7/10
A hugely anticipated record, Oxymoron seemed to live up to
expectations in the charts, selling an impressing 139,000 copies in a week and
reaching the number one spot on the Billboard
200.
Top
Dawg Entertainment are certainly doing something
right. The label is mostly known for
Compton-born Kendrick, who broke into the spotlight in 2012 with his debut ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’, spawning four
top40 hits and gaining the rapper seven Grammy nominations. Schoolboy Q has long lived in Kendrick’s
shadow, collaborating along the way with the likes of A$AP MOB, Action Bronson
and Danny Brown, often delivering acclaimed verses, like his 32-bar on Ferg’s Work Remix. Oxymoron has given Q the platform that he needed to move away from
being just a ‘featured-artist’ and cement his place in modern day rap. And it’s not a bad effort.
The album can be considered ‘oxymoron-ic’ to the extent that it
explores contradicting lifestyles, perhaps before and after Q’s success. It tells a story of his road to the top; one
that involved both crime and gang culture. This contrasts with the life of
luxury Q now experiences, as evident in Collard
Greens, featuring Kendrick, perhaps the track of the album, where Q sings ‘Oh… Luxury, Chidi-ching-ching could buy
anything, cop that’. The title also refers of course to Q’s hustle
illegally selling ‘Oxycontin’, an opioid used in the States as a prescriptive
drug for severe pain relief. The oxymoron here being the euphoric highs of
prescriptive drugs contrasted with a menacing view of a Los Angeles dystopia.
So, we understand this is a record of an
oxymoronic nature. Thankyou for that Q. It also delivers some great rap music.
One of the stand-outs on the album is the Clams Casino-produced track Gravy. As a gravy-loving nation, the
British audience are already enjoying the metaphor here, but it deserves more
than a deluxe-edition bonus track. Our
bucket-hat-fashioning rapper displays both lyrical ability and flow on a track
that gives a lighter vibe to an album that emphasises a dark portrayal of
street life. And of course, Clams’ beat is amazing.
Important tracks on this album are the
opening Gangsta, which features Q’s
daughter Joy and sets the brooding
mood for the record, What They Want featuring
2Chainz, which is produced by Mike WiLL,
and an experimental His and Her Friend featuring
SZA. Also worth a mention, the softer-sounding Studio,
delivers a heart-felt stream of consciousness from Q, about a girl he thinks
of during a stressful day in the studio. The album's centerpiece track Prescription/Oxymoron tells a
painful story of an addiction to prescriptive-drugs and lasts over seven minutes,
whilst Hell of a Night steps outside
the box for a trap-tempo record, produced by DJ Dahi, the man behind Drizzy’s Worst Behaviour. Finally, Tyler
the Creator features on The Purge. It’s
awful. Skip it.
Overall, Q gets a thumbs-up for his debut
effort. It’s not Get Rich or Die Trying
or good kid, m.A.A.d city. But it’s a
decent record, filled with collaborations that mostly work, telling a truly
painful story of Q’s road to success and backed up by a reliable formula,
perhaps as a result of flourishing label TDE. CLICK HERE to download the album from iTunes.
