Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry: Pharrell vs. Ye

For the 1st time since Pusha T & his brother Malice were together as The Clipse, super producer Pharrell reunites with Pusha on his latest album, It’s Almost Dry. It’s the type of reunion where you may not see each other for years but once you’re back together it feels like you’ve never skipped a beat. Pharrell uses his beats to match Pusha’s delivery on some of the album’s standout tracks. Let The Smokers Shine The Coupes has Pusha in his zone rapping “If kilograms is the groove/I done sold the golden goose/I got ’em, baby, I’m Jim Perdue/Cocaine’s Dr. Seuss.”

One can argue, and they would have a fair point, that Pusha’s subject matter outside of crime/drug stories is limited but Pusha is such the lyricist that he can make a story you’ve heard over & over again feel fresh. No where is that evident than the Jay-Z assisted Neck & Wrist. Pharrell’s lush, mid-tempo beat serves wonderfully for the two emcees. Both are at their arrogant best with Jay rapping at the end, “If BIG was alive, HOV wouldn’t be in this position/If BIG had survived, y’all would have got The Commission/Hov was gon’ always be HOV/It ’twas the universe will ’cause Allah said so, and now I’m here.”

Call My Bluff picks up where Neck & Wrist left off with Pusha daring his critics to challenge his success or question his resolve to settle matters. “Rather watch the sunset in Turks & Caicos/Eating conch fritters with chips and queso’s/Don’t make me call my TTG’s with Draco’s/Who all got amnesia until the case closed”.

While Pharrell delivers once again with his production, it’s Kanye West who outshines them all with his production. Just So You Remember recalls the lush & dark grooves of Daytona’s Infrared as Pusha raps, “Just so you remember who you dealin’ with/Look outside, the landscape ridiculous/Motion lights surrounded meticulous/Architectural Digest my premises.” I Pray For You finds Kanye dropping a bass rich uptempo track over organs and operatic chants as King Push reunites with his brother Malice. Malice boasts, “I don’t Hellcat, still paddle when I shift/Vietnam flashbacks, I get triggered by a sniff/Today’s top fives only strengthenin’ my myth/Belong on Rushmore just from chiselin’ a brick”.

Ye samples a Fat Joe IG feed quote (yesterday’s price is not today’s price!) to open Diet Coke while Pusha raps, “Imaginary players ain’t been coached right/Master recipes under stove lights/The number on this jersey is the quote price/You ordered Diet Coke, that’s a joke, right?/Everybody get it off the boat, right?/But only I can really have a snow fight.”

The true standout track of the album is the Ye-produced Dreamin’ Of The Past. Kanye originally wanted this beat for his own album, 2021’s Donda, but Push convinced Ye to put it on his album with the olive branch that Ye could be the feature. Over a smooth sample of Donny Hathaway’s amazing Jealous Guy, Push reminds everyone, “It’s levels, it’s layers, so pray for the players, uh/We hollowed the walls in back of bodegas, uh”.

While It’s Almost Dry is not quite as tight as 2018’s Daytona, it still finds Pusha T effortlessly conjuring vivid images through his flawless delivery.

Overall Grade: B+/A-

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

As Kendrick Lamar laments on the opening track of his new album, it’s been 1,855 days since since last album, 2017’s Grammy & Pulitzer Prize winning Damn, was released. Five years feels like 20 in today’s instant gratification society so one can understand why this album was so heavily anticipated. Part of the reason for the delay was Kung Fu Kenny admitting that at one point he had writer’s block. He begged God to give him something to talk about and boy, oh boy did we get it with Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. A double album that features 18 tracks at just over 75 minutes, MMTBS finds Kendrick unapologetic, introspective, vulnerable, self-critical and ultimately brave. This album is a hard but necessary listen(and by listen I mean REALLY listen). It’s an album that won’t be able to be digested over 1 or 2 listens. It’s that deep and engaging.

The opening track United in Grief finds Kendrick lamenting, “I’ve been going through somethin’/One-thousand-eight-hundred and fifty-five days/I’ve been going through somethin’/Be afraid.” Kendrick talks about how society “grieves” in different ways through whatever dilemmas we face. For Lamar, it’s materialism & “first tour sex the pain away”.

N95 has Kendrick wondering just who we all are behind the masks. Using the COVID pandemic as the backdrop Kendrick challenges society as he raps, “Take off the weird-a** jewelry, I’ma take ten steps, then I’m taking off top five/Take off them fabricated streams and them microwave memes, it’s a real world outside/… Take off the Chanel, take off the Dolce, take off the Birkin bag/Take all that designer bull**** off, and what do you have?”. He continues that mindset with Worldwide Steppers and even challenges his own misdeeds & missteps.

Father Time features Lamar exploring toxic masculinity that’s passed on from generation to generation. His real life fiancé Whitney Alford implores Kendrick to seek therapy at the beginning of the track and him rapping, “I come from a generation of home invasions and I got daddy issues, that’s on me”. Later in the song he says, “Lookin’ for, ‘I love you’, rarely empathizin’ for my relief/A child that grew accustomed, jumping up when I scraped my knee/’Cause if I cried about it, he’d surely tell me not to be weak/Daddy issues, hid my emotions, never expressed myself/Men should never show feelings, being sensitive never helped”. Kendrick even felt confused when Kanye & Drake buried their beef saying, “Guess I’m not as mature as I think, got some healin’ to do.”

Perhaps the most unsettling track on the album, We Cry Together details the toxicity of a relationship. Over a dark piano riff, Kendrick & acclaimed actress Taylour Paige trade explicit laden, hateful barbs at one another. Picture the argument Tupac & Janet Jackson had in Poetic Justice… and then multiply it by 100 – that’s how toxic the barbs are. Paige makes her rapping debut and effortlessly demonstrates the woman’s hurt and anger while Kendrick just as effectively hammers home his points. The horrid, detestable barbs reach a heightened tone when Paige raps that men are “the reason for Trump… the reason we overlooked, underpaid, under-booked, under shame… the reason Harvey Weinstein had to see his conclusion/You the reason R. Kelly can’t recognize that he’s abusive”. Kendrick shoots back, “We all know you still playin’ his music/Said I’m tired of these emotional-a**, ungrateful-a** b****es/Fake innocent, fake feminist, stop pretendin'”. The song ends with the two engaging in hate sex, sounds of tap dancing and Taylour saying “stop tap dancing around the conversation”. It’s a disturbing song that encapsulates how men & women don’t talk, don’t listen and don’t love.

Savior finds Kendrick, with some assistance from Sam Dew & Kendrick’s cousin Baby Keem, rapping about racial issues, COVID-19, political correctness and Lamar’s own shortcomings and misdeeds.

Auntie Diaries tells the story of how Kendrick dealt with family members who are transgender and how he also dealt with his own homophobia and use of the f-word. He criticizes himself, society at large and religious organizations’ views about the LGBTQ community. He ends the song by recalling a 2018 incident when he invited a white fan onstage and chastised her for using the n-word during a song. Kendrick says if people don’t have a problem saying the f-word then don’t have a problem when a white girl says the n-word during a song.

The standout track of this album is Mother I Sober. The song features Portishead’s Beth Gibbons as she sings, “I wish I was somebody/Anybody but myself/Ooh, I wish I was somebody/Anybody but myself”. Kendrick laments over his mother believing he was molested as a child which was the result of his mother’s own violation and her projections on him, his sex addictions which led to him cheating on his fiancé and how society’s ills have harmed the black community. He raps, “The devastation, hauntin’ generations and humanity/They raped our mothers, then they raped our sisters/Then they made us watch, then made us rape each other/Psychotic torture between our lives we ain’t recovered”.

If you were looking to bob your head like 2012’s good kid, m.A.A.d city then this album isn’t for you. This album is controversial… and a conversation starter. It’s unsettling and a hard listen but sometimes music needs to be that. Kendrick Lamar is at his lyrical best and at this moment he’s in rarified air. Kendrick’s pen is different. He is the storyteller and poet of our times. People will, and should, pour over this album’s heavy subject matter and it will force you to look in the mirror. We all need to heal in some way, shape or form. Kendrick Lamar is just daring enough to do it in front of millions.

Overall Grade: A+

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