Culture III - Migos: Review
Migos
are an Atlanta rap trio consisting of Quavo, Offset and Takeoff whose sound in the middle of the 2010's was extremely influential to the culture and style of mainstream trap rap that still persists to this day. The duo first broke out with a series of hits from their early mixtapes and cemented their status with their universally acclaimed 2017 album Culture. After the follow-up Culture II along with each of the rappers solo records were all critiqued for the bands routine and omnipresent sound, they took a few years of studio album silence.
Review By Lav:
At this point, the Migos are who they are. I wasn't expecting Culture III to be any kind of major change of style for the trio and it isn't. If you're familiar with the band you pretty much know what you're getting with this record, which can be a blessing and a curse. There are plenty of tracks here particularly on the first half that see Migos executing their formula very well, but when there's a few duds in a row it can be absolutely monotonous. While the monotony has improved from Culture II I also don't think this records high points are quite as high, making it a lateral move that took 3 years to accomplish and leaves me wondering where the Migos will go next.
Generally speaking I was actually a bit excited going into this album because a few of the singles connected with me. The opening track Avalanche is a pretty solid single that I've been enjoying for the past week leading up to the record. It has a multi-faceted hook and pretty good performances throughout alongside a uniquely glittery beat. Straightenin is also pretty good even though I don't like the hook quite as much. Each of the trio are performing pretty good verses and while the beat is a bit of a typical trap affair they sound extremely comfortable and slick over it. Finally the closing track Need It was a single from last year that I had completely forgotten about but I was happy to be reminded of it as it still sounds pretty great here.
These highlight do translate onto a couple of songs here where the trio don't need any flashy features to pull off an interesting Migos track. Jane is a total banger with catchy refrains and a high intensity performance. It is the one track here that most feels like it belongs on the original Culture. Why Not is probably the slickest and catchiest of the deep cuts with a total earworm hook and verses full of infectious bars and flows. A couple of the records other best tracks come with some of the high profile features. Malibu surprised me as rising star Polo G features on the song and delivers quite an exciting verse. The wandering horns in the beat add some real texture to the tune and Takeoff cleans the whole track up with a killer closing verse.
Antisocial is a pretty interesting track that is almost like a Migos ballad alongside Juice WRLD. I like that they try and switch it up here and get a bit more personal even if the results aren't necessarily my favorite. It's a breath of fresh air on the record and always nice to hear another good Juice WRLD performance. Light It Up features Pop Smoke and has the Migos rapping over a drill beat. While they are goin a bit harder than normal it is hard for them to hold up to the style vocally in the way that Pop Smoke does. Its a better song in reality than I would have imagined it in concept which is something I give it credit for. Finally Having Our Way is a Drake song. He dominates the entire first half of the track while lyrically leaving Takeoff out of a list of the Migos for some hilarious reason. It's a decent Drake tune and he's certainly the best part of the track overall, though I wish the song had appeared later on in the tracklist.
That's about half of the tracklist and if I were to go over every single song here there would be a lot of repeating myself so I'll try and be quick about it. Thankfully a lot of the songs here are merely generic rather than terrible. Type Shit is a moderately exciting song that has been turning heads with a Cardi B feature but outside of her the track is just alright. Vaccine is a bit of a unique song with a loose lyrical theme that makes references to COVID throughout a few of which are kind of funny. What You See is a decent love song with Justin Bieber where as Time For Me is another attempt at a personal track that doesn't land quite as well as Antisocial. There are a few other tracks like Birthday and Roadrunner here that sort of blend in but sound fine while they're on.
The worst songs on the record are Picasso which features Future as well as plenty of terrible singing from everyone involved. The disturbingly long and painfully mediocre Mahomes which in no way resembles the subject of its title. Modern Day and Handle My Business are also among the weakest tracks here but thankfully they don't too much time here.
Culture III is what I expected it to be. It's bloated, sonically consistent but creatively very inconsistent, trap music. If you're familiar with the trio or more specifically the brand of modern trap to which they've been highly influential, there is something here for you. But I can't imagine even the most dedicated of fans will enjoy everything the Migos deliver on the record, that bar being even less for casual fans. That bar for me hovers around half the songs here which have something or other good enough for me to want to revisit going forward. That is far from the worst record, or even worst trap record that I've heard all year so honestly I can't be THAT disappointed by the project. Ultimately it is about what I expected, even though I has been holding onto some hope that it may have been more. 5.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
