2000 - Joey Badass: Review
Joey Bada$$
is a New York rapper and member of the Pro Era collective who broke onto the scene a decade ago with a now-classic debut mixtape 1999 which was released when Joey was still a teenager. After pivoting from his NY boom-bap style into a more conscious and political focus on is 2017 album All-Amerikkkan Bada$$, Joey is returning with 2000, a sequel to his original breakout mixtape.
Review by Lav:
Despite a discography that is pretty slim compared to some of his contemporaries, largely due to the 5-year gap between studio albums, Joey Badass has carved out a place for himself among the top-tier artists of today. He did this by emerging as an extremely talented individual at a very young age and continuing to impress with both his music and his far-reaching collaborations. Even though I've enjoyed some of his side work ultimately this is what I was waiting for, not only a full-length return from Joey but also a project that's thematically connected to his still legendary breakout tape. While I don't think this record will set the world on fire nor is it Joey's best project to date but after so long it just feels good to have him back.
I'm gonna cover this album in two halves for reasons that will become much more clear when I cover the second half. Earlier on the album we get two of the record's singles both of which I really enjoy. Where I Belong has an irresistible beat and a hook that did feel a bit goofy at first but grew on me quickly. The other single Zipcodes is even better and features one of the best beats on the entire album with great percussion and soaring horns. The track also has a near endless stream of catchy bars that I can't help but love.
The other major highlight is Brand New 911 which sports a great Westside Gunn feature. If you have any experience with Griselda you'll notice right away that this has a LOT of similarities with their style from the short looped jazz instrumental to the slow flows and constant backing adlibs. It's essentially a Griselda track reshaped to fit Joey's form and it works perfectly. Beyond that the rest of the songs on the first half at least have something going for them, though they are often fumbled before achieving their full potential.
The Baddest is a fitting introduction to the record with an Erick The Architect beat made up of piano keys and snapping. Joey shows his pen game right away with a great line about rappers being "backed by their label" whereas he is "back by popular demand". It also introduces something that Joey will do often on the album, using veteran rappers for spoken word intros and outros to add credibility to his place in the hip hop world and his come-up. For this song he gets Diddy who also stop by to provide the driest hook on the entire album. Eulogy is also pretty close to being great, it certainly achieves an impressive level of lyrical focus. The one thing about the track that really confuses me is the vocal effects that emerge later on in the song and if anything make it harder to take seriously.
Make Me Feel is basically a three minute bar fest that foregoes much structure in favor of basically one long verse. Given that the lyrical performance is basically the main appeal of the song I do kind of wish Joey had honed in his pen game a little bit and avoided some of the more cliché moments. The best example of this probably being the line "new Presi' on my wrist, call it Joe Biden". Cruise Control is the song that gives me the most trouble because it has almost everything it needs to be great, but it's a masterclass in how to ruin a rap song with an awful beat. Joey's singing voice has made some major improvements and he shows it off with the tracks excellent chorus and on the verses he delivers some authentically reflective meditations that I really enjoy. Even the triumphant Nas outro is compelling there really is a lot to like about the song. Unfortunately, the Mike Will Made It beat is one of the lamest things I've heard all year which delivers absolutely no intensity and does nothing to actually help the song.
The second half of the record gets off to a ROUGH start with the album's two worst tracks back to back. One Of Us is a soul-inspired cut with such a muddy mix that it takes absolutely all of the punch out of Joey's vocals. Far worse however is Welcome Back. If you like sex jams that were clearly written by men and never shown to any women in the entire process of writing, recording and release, this might be your favorite song of the year. On top of the overwhelming masculine arrogance of it all the beat is weirdly synthetic and not at all sexy so the whole song is just confusing.
So up to this point, there's been some great songs, some okay songs, and some duds. Thankfully, we're done with that dichotomy because starting with Show Me and lasting all the way to the end of the album it is absolutely excellent. Show Me is a much better attempt at conjuring romantic feelings which pulls off a MUCH more genuine sentiment. Joey translates so much desire through his lyrics about how badly he wants to care for and provide for the people he loves while also explaining how he's come to feel that way. The only thing I don't like about the track are Joey's singing vocals on the bridge which really could have used another take. While we're on the subject of authenticity Wanna Be Loved is a great ode to the universal desire to belong. Joey and JID both deliver different takes on this and not only do they both hit it out of the park but their different approaches complement each other really well.
After this, we get the record other two singles, two of my favorite singles I've heard in all of 2022 period. Head High features an absolutely excellent hook and even though it deals in themes that are common for hip hop it still finds a rewarding way to approach them. Joey's whole second verse about meeting XXXTENTACION is probably the record's single standout moment. Somehow even better is the next track Survivor's Guilt which serves as a eulogy to both Capital Steez and one of Joey's cousins and sees him diving into the burden he feels to achieve the greatness both were capable of. Joey expresses this in a way that feels so personal and compelling and so many of the references to Steez and Pro Era as well as the vocal samples that close the song out are fan service of the absolute best kind.
This leads us back to Written In The Stars a dramatic finale full of self-reflection and details of the motivation Joey has as an artist going forward. His take on this formula is absolutely wonderful not only as he has a lot to say on the matter, but also because he maintains a level of excitement and interest through his performance that I find irresistible.
2000 isn't perfect but I don't think it really needed to be. Joey faced down high expectations and proved exactly why he is one of the best rappers still active today. While I wish some of his experiments had been left on the cutting room floor or had the slight adjustments necessary to elevate them to the level of the rest of these songs, this is still certain to be among the more interesting and memorable rap records to drop in the second half of 2022. While I do have plenty to complain about across the album's 52 minutes, the overall feeling of a listen through the album is much more positive and Joey's impressive performances are much more memorable than any of the slip-ups. 7/10
Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:
This album is well composed and I like the idea but it could have been elevated a lot. If Joey was overlayed with the text, making it more of a background rather than just putting text on top of an image it would have brought out the subject more and made him pop. The colors are dull and melt together making it all look muddy. I love the way my eye moves through this and I think with just a few tweaks it could have been much, much better. 4/10
For more hip hop check out my review of Lupe Fiasco's Drill Music In Zion here
