Trippie Redd is one of many brightest lights of the primary wave of SoundCloud rap, the scene of boundary-pushing, genre-flouting youngsters who had been on the chopping fringe of music within the mid-2010s. From his debut mixtape, A Love Letter to You, he earned a fame as an inventive maverick, equally curious exploring “Love Scars” because the cloudy entice of “Romeo & Juliet,” and even traditionalist rap on “Can You Rap Like Me?“
For the previous seven years, he’s provided completely different components of himself. 2020’s Pegasus was a jaunt by means of moody R&B, the Travis Barker-assisted Pegasus: Neon Shark vs Pegasus explored High 40 rock, whereas 2021’s Journey at Knight was a visit again to SoundCloud heaven, buoyed by “Miss the Rage.” Trippie has returned to the identical properly on his newest venture, Mansion Musik, bringing alongside the vastly influential Chief Keef to executive-produce the venture. Their finish result’s a veritable museum of melody, as lots of the sport’s most renown crooners take turns getting in over the album’s prolonged 25-track playlist.
Whether or not Trippie is exploring murky, minimalist beats, tapping into his internal Tom DeLonge, or preventing with the rambunctious synth-driven manufacturing that Mansion Musik is stocked with, one factor is for sure: His voice goes to soar. Trippie’s vocal expertise are his defining attribute, and so they’re exemplified to nice impact on Mansion Musik. He’s belting for blood on the aptly-named “Totally Loaded,” with Future and Lil Child. He matches the late Juice WRLD’s conviction on “Knight Crawler,” wailing “Don’t know the place I’m from, don’t know the place I’ve been” with the despondency of somebody desperately looking for solutions. On “Killionaire,” he proves he’s nonetheless acquired his fundamentals down, spitting with a comparatively simple triplet movement that’s the closest he involves appeasing traditionalists. On “Die Die,” Trippie goes by means of each method without delay, shifting gears each couple of bars. By placing 25 tracks on this launch, he’s tasked himself with discovering methods to maintain issues fascinating over the course of an extended album, and his vocal theatrics do their greatest. Even on his solo tracks, his lively ad-libs and vocal variances make it sound like he’s going back-and-forth with himself.
Most of his friends maintain up their finish of the deal as properly. Travis Scott delivers a winding verse on “Krzy Practice” that veers from rapping to Auto-Tuned howls. Future additional entrenches his fame as a characteristic killer on his two appearances. Ditto for Lil Child, although he sounds extra invigorated on “Darkish Brotherhood” than on “Totally Loaded.” On “Hideout,” Fijimacintosh’s heavy Auto-Tune makes him sound like he’s sinking into producer LOESOE’s cyber sonics. Rylo Rodriguez’s muddy Atlanta twang on “Witchcraft” supplies one of many album’s most compelling textures. Chief Keef makes his presence felt on his two appearances, characteristically subverting listener expectations by leaping on a vocal contortionist’s album and rapping lucidly on “Rock Out.”
It’s nice that Trippie reached out to Keef, a beloved forefather of SoundCloud rap. His fingerprints are all around the album. However even when they weren’t, Keef’s affect would nonetheless be current. So many listeners consider the spacey-trap soundscape that Trippie, Playboi Carti, and Uzi discover is a post-Entire Lotta Pink creation, however that’s not fairly true. Remnants of Mansion Musik’s manufacturing hint again to Keef’s mid-2010s output, together with his 2017 Dedication venture, the place he linked with producers D. Wealthy and Stuntman to craft a collection of beats filled with whirling synths and spastic drum programming that sound match to attain a Snow on tha Bluff and Star Trek crossover. That soundbed dominates Mansion Musik, with LOESOE, BOSLEY, NADDDOT, and UK24 collectively making the album a frenetic, unearthly expertise round Trippie’s melodies. “DIE DIE” is an 8-bit hellscape. “Free Rio” meshes chilling digital composition with Detroit drums. The seesaw synth loop on “Knight Crawler” grips listeners, with the engineer expertly melding their ad-libs into one other instrument.
However all just isn’t as excellent because it might sound within the Mansion. As compelling as Trippie’s vocals and manufacturing are, every monitor leaves the listener feeling like he might be doing extra as a songwriter. There’s a false impression that melody-driven artists don’t prioritize bars, however that’s not essentially true. Take Chief Keef himself, who’s prime to lace his vocal experimentation with a confounding line like “Had a dream and seen Eminem on lean.” Trippie’s character is felt by means of his vocal presence, and he’s a sound technical author, however his precise content material doesn’t veer past sexual conquests and hard discuss. That alone isn’t a nasty factor, however maybe thematic enlargement would have elicited extra possibilities for compelling lyricism. Take his “Swag From Ohio” remake with Lil B. He’s on a monitor with the man who rapped “Bitch suck my dick ‘trigger I appear like Frasier,” and doesn’t attempt to take any huge swings lyrically. On the festivals and live shows Trippie headlines, DJs love dropping the beat on sure bars to let the followers scream it in unison; it’s questionable if there are moments like that on Mansion Musik.
However general, Trippie’s unmistakable mic presence, and ear for beats make the highs of Mansion Musik an general fulfilling expertise.