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Feb 24, 2014The wonders never cease on this adventurous and street-tough effort, but they never sort themselves well, either, and with accessible highlights like "Blind Threats," "Break the Bank," and "Man of the Year" all bundled toward the end, this LP requires a surprising amount of patience.
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Feb 28, 2014Interscope’s trust in TDE saves the album from the awkward test tube collaborations that bog down many of its peers, but Oxymoron’s doubling down on a reliable formula makes for a relatively risk-averse listen.
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Feb 27, 2014Once the songs open up, once the mind begins latching onto whatever phrases happen to stand out from track to track alongside the larger personal narrative and getting lost in the blunted haze provided by Mike Will, Sounwave, Alchemist and Nez & Rio among others, it’s hard to remain as aloof as initial impressions might feel.
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Feb 24, 2014A not-as-good-kid traversing the same m.A.A.d. city as Kendrick, Schoolboy complements Lamar's narrative distance with evocative, unflinching first-person dispatches from the front lines.
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Feb 27, 2014The production is usually fantastic, from the wall of elastic electronic noise conjured by Pharrell Williams on Los Awesome to the reggae-influenced bassline of single Collard Greens, but guest verses from old hands Kurupt and Raekwon show up the star turn's limitations as a rapper: you're occasionally struck by the sense of gangster rap boxes being ticked.
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Feb 24, 2014Rambunctious and irreverent, Oxymoron blasts bullet holes in the theory that gangsta rap can't sound fresh for 2014.
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Feb 25, 2014Schoolboy Q elicits a lot of emotions throughout Oxymoron, but sympathy isn’t one of them.
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Feb 27, 2014ScHoolboy Q comes off like the dude who gives in to all the peer pressure, constantly on the verge of betraying his talents and smarts just to fit in and be one of the bros. The weirder he gets, the better.
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Feb 25, 2014For its occasional low ebbs, Oxymoron is an impressive display of bleak wit.
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Feb 26, 2014It’s something special, just like it was always planned to be.
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Mar 20, 2014Oxymoron is all killer, no filler--and despite some tracks here not quite translating to radio, in the album context nothing feels out of place.
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Feb 25, 2014He has the instincts of a good storyteller, and maybe even the potential to be a standard bearer for his art form, but when he falls back on tired "pimps and hoes" narratives, he sounds firmly, frustratingly rooted in the past.
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Feb 27, 2014Schoolboy Q is neither a great lyricist nor a technically dazzling rapper.... Happily then, the production on Oxymoron is uniformly solid.
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Feb 27, 2014Through varied production, Q strikes a balance between his hard persona and the party vibe found on Habits’ catchiest tracks.
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Mar 4, 2014Oxymoron is definitely not the game changer many thought it might be, but it's yet another very good addition to the combined Black Hippy legacy.
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Feb 25, 2014What it lacks in punch it makes up for in being a more focused effort than its occasionally mixtape-esque brother, and thus, Oxymoron isn’t so much a backpedal for Q and TDE as it is a solid side-step.
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Mar 7, 2014Ultimately, nothing hangs together long enough to enable a consistent or enjoyable listening experience.
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Feb 24, 2014This isn’t a blockbuster--no Drake cameo, no Dr. Dre co-sign--but that’s the beauty of it.
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Feb 25, 2014Both heavy with bass and filled with memorable hooks, Q's long-gestating major label debut is tight in length and rich with intent.
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Feb 25, 2014Make no mistake, Oxymoron is rather brilliant, and provides a perfect foundation to build upon in later releases. An exciting release from an exciting artist.
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Feb 25, 2014Given TDE’s ever-increasing appeal, Oxymoron isn’t quite an elite offering, but it meets the difficult task of attracting casual fans without straying too far from the formula that attracted ScHoolboy Q’s core audience.
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Feb 25, 2014The production is too inconsistent to get him there, but it's certainly not due to a lack of intrinsic talent on his part. Keep your eyes on Q.
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Feb 26, 2014While Lamar dazzles with precise storytelling, Q conjures attention with brusque physicality. Both MCs are aiming for different marks, and although Q's style is too unkempt to produce an album full of clean shots, his misses on Oxymoron are often just as compelling.
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Feb 28, 2014Unfortunately, there are quite a few pitfalls outside of just weak hooks. The pacing of the album feels a little off, and it starts pretty early on with "Los Awesome" being a jarring change from the opener "Gangsta," though the former is much more enjoyable than the latter.
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Feb 26, 2014The height at which Oxymoron’s target is set is not very impressive, but the precision and showmanship with which it’s hit deserves commendation.
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Feb 26, 2014It’s not that Schoolboy Q is the best lyricist; and there’s not an immediately profound life lesson here; there are no mind-boggling internal rhymes; but Oxymoron is amazing mostly because it attempts to heal past bruises with more bruises. Schoolboy hides nothing and everything leaves a mark.
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Mar 13, 2014While Oxymoron is never dull, thanks to Q’s indisputable skills as a rapper and beat selector, by its conclusion you’ll wish he’d given less of its runtime over to his gangsta persona and more to exploring his own identity.
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Feb 25, 2014ScHoolboy’s presence on Oxymoron is poised and confident.
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Feb 24, 2014While his darker material seems unchanged by fame, it’s really his lighter, more radio-friendly material that gets taken to the next level on Oxymoron.
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The SourceApr 18, 2014For those unfamiliar with Q's pre-Interscope material, his official debut provides insight, and an appetizer of what his more than respectable discography can do to not only entertain fans of 2010s rap, but inspire them. [Apr/May 2014, p.81]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 228 out of 257
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Mixed: 17 out of 257
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Negative: 12 out of 257
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Feb 26, 2014
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Feb 25, 2014
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Feb 25, 2014