Album Review: Young Money- Rise of an Empire

“Oh, so that’s it?”

That’s what I almost said aloud after making it through Young Money’s Rise of an Empire the other day. I should probably clarify—this is the “Deluxe Edition” of Rise, meaning that it actually removes a track found on the physical release, and also adds on an additional three at the end. My nonplussed attitude regarding the album’s conclusion arrived at the conclusion of “Good Day,” one of the three “bonus” songs.

Rise’s actual closing track, “You Already Know,” isn't all that much more impressive, however.

“Good Day” references the iconic Ice Cube track of a similar name—“Today was a good day. I didn't have to kill nobody,” Lil Wayne blurts out on the hook, and he’s joined by second tier rappers like Meek Mill and Tyga. It, much like the album itself, just doesn't really go anywhere. It’s a song that has a start, reaches a middle, and then unceremoniously ends, leaving one with a rather unfulfilled feeling.

“You Already Know,” complete with auto-tuned refrain, is meant to serve as an up-tempo, “bright” sounding finale to Rise, but in its execution, is, much like the rest of this record, unfortunately tepid.

Rise of an Empire is like the summer action movie of the hip-hop genre. It’s bloated and overall, uninspiring, as well as sounding like it cost a small fortune to produce. For those of you at home not familiar with Young Money—it is a stable of artists operating under the guise of superstar Lil Wayne. You may remember him from when anyone gave a fuck about him six years ago upon the release of his landmark album, and peak as a recording artist, Tha Carter III. Since then, it’s been all downhill for Wayne, while Young Money marquee names like Drake and Nicki Minaj have stocks that just continue to rise.

Rise makes use of that star power very early on—Drake’s Nothing Was The Same cast off “Trophies” arrives second in the deck, with Nicki’s “controversial” single “Lookin’ Ass Ni**a” coming in just at the halfway point. The rest of the album is comprised of a mixed bag of sorts, with Wayne showing up on five tracks. As a whole, it feels incredibly phoned in and disorganized, frontloaded with the best material, so structurally, by the time it ends, there is little to hold interest.

Things actually start out relatively well—the opening track, “We Alright,” features up and coming Young Money artist Euro. And yes, sure, he sounds a little like Drake, but we can't fault him for that, and it’s his appearance on three of the songs on Rise give it some of its best moments. “We Alright” also features Lil Wayne, as well as Wayne’s mentor, and Cash Money label co-founder Birdman. Musically, it sounds exactly like what you would expect—it’s very “big” sounding, slickly produced, bombastic, mainstream hip-hop, but it’s Euro’s cleverly and breathlessly delivered tales of flossin’ that makes the track, as well as Euro’s solo track “Induction Speech,” worth listening to.

If you read my review of Drake’s NWTS from the fall, you'll know that he’s not one of my favorite rappers out there. “Trophies” is textbook Drake, but it’s somehow tolerable, and a lot of that may have to do with the incredibly triumphant horn sequencing in the beat, provided by producers Noah Shebib and Hit-Boy. It recalls the Universal Studios theme that plays before the movie starts. Lyrically, this song would have fit in perfectly on Drake’s album, because it continues with his standard theme of that it’s incredibly difficult to be a successful rapper and performer. Examples given are that his house is so big, that if his friends are staying there with him, he can go for two days without running into them, and that it requires using a walkie talkie just to get someone to bring him a drink (probably a refreshing Sprite.)

Last month, the internet started to collectively shit itself over Nicki Minaj’s solo contribution to Rise of an Empire—“Lookin’ Ass Ni**a.” Seeing a music related headline featuring Minaj’s name gave me reason for pause, because at this point in her short-lived, though incredibly successful career, to me, she’s become such a caricature of herself, I no longer associate the name with music. It’s very hard to remember that it was only four years ago that she dropped her name-making verse on Kanye West’s “Monster,” and harder to forget that thanks to her stint as a judge on TV’s “American Idol,” she worked her way into the living rooms of unsuspecting white people everywhere.

I mean my mom knows who Nicki Minaj is at this point.

With a name like “Lookin’ Ass Ni**a,” I expected this song to be pretty intense—maybe something reminiscent of said verse from “Monster.” What it is instead is a relatively tame, and thankfully short, track about Minaj’s taste in men—or to be more specific, what she doesn’t want in a partner, which to say that basically, she can’t fuck with a poor person, or a “non-man,” as she eloquently states in the song’s second verse: “I be damned if I fuck a non-man ass ni**a.” Meanwhile, huge sounding synthesizers go off in the background with a pretty generic sounding beat.

Within the month since the release of this single, Minaj has stirred up quite a bit of controversy for herself—there of course is the liberal use of the “n” word, which those outside of the hip-hop community still scratch their heads at; there’s also the aforementioned “non-man” lyric, a line that some consider to be transphobic; and then there’s the wince-inducing line early on, “I’m rapin’ you ni**as,” which is obviously not meant to be taken literally, but mentions of rape, figurative or otherwise, are typically frowned upon.

That’s not to say the song is without a high moment. Her punch line, “Ni**as want my time, call me Clinton, I’m billin’ these ni**as,” made me laugh.

Rise of an Empire is the kind of album that is made for an iTunes, $1.29 a song landscape. I’m trying to imagine how this album would fare in a world prior to digital downloads—I’m guessing that people would buy it based off the popularity of the Drake and Nicki Minaj songs, but then within a year, it would be the kind of record you could find, like, six or seven copies of at a used CD store.

Whether it is digitally downloaded, or if an actual compact disc is procured, Rise is mostly an incredibly forgettable listen. Save for Euro’s scene stealing appearances, even with the top billed, chart topping names, it’s an album that can never rise above its own shortcomings. I hesitate to say that this is rap music made for people who don’t know what “real rap” is, because I mean, who am I to judge what is “real rap” or not? But, at its heart, is pop music dressed up as rap. It’s catchy, and “urban radio” Top 40 ready. There’s little to no substance on Rise of an Empire—nothing that will be remembered a year from now, let alone a decade plus from now. In the end, it is just another almost instantly disposable product, hastily thrown together by the industrial side of hip-hop.

It’s very strange to think of hip-hop as “background music,” but that’s what Young Money has created. You hear beats, and rhymes, but rarely does any of it resonate or stick with you. It’s an album that just kind of happens whether you are paying attention to it or not. And then it’s over, you too may find yourself saying, “Oh, so that’s it?”

If you've got (young) money to burn, Rise of an Empire is out today via Young Money/Cash Money.