L after L
after L. Being exposed as a “rat” by The Game, then becoming enemies with
Beanie Siegel whilst being “bodied by a singing n***a”. Meek Mill’s had a rough
year to say the least. The dream chasing boy from Philly who always has an iced
out “Rollie on the wrist”, has seen his star lose its shine in recent times.
Meek Mill has gone from being the real G spitting flames to the butt of
everyone’s jokes – hell even Kanye West and Philadelphia’s very own Fresh
Prince Will Smith were filmed laughing at Meek. But even with all the stuff
going on Meek has kept us patiently waiting on his long awaited DC4. We’ve heard rumours about this
project for so long it’s embarrassing, fans of Meek have had to deal with fake
release dates, unforeseen issues with record labels and a host of other excuses.
But just before Halloween Meek finally dropped DC4 and I’ll admit at first I couldn’t even listen all the way
through and had to give up out of pure disappointment. Having waited so long I
was expecting so much, this album needed to be the greatest piece of music I
have ever heard for it to live up to all the hype around this project. But
having gone away for a few days and heard the album all the way through I
changed my mind a bit.
This album
does have its moments. As a whole this album is as quintessentially Meek Mill
as they come. The standard heavy beats with all the added gunshots and
grandiose sirens are apparent as usual. The standard lyrical content is there
again – guns, drugs, money, girls (and pretty much anything else
stereotypically gangster). But therein lies the main problem with this whole
project. It’s not original. At all. You want to see evolution from an artist –
sonically and personally. And with Dreams
Are Worth More Than Money I loved how Meek finally changed up his style and
showed levels to his work. But with DC4
it feels like a backwards step, it’s so generic it hurts. Literally if you had
told me this was just a collection of old Meek tracks from back in the day I
would have believed you. There’s about 4 tracks out of the 14 which for me are
standout enough for a second listen and even then it’s mostly because I enjoyed
the features on the tracks. In particular, you have to HAVE TO go out and
listen to Litty purely to hear Tory
Lanez going off! Having said this I would say that there is one caveat to the
negativity and that is; had I not heard any previous Meek Mill work I would be
sitting here rating this a straight 8 or 9. This is because I imagine the
tracks would be quite turnt for someone hearing Meek for the first time. But
for those of us who have enjoyed some of his previous work, this project just
seems too formulaic and unoriginal.
DC4 was supposed to be the pinnacle of
Meek Mill’s career so far. The last instalment in the Dream Chasers saga, the
last project where he spoke of violence and illustration of his refined
abilities as part of raps elite. But, to me, what I see is nothing more than a
regurgitation of old music with a couple of fancy features thrown in to make it
seem fresh. I’ve always thought that Meek can spit and this project will not
change that opinion. However, after the year he’s had Meek needed to come with
something hard and fresh to remind people that he isn’t just a walking joke but
still a credible artist. Unfortunately, DC4
does little to help. Looks like he should have just stuck to catching L’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment