“When it comes to music, I don’t look at it as like, ‘Oh, you have to drop every year,’” ScHoolboy Q said in an interview last year. “As an artist, if I bring nothing to the table that comes from my life, I don’t feel I should put it out.” Fortunately, a lot has changed for the Los Angeles native, and for the better. The infamous bucket hat, emblematic of a lifestyle he no longer desires, has been replaced with a golf cap. This real-life metaphor illustrates the many roles he currently plays as an artist, borrowing from the past while craftily navigating his future. In light of this transformation, it took the Top Dawg Entertainment MC just one month to reclaim his spot after nearly five years of inactivity. While many artists fall behind due to shifting trends and the public’s short attention span, Q announced plans for his next full-length venture on February 1, 2024, and previewed it two fragments at a time every week, drawing the entire Hip Hop community’s attention. With one of the most effective rollouts in recent history, the 18 tracks on “Blue Lips” unfolded on March 1, revealing a mix of old habits, contradictions, clarity, and discernment. The album harbors no regrets, as the rapper’s past instability seems to fuel his progress. Golfer Q isn’t running from his demons but instead keeps them at bay, using them as a contrast to highlight his advancement. The optimistic and self-assured transparency of the LP is fueled by a controlled dramatism, allowing Q to sustain the fervor that made him a key figure in the 2010s while giving him the space to look ahead with caution. Despite the absence of a defined theme, the project is held together by a cohesion that distinguishes it from a mere compilation of singles.
The hypnotic and carnivalesque intro “Funny Guy” sets the tone, marked by ruminative lament and awareness. This theme takes fuller shape in the symphonic “Blueslides,” where Q reflects on the 2018 passing of Mac Miller, prompting him to clean up his act: “Lost a homeboy to drugs, man, I ain’t trynna go backwards.” The album reaches a peak with “Lost Times,” featuring lessons learned in recent years with bars like “Death and beauty all alike” and “First we gotta learn how to fail/ We all seen Hell,” produced by The Alchemist. Tracks like “Cooties,” “Nunu,” and “Germany 86′” add to the whimsical and soul-touching highlights of “Blue Lips.” On the flipside, a few tracks build on the trappy vigor that made ScHoolboy Q a staple in Hip Hop’s party circuit a decade ago. Despite the depths this LP explores, songs like “Yeern 101,” “Back n Love,” and “Pig Feet” are its most avoidable, though they serve their purpose. Adding to the mix, “Pop” stands out with one of the album’s most captivating beats and a standout feature from Rico Nasty, who appears in the last 15 seconds, setting a key precedent: ensure to listen to each track fully as they often evolve from start to finish, making the project engaging throughout its 56-minute runtime. The album is loaded with curveballs, with certain tracks made up of two or more songs, like mashups that shouldn’t work in theory but do—tracks like “THank god 4 me,” “Love Birds,” “Movie,” and “First” fit this description. Most notably, the Freddie Gibbs-assisted “oHio” has three parts that fuse seamlessly, transitioning from a ’70s porn theme to a quivering bassline to the closing credits of a noir film.
In other cases, the contrast is even broader, yet Q’s flexibility, combined with his ability to make every word count like Pusha T and recharge his voice like Yasiin Bey, makes each passage harmonious. An orderly union of sunshine, overcast skies, rain, and starry nights, “Blue Lips” transitions from bouncy to sedated to lit to pensive, prompting an involuntary submission to its charmingly erratic rhythm. When the production stagnates, lyrical content and vocal performance compensate, with cameos from Lance Skiiiwalker, Jozzy, Devin Malik, and Childish Major. While some listeners might question if ScHoolboy Q’s latest offering was worth the wait, his remarkable growth suggests that years of experience can produce the richest music, especially in a word-heavy genre like rap.
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