Big Sean & Metro Boomin - Double or Nothing

Big Sean & Metro Boomin
Double or Nothing
2017
Spotify

Metro Boomin is at the absolute height of his trap powers with the sound He is so proficient in is continually taking over pop music. I've made my thoughts on Big Sean before, I think He's a great rapper when He features but on his own albums He always feels like He never brings the same thunder as when He is on someone else's track. That is why this album is so inciting, Sean doesn't have to carry it.  Big Sean is solo on only four of the ten tracks which is a huge boost because He can sneak in, pick his punches and get out rather than having to create a theme and a full narrative. Here is the thing about this record though, it feels like a B-side collection. These are not Metro's best beats nor are they Big Sean's best rhymes. You can hear it from the first moment, things just feel slightly off even Metro Boomin's stupid fucking shout outs. It just feels like every rapper is sleep walking through this thing, something that Big Sean's projects have suffered from since the beginning. It is almost like Big Sean is so good that He doesn't even have to try to get something passable, and that is all the effort He will be putting in. "Pull Up N Wreck" with 21 Savage is so boring that before you can even conjure a thought in your mind it blends into "So Good" one of the better produced tracks on the album. However the song is so overly sexual, and Big Sean barely gets over a whisper. The lyrics are just complete fucking gore to the point where it just feels totally icky and I ain't no fucking square dude. There is something to be said for subtlety of which this track has none.

You see the stars on this record, and it should not be this bad. It's completely frustrating and after 30 minutes in it feels like an absolute waste of time. It never clicks into gear, it just sort of moves along at this glacial pace. "Even the Odds" features Young Thug who sounds nothing like himself on this track and it ends up being an absolute snoozer. Metro Boomin stretches his legs occasionally on tracks like "In Tune" and "So Good" but nothing near as exciting as some of the stuff hHe has produced for other rappers. I mean you can't even really bop to this shit, it's really that boring. Maybe this was a throwaway, maybe it was B-sides, but regardless this record is not very good at all. BIg Sean just seems to think He can put in as little effort as possible and still make bangers but this album proves once again that that simply is not true anymore.

5.0 out of 10