Fetty Wap - Zoovier

Fetty Wap
Zoovier
2016
Spotify

Zoovier is the somewhat odd word that Fetty Wap uses in almost all of his songs and is now the title of the follow up to his self titled debut. It seems to be his "yeah" or "uh" in terms of hip hop, which for better or worse is fine. Zoovier always had an uphill battle in front of it with the massive success that was "Trap Queen" and all of Fetty Wap as a whole. The first issue with the mixtape however is DJ L. The man cannot keep his mouth shut and just make a beat for a single song, instead he will yell his name throughout each and every one. What is so maddening about this is the DJ doesn't match his vocals to that of the artist so his shout outs stick out like a sore thumb. Even songs you may find yourself liking are ruined by this bullshit. This has plagued mixtapes for years and years and I had hoped that by 2016 we would be beyond this lunacy, but DJ L has proved me wrong. DJ L however is not the only one making stupid choices on the record however Fetty manages to make more than a few of his own. On "Shorty" he is autotuned within an inch of his life as He fumbles his way through this clunky love song. Track after track fails to make an impact, and they just keep coming with over an hour of music and 19 tracks. This would be fine if the tracks were short and direct, but "Priceless" is over five minutes most of which is chirping, what are we doing here?

The thing about this record, or whatever Fetty decided to do to following his first album, is that it needed to be fire. He has been on to many large stages, and in everyone's ear almost non-stop for a year and thus this needed to pull him away from just being the "Trap Queen" guy. His way of pulling away form that image is rapping more, stripping down the beats and getting down to Trap basics. The problem is turns the dial back on his sound rather than pushing it forward. Rapping was never what we liked about Fetty Wap in the first place and you'll be hard pressed to find a decent zinger anywhere on the whole record. He also gives so much time to no names on the album who add almost nothing. On "Strapped Up Shawty" Fetty and Bricc baby sound so incredibly similar that it is hard to tell who is saying the exact same line over and over and over. "Island On My Chain" has probably 10 vocal lines going on a once, one singing in the rest doing some form of chirping, and the sound is confusing, off putting and in a word bad. "King Zoo" features 21 Savage who delivers what has to be one of the worst verses of 2016, no joke. It is so strange because it seems like vocally Fetty Wap can do almost anything, anything except this apparently. Call it a sophomore slump if you will but if Fetty continues in this direction we likely will not be hearing his name much more.

3.0 out of 10