Clams Casino - 32 Levels

Clams Casino
32 Levels
2016
Spotify

Seven years ago Clams Casino produced the track "I'm God" for rapper Lil B. The track was murky and was a sound that was so new to the hip hop world people originally balked. However in 2016 the Clams Casino inspired sound is the main template for rappers across the board. 32 Levels however is Clams' first feature length and his signal to the world that He is ready to break into the mainstream. From the outset you cannot separate Clams Casino and the BasedGod from each other. They have played off each other for years now, and their comfort level is palpable on the four tracks Lil B is featured on. It really does not feel like one is pulling the other to some new heights, but more like they work so great together that each brings out the best in the other. The album is 12 tracks long six of which are Clams refining and defining his hip hop style while the other six are more pop and R&B heavy. The album puts him at a crossroads where a foray into making pop music is one possibility or sticking with hip hop and perhaps becoming one of the best ever. The first look we get at a song with a more pop sensibility is "Skull". It skitters and flows through a hazy mist for about a minute. It sounds like the start to some ambient electronic music, but it ends abruptly and never really finishes what it begins.

This is one of the weaknesses of the record. The pop music section lacks a real diversity both from Clams' own style but also from the pop world at large. A song like "Thanks to You" is interesting but is just missing that extra something that would put it over the top. Trying to put the Clams Casino style in a pop context is valiant but the tracks are so much weaker than the hip hop ones that you just prefer they were not there. "All Nite" featuring Vince Staples is a real standout, and when you learn that it was recorded before Vince's stellar Summertime '06 Vince's confidence and ability are only that much more impressive. The thing we wonder when listening to this album is that Clams Casino is trying to decide whether He should stick with Hip Hop, or if he has the ability to make great songs in any genre. The answer is that He is perfectly fine at Pop, but his skill at hip hop production is on such a higher level that it makes the other tracks seem like excess weight. Perhaps it is better to be the best at one thing than it is to be pretty good at a bunch. The album ends with "Blast" another all instrumental and a fitting end. 32 Levels is certainly a good album, and for a "debut" wow, but you can only dream of how much better it could have been.

7.1 out of 10