Album Review: YG- My Krazy Life
It was actually my wife that first introduced me to
YG—specifically his infectious, platinum selling single “My Ni**a,” back in the
fall of 2013, after she had heard it used in some Vine videos, and asked if I
knew what it was. After a quick Google search of “my ni**a my ni**a song,” we
found the video on You Tube, and sat on our couch, transfixed by what we were
watching, and more importantly, what we were hearing. It’s an amazing feat—that
song; it straddles the line of accessibility while still maintaining a hand in
the streets and never alienates the listener. Also, it’s catchy as fuck, and
Rich Homie Quan’s auto-tuned mumble on the hook is absolutely hypnotic.
“My Ni**a,” and its safe for white people to say, radio edit equivalent, “My Hitta,” marked the beginning of the rather long roll out
leading up to the release of YG’s debut full-length LP, My Krazy Life—a record that slightly stops short of being a concept
album, but within the 14 songs that make up the standard edition of the record,
it thematically revolves around a set of ideas that connect each track. It also
is structured in a way that makes it very self-contained and somewhat
self-referential—specifically the final moments of “Meet The Flockers,” which
directly lift lines from the song that follows it—“My Ni**a.”
Described by YG himself as a day in his life, the record owes
much to the West Coast style of hip-hop that arrived over twenty years
ago—specifically The Chronic and Doggystyle, and to some extent, it owes
a little to The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready
to Die. Much like all those record mentioned, My Krazy Life contains skits in between tracks that assist in
carrying along the overall narrative arc, and while in 2014, skits on a rap
record tend to generate a bit of an eye roll and slow the pacing of down, it
can be looked at more of a tip of the hat to the artists and albums that
influenced him, as well as an effort to lighten the mood. You can't help but
laugh at the exaggerated sex skit at the end of “Do It To Ya,” which then ends
with a straight-faced narrator coming in to say, “Meanwhile, while YG was fucking his side bitch, his main bitch was
creepin’ on the low. Typical ni**a shit.”
My Krazy Life
juxtaposes both this homage to the 1990s with an incredibly modern rap
aesthetic courtesy of beats provided by DJ Mustard, who handles a bulk of the
production duties; and he’s also quick to never let you forget it—much like
many other modern producers in the game right now, every track he had a hand in
opens with a sample of YG saying “Mustard on the beat, ho,” lifted from “I’m
Good,” a single the two worked on together three years ago. And while Mustard’s
production gives My Krazy Life a
generally cohesive sound, it also unfortunately gives it an incredibly stagnant
and samey sound—nearly every track he is credited as producer on ends up being
roughly 95 BPM, all of them constructed around heavy synth blasts or skeletal
keyboard fragments, sequenced over relatively sparse beats.
As samey as they may come off, the duo sure know how to
write a catchy hook. I think that’s partially why “My Ni**a” was so incredibly
successful—and it’s a formula they try to replicate (to mixed results at times)
with ass shake anthem “Left, Right,” and on the Drake feature “Who Do You
Love?”
Because my wife was so captivated by “My Ni**a” when it came
out last year, I played her My Krazy Life
to see what her thoughts were on it. She, unlike me, is not a subject
matter expert when it comes to hip-hop, but aside from the violence and
misogyny found within, she said it was interesting to hear from an
anthropological standpoint. YG, in interviews leading up to the release of the
record, has been very upfront about his 2009 bid for residential burglary, as
well as past gang-related activities The ideas presented on My Krazy Life neither condemn nor
glorify the “gangsta” lifestyle, and lyrically, YG balances the very real
situations a young man faces in Compton with some clever humor and wordplay—some
of the best punch lines come and go rather quickly, so if you aren't paying
close attention, you may miss something like, “wifey like Sega, I don’t play that bitch,” on “Bicken Back Being
Bool.”
And maybe it’s just me, but I'm getting a little sick of
rappers talking about “beating up the pussy,” when they talk about having sex.
It’s like, look, I get it—you are a dynamo in the sack. That’s fucking great.
But on “Do It To Ya,” when Teeflii sings on the hook, “nobody can beat the pussy up like me,” it’s like come on you guys.
Like, that doesn't even sound fun for any party involved.
Anyway…
Because it is a bit of a self-contained effort, My Krazy Life is organized in such a way
that the songs are grouped together so that the album almost moves from one
act, to the next. The earlier sections cover his criminal past (“Meet The
Flockers”) as well as his gang affiliation—but because of a common love of
having a good time, YG (a member of the Bloods) and guest rapper Schoolboy Q (a
Crip) are able to put aside their differences on the aptly titled “I Just Wanna
Party.”
The structure of My
Krazy Life becomes more solid after the halfway point, when YG begins to
discuss his many problems with the women in his life, on the three song run of
“Do It To Ya,” “Me and My Bitch,” and then finally with “Who Do You Love?” In the end, the album seeks to find some
redemption—the Kendrick Lamar featured “Really Be Smokin and Drinkin” attempts
to dull the stress over financial woes, and depression over lost friends, and
the closing track, “Sorry Momma,” finds YG remorseful of his ways, apologizing
to his mother for the pain he’s caused her—it’s basically YG’s interpolation of
Tupac’s “Dear Mama.” Interestingly enough, this allows My Krazy Life to come full circle in a sense—it’s YG’s own mother
that opens the record in an intro skit, warning him that he needs to stay off
the streets.
My Krazy Life is
not a revelation of any kind, nor does it really need to be. It’s a record
that, despite being full of somewhat serious subject matter, makes strides to
not take itself too seriously. In comparison to a similarly minded “modern
gangsta” record, Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron,
YG simply states the facts here. There’s no real resolution by the end, and he
spends little time exhibiting any remorse for his actions—in contrast, on Oxymoron, Q spends much of the album
both glamorizing as well as showing regret over his mistakes.
YG is a very young, and obviously very talented artist. My fear
is that a few years from now, he’ll be written off as a hip-hop “one hit
wonder” based off of the success of “My Ni**a.” Both “Left, Right” and “Who Do
You Love?” have been released as singles, and neither have had the momentum as
“My Ni**a” had—but perhaps they need more time.
It will be interesting to see if in the future he chooses to
work with a wider variety of producers that can provide him with a more diverse
sound overall. Much like the single that has powered him up to this point, the
album as a whole continues to straddle that line of being incredibly accessible
to a pop audience, while still managing to “keep it real” for lack of a better
expression. YG himself admitted that the album’s original title, I’m From Bompton, may have turned some listeners
off because its gang-related connotations. I hesitate to say that My Krazy Life is underwhelming, but I
was also not, like, completely blown away by it. It is, however, an impressive
proper debut LP from an artist that is certainly going places.
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