Joey Bada$$ is a miracle. At a time when New York and East Coast hip-hop as a collective was being mocked, ridiculed and disdained, Joey, this wiry, wide-eyed 18-year-old kid dropped his first mixtape, 1999, and changed the status and esteem of a whole coast.
ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ is Joey’s second proper LP, a project he is dropping with major hype at his heels. Besides gaining notoriety for his freestyle prowess, Joey has also been making some high quality singles. One of the best singles of the year is “Front & Center,” a phenomenal track with a perfect sample and a riveting bass-line. The drums here are a joy to listen to, and Joey absolutely tears through his verse.
Unfortunately, the other big Joey Bada$$ song of the year, “DEVASTATED,” is one that disappointed me and many of his fans. It isn’t necessarily a bad song, but it shows a transformation from the Joey who rapped over old New York boom-bap beats in his bedroom to the Joey who feels the need to make radio hits.
Some hoped that in the context of the album, it would develop into a greater piece, but it remains a lackluster song with a simple melody and some uninteresting verses. This is a prevalent theme throughout the entirety of his second LP.
The songs that Joey makes on ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ are far more accessible and radio-friendly than his earlier works. Unfortunately, this leads to a far more uninteresting and uninspired track listing.
I guess the worst part of this project is the lack of memorability. I got through the whole tracklist and could honestly name no songs other than “ROCKABYE BABY,” “DEVASTATED” and “RING THE ALARM” (with Nyck Caution, Kirk Knight and Meechy Darko). Not one of the songs on this project is fundamentally bad. A lot of them are just bland.
I blame the production, not Joey himself. The beats, while technically serviceable, have a bland, grey feeling. Past Joey songs, like “My Yout” (with Maverick Sabre) and “Waves” have a character and flow to them that can be found nowhere else. The beats for a lot of the songs on this project sound like default boom-bap freestyle beats on a free app.
I also think that the singing plays into the dullness of the project. While Joey can hammer out some notes, and it serves to continue the melodies, it isn’t very pleasing and honestly ruins the vibe of some of the songs. “LEGENDARY,” featuring J. Cole, is one such song: It sounds a lot like a salvaged cut off of 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
This is the culmination of the fear that I had when “DEVASTATED” came out. While the verses on the track are good, the beat is less chill-hop and more snooze-hop. It calls back to the beats that Guru could have rapped over in Jazzmatazz but slowed and slightly more tame.
While there is a major theme to this project, the racism and hatred that America was built on, the motif isn’t presented in a very interesting or delicate way. The same brutal, unsubtle style of the album’s title and cover image (Joey throwing up middle fingers while carrying an American flag) persists through the whole album.
This is surprising considering Joey is one of the best artists at hinting at secondary meanings and messages. Songs like “Y U DON’T LOVE ME? (MISS AMERIKKKA)” have such blatant messages in, “America don’t love me/Whole country turn on me,” that it feels more like a lecture than a layered detailed rap song.
The all-caps titles of tracks are another symptom of this over-eager, over-earnest attitude.
This shouldn’t give anyone the impression that Joey raps poorly or fails to deliver lyrically. Joey, as expected, spits incredibly on this project. The best parts of this project are his verses.
The song “RING THE ALARM” is exactly the kind of music I want Joey to continue making. The melody is catchy and somewhat retro-sounding. It is simple but layered and smooth.
Joey bounces on it with his choppy flow, building up entendre after entendre. Lines like, “Dripping in gold since a minor/miner” are great examples of Joey’s power with wordplay.
Overall, there are some great parts to this album, but they are watered down by a few unfortunate decisions. I hope that with his following work, Joey focuses on the bars and the production over the accessibility of the songs.
