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Aug 7, 2017All in all, 21 Savage manages to craft a fairly concise project with Issa Album about all the things that make him such a compelling rapper in today’s hip-hop landscape.
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Jul 25, 2017Despite expectations, it’s an utter joy to listen to--a simple display of what 21 Savage sounds like when he’s having fun rapping.
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Jul 20, 2017Issa Album contains some of 21 Savage’s best and most fully realized songs to date--especially “Bank Account” and “Bad Business.”
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Jul 14, 2017The constant vitriol is made scarier by his choice to rap in a stuporous, incantatory monotone. The music here--forbidding snares, honking staccato keyboards--is same-y but effective.
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Jul 13, 2017The budding star easily could have played it safe and stuck to a winning formula, which remains a strong suit (i.e. Issa’s “Bank Account” and “Close My Eyes”). Instead, he challenged himself to be more musically ambitious. While his experiments didn’t produce dynamic results, the positives overshadow the negatives.
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Jul 13, 2017For better or worse the album also achieves a certain bland uniformity at times by staying so true to the trap aesthetic and having Metro Boomin produce so much of the music. It's not ill-conceived, it's just that it all winds up becoming a bit monotonous if you don't randomize it and/or mix in some songs by other artists.
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Jul 13, 2017He is so compelling when he digs deeper into his psyche this way, providing more than superficiality, but there aren’t enough of these moments to sustain Issa Album, which is as basic as its title.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 32 out of 78
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Mixed: 25 out of 78
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Negative: 21 out of 78
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Sep 28, 2017
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Aug 21, 2017
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Aug 6, 2017