The Brave News

by Nikolas Molina & Elliston Ospina

Recently in the hip-hop industry, three albums dropped by mainstream artists in a span of three weeks. Life’s A Trip by Trippie Redd, Astroworld by Travis Scott, and Stay Dangerous by YG all have unique sounds differing from one another. 

Life’s a Trip – Trippie Redd

Trippie Redd’s debut album, Life’s A Trip, did not live up to hype and anticipation that was received before its release.  

Trippie differentiated from his traditional music style, which was his strength and what people listened to him for. He did not stick to his emo or sad style of music usually mixed with a lot of bass, as seen in songs such as “Dark Knight Dummo” featuring Travis Scott.

However on this album, he did show some new-age flare in songs like “Oomps Revenge.” Five of Trippie Redd’s fourteen songs were singles that had already been published, much to the dismay of his listeners.

“Dark Knight Dummo,” “UKA UKA”, “Taking a Walk,” and “Wish” are four of the five songs he had previously released prior to the album’s drop. Listening to this album as a whole, it was disappointing to find it comprised of so many songs that he had already given his listeners to hear and experience.

When you anticipate a new album, you hope for new sounds and new music, but that was not the case for Life’s A Trip.

In this album, he tended to use guitar samples and noises which is more consistent of the rock genre. In the song “How you feel,” Trippie really pushed for the guitar samples which ended up being a main sound he used throughout the album.

In reflection, Trippie probably would’ve been better off sticking to what he does best. His initial catchy sounds and beats are what he is most famous for and what his fans are expecting from him, which is shown best in his mixtape titled A Love Letter To You.

Astroworld – Travis Scott

Astroworld is Travis Scott’s third official album and his strongest and most popular to date. This album was undoubtedly the most hyped project of the year.

The creation and hype around Astroworld was announced and started all the way back in 2016. Finally, fans were able to hear the officially over-hyped project on August 8th, 2018, when Scott released his work to the public.

The album as a whole did not live up to most people’s expectations. All of Scott’s songs were incredibly similar. Most had the same exact type of beats and similar to same sounds. But, he did stay safe and stuck to his traditional sound unlike Trippie. This was probably a smart move, as he gave his fans what they are craving for and branded himself at the same time.

Props are due to Travis however for the amount of new songs and unheard tracks he produced on the album, unlike Trippie. There are a few catchy songs on the album but not the “bangers” we have truly come to expect from him.

The songs produced did not live up to the very high expectations that the album was given, especially after the long 2 years he had die-hard fans wait for. Nonetheless, it topped the charts and is Travis Scott’s most popular album to date in terms of streaming and numbers.

Stay Dangerous – YG

Stay Dangerous is YG’s third studio album. There was some anticipation around this album, especially from California natives, but nowhere in the same ballpark as Astroworld.

His lyricism was very lazy in comparison to previous works, literally throwing out nursery rhymes such as “Duck Duck Goose” and being extremely repetitive. YG rapped about his usual topics and thoughts: women and his gang, which is to be expected from the West Coast rapper.

The beats in this album were very consistent with those of his older albums as well. Nonetheless, he did produce a couple of catchy songs such as “Big Bank” and “Bulletproof.” Overall, the veteran rapper clearly didn’t put maximum effort into this album.

Stay Dangerous was neither special nor terrible. It was under par compared to YG’s previous special and highly-listened to works.

Ultimately, in the world of music this album is just another project from another artist. It truly was a cash-grab and a stretch for money from YG when all is said and done.