YG - Red Friday


YG
Red Friday
2016
Spotify

Red Friday the surprise mixtape from YG sees the LA rapper fall back on the old G-Funk style that he incorporated so well into his most recent record Still Brazy. The first full track "I'm a Thug Pt. 2" sounds like it could have come straight off of a 2 Short album. The rest of the album follows suit, never really progressing the rappers career in any real way. he is happy to sit in the lane with these eight tracks and never really try anything new. YG as the gangster is still quite compelling giving us stories from Compton that we never really expected to hear. YG is  soldier first and rapper second and that comes through in his music. However while Still Brazy was refreshing in it's throwback to G-Funk here it just feels stale and uninspired. Save a few lines here and there YG sounds a great deal more like The Game than He ever has before and that is not a good thing. Red Friday seems more like a placeholder for YG than anything else, an excuse to release a few songs that would not make the cut for Still Brazy without showing his hand for the next record.

His features also take a fall off a clip in terms of fame. While Still Brazy was chalked full of stars elevating the record and YG's performance for that matter, Red Friday is totally missing that. This is not to say that RJmrLA, MITCH and 21 Savage are inherently bad, they just aren't as good as Drake, Kamiyah and Lil Wayne. Red Friday also seems lees autobiographical and more focused on creating tracks that you can bang to without thinking to much. This is what really gives the record its uninspired feel, you can really tell that YG is beyond this sound and most of his lyrics seem boring. Even the DJ Mustard produced "Down Bitch" is so basic in it's lyrics that you can't quite believe that this is really YG. Much of Hip Hops appeal is based in believing what the rappers are saying, if you can sense they are being disingenuous it immediately takes you out of the song. That is where we end up on Red Friday, it seems just an excuse to release something, even if that something kinda sucks.

4.0 out of 10

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