My Name Is My Name

[He expands his reach] with the aid of producer-label boss Kanye West, guest ranging from The-Dream to Kendrick Lamar, and a steely gusto unmatched in hip-hop. [11 Oct 2013, p.72]

On MNIMN Push T delivers his wittiest lines to date. [Nov 2013, p.91]

Pusha T is at the top of his game with sharply defined autobiographical tales and defiant, self-aware verses. He often dazzles with his smooth, cold-blooded flow and connects on virtually every song.

Each song is injected with sharp, drug-filled commentaries that deliver, brick-by-brick, a solid foundation for King Push's cocaine castle.

My Name Is My Name is a remarkable and vital solo debut.

My Name Is My Name is one of the best debut albums of the year, but since Pusha T is far from a new artist, he's got a leg-up on many of the newcomers to the genre.

My Name Is My Name is as strong a “debut” full length as anyone could hope to produce, and reminds the world why it fell in love with this coke-rap wizard more than ten years ago.

The album's best moments shrewdly recall the stark, booming sound of Clipse's 2006 coke-rap masterpiece Hell Hath No Fury. [Jan 2014, p.76]

The strengths of My Name Is My Name vastly outweigh its minor faults, and Pusha’s studio debut finds itself easily nestled into the year’s top five rap releases.

My Name Is My Name is an album that listeners will either love or hate, with seemingly no room in between. It’s a bit much to take in upon the first listen, especially with so much hype behind its release, but with repeated spins and closer examination of the product, so to speak, the dope is as nice as advertised here.

It’s a showcase for Pusha’s cold-blooded flow and crammed with memorable lines.

MNIMN works best when Pusha gets his hands dirty, goes into storyteller mode and hooks up with old pals such as Pharrell.

In My Name Is My Name, Pusha T has produced one of the most diverse and constantly rewarding hip-hop records of the year; twelve tracks tied together by a man at the top of his form and who, quite soon, may yet reach the highest summits.

Plenty of boldface names are assisting here, but with the exception of Kendrick Lamar, who continues his streak of scenery-chewing guest verses on Nosetalgia, they stay out of the way.

Pusha’s released a fair amount of music since joining Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music army three years ago, but My Name Is My Name is really the first release that delivers on the excitement initially engendered by the pairing.

The album is an amalgamation of his past trade and his current, and as is fitting for an album from a man whose past is as powdery white as a Colorado winter, it’s dope.

This is certainly a fine album, pretty much throughout.

Pusha T accomplishes a lot here, crafting a record that is big in concept but is still rooted in the longstanding hip-hop tradition that lyricism is king.

The debut solo record from half of the duo the Clipse and member of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music collective is hard and minimal, filled with state-of-the-art beats that pop with bravado.

Whilst My Name Is My Name has one of the best selections of beats on a major label rap album in years, and Pusha’s enunciations are still as sonically potent as a decade ago, his singularity largely comes across as a stubborn resistance to change in the face of how ambitious the LP (and so much new rap, frankly) sounds, and suffers from a tracklist too concerned with features to allow this singularity to reign supreme anyway.

A trio of high-profile tracks near the end of MNIMN offer the best of both worlds in terms of Pusha T catering to the Top 40 crowd and still supplying the uncut raw fans expect.... Sadly these moments are inconsistent and broken up by generally ill-fitting production.

Here is another deeply considered collection of top-shelf beats and uncompromising-though-still-pop-enough raps that justifies the fairly awful personalities driving it, which, depending on your tolerance for wounded narcissism and a complete lack of insight, is either fascinating or frustrating.

Like any rapper, Pusha is still heavily dependent on the talent surrounding him, and these connections keep things on an even keel, with mostly strong production work presented throughout.

His tales of youthful hustling and newfound wealth ("Your plane's missing a chef," he taunts) are compelling, albeit well-worn. The star here is the production.

Set in the more commercial contexts of Kelly Rowland features and the-Dream's fluorescent R&B, he can sound like a fish out of some pretty expensive water.