Transportation - Your Old Droog: Review
Your Old Droog
Is a New York MC with strong ties to east coast rap pedigree and a flow so classic many believed when he first began making waves that he was Nas rapping under a pseudonym. After taking 2018 off he released his It Wasn't Even Close record earlier this year and now just a few months later has surprise dropped Transportation once again without any singles teasing towards its release.Review By Lavender:
Looking at it from my perspective there isn't much about Droog that isn't likeable. He's an old school style MC who consistently delivers clever bars and a stone cold flow, so when there are weaknesses to his projects I'm usually not blaming him. This was the case on It Wasn't Even Close earlier this year where Droog performed consistently but the complete indebtedness to east coast lyrical rap across this record makes it a bit of a drag in full length. So where Close was consistent but uninteresting, Transportation serves as its true companion album delivering much more unique and outside the box rap stylings but they miss the mark far more often.
The album gets off to a hot start with its first two tracks and a funny interlude right out of the gate. The opening song Stillwell Baby has some great Madlib inspired jazzy production with well placed samples backing a series of icy cold lyrical bars. Droog'a vocals have some fuzz over them that sounds very artificial but aside form that this track is a hot start. Monthly is another awesome track with some a killer beat and hilarious bars revolving a woman that Droog hits up once a month for sex. It features some amazing bars my favorite being "She anticipate my return like Devin Hester" and is yet another song that opens this record up the right way. The interlude that follows this Loosey Spot On Wheels is a funny story told by someone I don't recognize but it is a worthwhile deviation in the tracklist.
The first handful of tracks aren't the only good ones here either. Head Over Wheels is a surprisingly west coast sounding tribute to driving while listening to great music, The song is effortlessly cool as Droog disses radio jams and subpar mixtapes while hyping up his own playlist and being sure to include plenty of musical jargon in his bars. This track is immediately followed by The Cheese a hilarious tribute to growing up in New York city that pens bar after great bar of cheese puns, I enjoy this track in execution more than I would have ever imagined I would in concept. Finally Train Love is a pretty solid song about seeing a woman on the train so beautiful that Droog can't help but imagine having a life with her. Seeing his imagination run wild followed by his regret for choosing not to talk to her is compelling and at points genuine in a way Droog doesn't typically allow himself to be.
There are great bars and solid verses on almost every song here but what Droog does to shoot himself in the foot more than anything else is some absolutely terrible hooks that he handles himself. Under The Train has a killer instrumental but the hook kills it straight away and Droog doesn't help by dating himself with some struggle bars about Wi-Fi and a Kindle. My Plane has a hook the pulls off the swagger Droog typically brings but getting there is such a drag that it makes me wish Droog had let somebody else sing these hooks because so many of the songs here would be wrapped up so nicely if he had. The lowkey production and eerie verses make up for it though and this is one of the songs that actually overcomes its hook, it also features one of my favorite bars here "Autotuned like you got Cher in the booth, oof".
SS YOD is probably the weakest song here as it delivers terrible refrains one after another and not only is the hook a terrible moment but none of the bars are really compelling and none of the flows are tight or interesting, if you skip one track here make it this one. Mix this in with some terrible and patience testing interludes, the worst of which being Bikes.Bleeps.Busses, and you can see how this album handicaps itself from its full potential.
Thankfully this ends on a high note with 207 a story driven song that sees some stark lowkey beat crafting and a lot of personal introspective lyrics. It ends on a great piano led outro that wraps everything up nicely. The digital version of the album features bonus tracks Taxi and Vigilantes. The first of which features some sharp thematic bars centered around taxis from Droog and guest rapper Quelle Chris, the second sees Droog and frequent collaborator Wiki playing super hero in a hilarious song that channels MF DOOM in its personality. I like Wiki's performance more than I typically have when he features on Droog records and these two bonus tracks are solid songs that I would definitely include in your listen, even if they won't impact the score.
Your Old Droog has never been prolific but dropping these two albums so close to one another has proven that his sound won't be getting old any time soon. Transportation is a much more creative record than what it follows up but with that Droog loses some of his consistency as he steps out of his comfort zone, but together the two projects form a textbook series of songs that proves exactly why you should be paying attention to Your Old Droog. 6.5/10
Best Track: Monthly
