One thing often associated with Joey Bada$$ is his assumed sense of nostalgia: the quirks of mid-to-late 90s New York rap that often show up in his music, leaving listeners, and writers scrambling to play a game of MadLibs with his influences. The 2012 release of his 1999 mixtape positioned his Pro Era crew to be the Boot Camp Clik to TDE’s West Coast Wu-Tang (see, MadLibs). But time has a way of ruining great laid expectations. His close friend and arguably more capable rap partner Capital STEEZ killed himself by the end of that year. One disappointing EP-turned-mixtape later and we’re at the first Joey Bada$$ album, B4.DA.$$ (pronounced Before Da Money), and while it’s a tad predictable, still makes for a fine debut.
Joey Bada$$ is even more assured on the microphone than the raw, dreamy 1999, doubling down on stern, clever raps and ironing out virtually all of the kinks in his flows. Eager to prove he contains multitudes, he makes a reach to his Caribbean heritage without going as far as to do a record with Lee “Scratch” Perry. That’s fair, but the territory B4.DA.$$ occupies is firmly in his comfort zone. But as typical of an album containing the raps of a teenager, the duration of B4.DA.$$ is spent mired in existential crises. Considering rap is a genre built on the coming of age stories of young black teenagers in America and abroad, it could come as a shock that B4.DA.$$ is not that album. That’s because there’s a moment of clarity implied in bildungsroman and we have yet to get clarity from a kid who loves rap and his career, resents the negative effects of money, and may never see a point in religion.
What we’re left with is a young and successful rapper, his idiosyncrasies, and his good rap album. A big part of this is the relationships he’s forged with producers and his own ear as he has the album’s executive producer credit. Rather than spitting over 11 special herbs and donuts, associates Statik Selektah, Chuck Strangers, Lee Bannon, and Kirk Knight contribute eight beats. The one jaunt outside of Joey Bada$$’s comfort zone is “Escape 120”, an approximation of the Skrillex and Chance The Rapper’s collaboration on last year’s “Coast Is Clear.”Joey Bada$$ has a solid flow over this sleek dance number, but his cover is blown when Raury shows up and takes over the track. Still, it’s a toe dip in Joey Bada$$ trying new ideas which would be commendable if he did it more often. Joey Bada$$ will always have flows and bars for days, and the beats keeping up with his abilities keeps his aesthetic enjoyable enough to be another New York street rapper. The production is still mostly retrograde here, but it’s a marked improvement from its predecessor.
What B4.DA.$$ amounts to is a double-edged sword in that Joey Bada$$ and everything on his album demonstrates improvement, which may have come at the cost of artistic progression. Joey Bada$$ is still waxing poetic over sour notes and this album suffers, not because of whatever rap trends of yore are retread, but that he’s repeating his own formula. B4.DA.$$ positions Joey Bada$$ as capable and honest, but that he’s continuing to flesh out the aesthetic of Summer Knights is going to disappoint those looking for his inner artiste to emerge. B4.DA.$$, however, could have been outright terrible like his touring mate Ab-Soul’s effort last summer and it’s a relief that Joey Bada$$ put together a cohesive work. There’s just nothing over the top great about anything else on this album than Joey Bada$$’s raps themselves, his dexterity at this point is undeniable. Of course, the same could be said about Joe Satriani.
Album Rating: 3.5/5
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