C U L T U R E

Quavo, Takeoff, and Offset breeze through it all with a contagious confidence that makes for a fun and surprisingly accessible album.

On Culture the band stakes a claim as the most important rap group to come out of Atlanta since Outkast. That it even seems fathomable is proof of the album’s success.

On Culture, their world is richly rendered, full of hopes and paranoia and unbridled joy.

C U L T U R E is that rare work, one where an artist’s aesthetic is funneled into every track, where you can sense the trajectory from their previous works to this one.

Culture is a tour de force of all that makes Migos great while showcasing all of the group’s strengths--the gift for catchy hooks and melodies, unique flows, incredible group chemistry and phenomenal one-liners.

Migos see no need for a limit to the fun, and invite you in with familiarity, guiding you right into the consistency that follows throughout the album.

Migos never try to recreate anything they’ve already done, but simply deliver more music that reflects their contagious, unadulterated flow. Culture is an album where they seize a moment of much-deserved success.

Backed by production from Murda Beatz, Purps, Cardo, Zaytoven and Nard & B, co-pilots Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff sustain the hubris, excess, and immediate gratification adored by fans of gutter rap machismo while somehow bottling the very particular charm necessary for them to capture the hearts of pop-loving teens across the globe and carry rapping children’s lit live on the radio.

Releasing a handful of incredible singles ahead of an album sets a pretty lofty standard that the rest of the LP doesn’t always meet. In spite of its drawbacks, Culture showcases Migos at the top of their artistry and there’s no indication that it’s their peak either.

CULTURE may be limited in its scope, but it delivers in spades everything one might have hoped for from “the Beatles of this generation.”

Migos prove here that they are worthy of our attention, building a formidable set of songs that demand to be taken seriously.

Offset has developed into a charismatic storyteller who holds your attention when he keep the stories on wax rather than behind bars.

The subject matter isn't new, but the trio's knack for delivering humorous one-liners, tasteful adlibs and memorable hooks in impressively technical fashion remains a winning formula here.

If you gauge artistic success by innovation, you can just filter the best of Culture, a very decent group of Migos songs, into a playlist. But if you appreciate Migos and the sound they ushered into contemporary rap as being one of the genre’s most basic, essential natural resources, it will be easier to let the whole album--a drama of perseverance--ride out.

Culture also sees Migos upping their game musically, working with some of Atlanta's hottest producers (Metro Boomin, Zaytoven) to cook up stickier melodies than ever.

Like their increasingly musical, but still weird, productions, Migos’s triplet-heavy, robotic non-flows have come on leaps and bounds, while retaining the group’s core starkness.