21 Savage - american dream: Review
Review by Lav:
I was pretty damn excited for this album. From his breakthrough around 2015 leading up to his sophomore album i am > i was, 21 Savage underwent one of the greatest and quickest artistic improvements I've ever witnessed in hip hop. That left me pretty excited for what he's gonna do next. While his output in the years since certainly hasn't been bad, he hasn't continued progressing artistically in the way I had hoped. I was really excited to see him cross paths with Metro Boomin for a second time on 2020's Savage Mode II but the album didn't really live up to the hype I had for it. On the other hand, I was pretty surprised by just how good his collab album with Drake Her Loss was in 2022.
That led us to american dream, the long-awaited third solo studio album from Savage. The album dropped with no singles and was only announced just a few days before its release. Without much to set expectations for the record in advance, I'll start the review right where much of the discussion surrounding the album began, the features. There's a variety of high-profile guests in the mix and for the most part, they deliver.
The best of the bunch in dangerous which features one of the best Lil Durk performances I've ever heard. He sounds absolutely hungry and lethal on a killer feature with both he and Savage effortlessly crushing the beat. prove it with Summer Walker is also great even though it'll feel familiar to fans of rap/R&B crossovers. Save for a bad lyric here and there I also like nee-nah with Travis Scott and Metro Boomin. It's the kind of expansive and cinematic cut that Travis has always sounded so great over and everyone feels in their element on the track.
Doja Cat makes an appearance I was surprised to see on n. h. i. e. Thankfully though, she and Savage both dig into their very lowkey demeanors in a way that weirdly works well together with the subject matter of their respective verses being so different. pop ur shit is almost a good song with a dark, expansive instrumental that sounds like if Metro Boomin made a Bond theme. It also has a damn good Young Thug verse who has as much chemistry with Savage as ever. The only unfortunate part is that right at the peak moment of the song Savage delivers a poop bar so astonishingly bad that I can't possibly believe it made it through any kind of quality control.
Speaking of Young Thug, his girlfriend Mariah The Scientist assists on the album's finale dark days. Savage spends the song getting real about the darkest parts of the lifestyle he so often glorifies. He even mentions moments where he's contemplated suicide in the past which is more vulnerable than I was expecting. Thankfully Savage manages to meet the serious moment with the right emotional weight.
That gets me into one of the biggest issues I have with the record, Savage's lyricism. One of the biggest ways he improved his artistry on early albums is by tackling difficult subject matter with a surprising level of introspection. But on this album it's almost like he's gone backwards. So many of these more serious songs completely undermine their serious subject matter with awful lyrical moments. It gets started right away with All Of Me and the issue pops up again on red shy, even if that isn't my only issue with that song.
Alongside the closer, one of my favorite of the introspective cuts is letter to my brudda. Savage speaks pretty directly on his experiences and the feeling of being trapped by his environment and routines. Most importantly it avoids any laughably bad bars that ruin the entire experience. While we're talking writing I also think just like me is a solid cut whose topical focus is among the best on the album. It's good enough to overcome a pretty painfully monotone performance from Burna Boy on the hook.
Even Savage's bangers which are normally on point are a bit all over the place here. redrum is supposed to be the big hit song of the bunch but I'm not 100% sure why. It's just an okay song with rhyme schemes on the verses that are incredibly lame and forgettable. The beat is solid but the hook isn't THAT memorable but the biggest issue is that the song doesn't develop at all which makes its runtime feel like forever. sneaky has the exact same problem. It gets off to a decent start but is absolutely BEGGING for some kind of more interesting flow development of change of any kind as it gets so monotonous as it goes on.
Like 21 Savage's past few collaborative albums, american dream isn't bad. The record has more good songs than bad ones and sports numerous massive highlights like dangerous and dark days. But once again I feel somewhat let down by the results here. As a follow-up to 2018's i am > i was Savage very much feels like he isn't better now than he was. For the third straight time I'm coming away from one of his projects appreciative of what he delivered, but wishing for so much more. 6/10
For more 21 Savage check out my review of Her Loss and Savage Mode II
