$uicideBoy$ & Travis Barker - LIVE FAST DIE WHENEVER EP: Review
$uicideboy$
are a New Orleans based rap duo who released their debut album last year after years of many, MANY mixtapes and EPs. The group recruited Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and screamo vocalist MUNKY for this six track EP which featured two singles.
Review By Lavender:
Jesus christ.
$uicideboy$ have been an act I have followed for a few years now taking in whatever of their releases and solo material and collaborations that I can, but on Live Fast Die Whenever they have chosen to clash their styles with some absolutely abysmal results.
The two singles for this EP we're strange but honestly the only highlights it has to offer. nothingleftnothingleft is a pretty fiery and true to form punk tune. Unfortunately it clashes directly with the style of the two very uncompelling rap verses delivered on the song and contains one of the most underwhelming choruses I've heard all year. There is some decent material here but the strange meeting of worlds is so ugly that it ruins the track, and I would say it's still in the top half of songs here. Aliens Are Ghosts on the other hand is a true rap song and a decent one at that. It samples Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop fame of all things in a funny homage to one of his reviews of the group and the solid lyrical bars come together with this to reach an ultimately decent song. The only other track here that has any redeemable qualities is Don't Trust Anyone. MUNKY is back doing his screamo vocals over this track and it is his only refrain on here that is even tolerable and I was surprised to find it even stuck in my head after a few listens. Even though the first verse needs to be mixed higher really badly both of the rap verses here seem to actually support the song and depending on my mood this could be a track I actually enjoy.
As far as the rest of these songs, I don't even know where to start. The intro cut Killing 2 Birds With 22 Stones has a heavy and explosive instrumental that opens up with an awful and taxing refrain from MUNKY that makes me want to turn the song off right away. The rap verses on this song are awful and the instrumental seems to have absolutely nothing to do with either style. The only decent thing here is MUNKY's "Release the fucking doves and I'll shoot them one by one" repeated refrain but even that is just an okay part of a disastrous tune.
Sour Grapes inspires the question, just what is Travis Baker actually doing to get a collab on the EPs title. It has a heavy and clearly synthetic trap beat with some horribly mixed shouted verses all of which has all of the life compressed out of it with a terrible mix. Honestly this may be the hardest track to make it through. Finally Individuality Was So Last Year is an awful clashing of aesthetics between screamo and trap which isn't even a flawed concept given how some of their contemporaries have been able to mix metal and post-hardcore into rap music recently, but everything about this is awful. I must once again ask why Travis Barker garners half authorship of this thing as I can't really see any true musical tact involved at any level here.
It seems pretty clear that this is an offshoot that $uicideboy$ don't anticipate being a big breakthrough moment for them or any kind of long term style indicator and all I can hope is that they are working on some better written and better conceptualized music for whenever the next time we hear from them is. For now I'm going to do what most people who had to hear this are doing and try to forget it as fast as possible. 2/10
Best Track: nothingleftnothingleft
For more experimental hip hop check out my review of Injury Reserve's Injury Reserve here.
