Habits & Contradictions

Sound DNA

• Hip-Hop

About

A fast-rising Los Angeles rapper best known for his debut mixtape (<i>Setbacks</i>) and a verse on Kendrick Lamar's "Michael Jordan," Schoolboy Q is among a new breed of California emcees whose ever-changing rhyme style is impossible to pigeonhole. He's not a gangsta, though he drops plenty of old-school Crips references, especially on "Tookie (Interlude)" and "Raymond 1969." He's not a pure drug rapper, though he addresses intoxication extensively ("Oxy Music" and "Druggys Wit Hoes Again"). He's not a love-jam rapper, although he gets pretty freaky on "Sex Drive" and "Sexting." Basically, he's all of the above and more, as he does his thing on 18 tracks, giving us a taste of his unique lifestyle over a multitude of beats that range from jittery left-field soundscapes to smoothed-out loop-based bangers. More Odd Future than Ice Cube, he also enlists help from his Black Hippy collective (Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul), as well as A$ap Rocky ("Hands on the Wheel") plus Curren$y and Dom Kennedy ("Grooveline Pt. 1"). Esoteric G-Funk for the next generation.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits