I’ve been a Roddy Ricch since the day I heard “Die Young”. I distinctly remember the day my younger brother Bam played the video at my crib. I instantly became a fan. I sung that song until I got tired of hearing it. I found Feed The Streets II first. I had played “Die young” so many times it eventually became the song I skipped. I even ventured off into Feed The Streets 1, and can remember certain songs speaking to my soul. Track 10 “Baby Boy” reminded of being young and into it with my moms and running away from home and getting it on my own. Getting into with my step pops. The fact that he named a song “Blue Streak” was enough for me to give it play. Roddy like ten years younger than me. That movie came out when I was like 11 I believe.
The issue with this new album is not that it’s trash. It’s just not as hot as anything that came before it. Those of us who make music judge music differently than an average fan. This isn’t the album that you like the first time you hear it. The average fan isn’t going to give you a second listen. The only projects that get a second listen are the ones that are forced on us. They give us a single that at least prepares you for the album. You know how many times I hated a song until I heard it a 100 times and it got stuck in my head. That isn’t the case with Roddy but the first time I gave it a listen was the day it dropped. And there was nothing memorable about it. It wasn’t until yesterday that I decided to play it all day and I figured out exactly where I wanted to go with this review.
Today I found myself singing “We gone be living like this for the rest of our lives”. That’s what spoke to my soul obviously. Roddy’s music has touched people in a way that’s too deep to wait this long and drop a mediocre project. When Nip died the whole world felt that. “Racks in the Middle” was on repeat for me for a whole year. Losing Nip felt like losing Kobe. These were two good brothers that we hated to see go so soon. Those are the types of celebrity deaths we all feel rather we knew them in real life or not. And here through it all we had the voice of Roddy to harmonize at the funeral.
Even typing this out I feel like I’m giving Roddy way too much credit. Like this is pure fxcking GAS people. Even I didn’t realize how deep Roddy music had touched me until I chose to right this review. Roddy went double platinum with Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. That album was better than Feed The Streets II. And Feed The Streets II was better than Feed The Streets 1. I was actually fighting a gun case. Lost my job and was back in my granny basement trying to figure shxt out at that time. “Prayers to the Trap God” helped get me through that time. War Baby was the one though. The albums outro served as my biggest motivation in the gym. This was the time I decided to take fitness serious. I can remember being on the treadmill and running for this whole album. The intro was kind of like Meeks classic Dreams and Nightmares Intro where the beat is mellow but gets lit as fxck half way through it. But by the time I got to the outro I was exhausted. And every time I wanted to quit that choir on “War Baby” started singing to me and I kept going. Instead of doing drugs to get through this rough patch in life called pandemic I was in the gym a lot more. I didn’t have shxt else to do with y time after getting fired. And it wasn’t easy being out of work and finding a job in my field with an open gun case. My car was impounded and it wasn’t paid off. I was always one foot in the streets and one foot out and for years it worked for me. But my slick ways had finally caught up to my real goofy ass. I tried to trap my way back to the top I caught two drug cases back to fxcking back. I was taking L after L and bam PANDEMIC hit. I was forced to reevaluate and realized the best thing for me to do would be to wait it out. it was rough.
I say all of that to say this. Roddy Ricch went double platinum in a pandemic. I wasn’t the only one going through a rough patch. That rough patch helped me think of Rap Cap & Kicks and now I’m getting paid for you to read this shxt. Everyone was going through it. When Nip died everyone was going through it. Artist don’t always pop because they’re talented. They pop because it was just the right time. There’s not much on this album that speaks to my soul like his music has done in the past. And for that reason alone it falls below expectations.