racks are too of the albums dullest most forgettable moments that show Pump at some of his most boring moments in instantly forgettable performances. And this is a big recurring theme as tracks like Nu Uh, Who Dat and Too Much Ice are big let downs, despite a solid Quavo feature on that final cut.
For a majority of this album Lil Pump is flirting with the idea of a good song without ever really seeing it through. Fasho Fasho has some pretty tight verses and quintessential Pump lyrics, but loses it on a breathy hook that sounds terrible and unfinished. For its antithesis look to Be Like Me a song with a surprisingly lovable hook that completely falls apart when neither Lil Pump or Lil Wayne can put together a decent verse. Sometimes the song is just painfully average and overdone in the modern trap world like the albums opener Drop Out. Sometimes a feature lets the song down as YG delivers an underwhelming verse on Stripper Name in-between solid performances from Pump and 2 Chainz.
This all leaves me with the 5 songs I actually really enjoyed from the project, 4 we haven't talked about and Esketit from earlier. ION comes in early on the project and shows off the chemistry between Lil Pump and Smokepurp that we saw on display during their XXL Freshman cypher, as well as one of the best beats on the entire project. Off White is a hugely Ski Mask The Slump God inspired track that could have totally fit in on 2017's Lil Pump mixtape, as it features a banging beat book-ended by repetitive and hilarious lyrics. Then back to back with the Lil Uzi Vert featuring Multi Millionare and Vroom Vroom Vroom two catchy and fun bangers I didn't expect to hear at that point in the album.
What we have here is yet another example of a young up and coming rapper turning his back on the sound that put him where he is today in favor of a cleaner more commercial and trendier sound. The result is just as poor as every other time we see overnight hip hop stars do the same thing and the predictive success of the album leads me to believe that we aren't done seeing young stars follow up great fresh sounding debut mixtapes with overproduced and glossy studio albums. 4/10
