New album is a homage to feature culture and the hard work he has done on other projects. An effort comprising of 25 tracks, has Griffin Jr put in the work for his latest jaunt?
VERDICT:
Beginning with a smooth lace of beats ‘Temptation‘ features Kid Cudi, and starts the album with a slow trip diving into well-constructed production by Hit-Boy, Skrillex with input from James Blake.
Featuring appearances from Post Malone on tracks like ‘Spicy‘ the album offers some hope that there is a return to flow and dense quality. Though it teeters on the edge of mumble rap, there is a consistency that is appealing.
‘Track 6‘ features Kanye West, Anderson .Paak and Thundercat and is an instant classic with fusions of strings, tech and jazz assemblage. When we come to ‘Expensive‘ with Nicki Minaj that strums bass-heavy beats over acoustic licks it is rescued only by her, though it barely lasts 2 minutes. If not for its guitar sample, it would be lost as Ty is substandard and Minaj exposes her counterpart.
‘Tyrone 2021‘ begins with the impression it is going to be a worthy addition and is liberated only by an appearance from Big Sean who injects a heavy dose of spit and rhyme.
‘Time will tell‘ is one of the only tracks that is thoughtfully put together and demonstrates what Ty can do with an infectious chorus. ‘Powder‘ strengthens the backbone missing from this album and reaches out to Gunna where he patches holes in a release that is overall, severely lacking.
The album is a playlist of both club and smooth beats that are well-composed productions laced with some chrome busting dramatics. The unfortunate thing about it is that ‘Featuring‘ would be better off without Ty Dolla Sign. His obsession with utilising autotune both subtly and unapologetically has become a boresome eyeroll. Even though it probes feature culture, it is still his album and the 25 long tracklist does not live up to the excitement. I feel ‘Featuring‘ could have been better suited to someone else.
“Featuring Ty Dolla Sign” maybe 25 tracks long, but it is a far cry from the hard work of double albums put out by other artists. Putting out something filled with features with songs that are little over 2 minutes long shows a lack of commitment to a project that could have been much better. But durations aside, its content and make-up stray only a step away from the sound of others and ultimately ‘Featuring” is an album afraid to be something of its own. Once again, the industry has birthed an EP masquerading as an LP. It’s still good for background listening, but if you’re looking for artistry, unfortunately, you will need to look elsewhere.
Stanisland Magazine 