Harder Than Ever Review

The appeal was always the voice, dry and slightly weary, a man explaining rather than performing, and on the debut that quality has to carry material that is not yet up to it. The beats are the Atlanta default of the moment, competent and anonymous, and the writing sticks to the same handful of subjects without finding a fresh angle on any of them. Yes Indeed is the exception and it is a monster, a beat made of a bass note and a snore joke, and it broke him nationally within weeks.

Southside and Life Goes On show a bit of shape. Global has some drive. Elsewhere it is seventeen tracks that all begin and end at the same volume, and the sense is of someone who has been rapping for eighteen months and is learning in public. That is not a criticism of the talent. It is simply what a first album from that trajectory sounds like.