Welcome to Mixdown, an ongoing series where Pitchfork staffers and contributors talk about mixtapes, mixes, and other beat-based ephemera that may not be covered in our reviews section but are worth discussing. Today, Corban Goble, Meaghan Garvey, and Wesley Case talk about Migos, Future, and Drake.
Migos: Rich Nigga Timeline
Corban Goble: Last night, Migos put out a new mixtape called Rich Nigga Timeline which features production from Zaytoven, TM88 and more. And though there hasn’t been a ton of time to sift through this yet, I feel like we can safely say that many of the more heralded aspects of the Migos sound—the flow, the chemistry—remain intact. Andrew Bynum ("Buyin' 'Em") imagery is also introduced very early in the tape and I’m still not sure how I’m supposed to feel about that. Meaghan, Wesley, early highlights? Where does something like Rich Nigga Timeline sit in the larger Migos timeline?
Wesley Case: According to my Twitter feed, Migos are the hip-hop lightning rod of the moment—superfluous Beatles comparisons, flow biting, Drake’s influence and some other controversies I’m probably missing—but I think it’s important not to miss the real story here: Quavo, Offset and Takeoff are inventive and insanely fluid rappers with some of the most exciting and visceral rap hits of 2014 ("Handsome and Wealthy", "Fight Night"). Rich Nigga Timeline only builds on the momentum from February’s No Label II. The two bookends—the fiery, look-how-well-we-rap opener "Cross the Country" and the achingly gorgeous finale "Struggle"—should dead any "Migos can’t rap" or "‘Versace’ was a novelty" conversations. (The more material we get from Migos, the more those arguments sound like willful ignorance.) Both tracks exhibit the trio’s technical prowess (Offset’s "Country" verse is a marvel), as well as an ability to reveal their emotional cores. I’m only a few listens in, but "Struggle" sounds like the group’s greatest accomplishment to date. It’s the right mix of reflection and in-the-present.
Meaghan Garvey: My favorite NBA reference here was, "I’m a wizard in the streets, call me Quavo John Wall!" In the grand trajectory of Migos’ career, their mission statement has gone from "We make hits!" (YRN) to "Everyone’s biting us!" (No Label 2) to "Ha ha, who cares, because we can fucking rap!" (RNT). That’s a smart move. There’s a lot to love about the more tweetable #MigosSaid lyrics here (Takeoff rhyming "bachelor" with "tarantula" with "spatula"). But I was more impressed with the moments they moved away from the more, err, Migos-y songs and showed off their range: "All Good", has some out-of-nowhere Rick Ross Deeper Than Rap vibes, instead of the umpteenth chirpy Zaytoven track—which, you know, are usually good, but how many of them do we really need? But man, there are not a lot of rappers this consistently entertaining, and little in life is better than Migos popsicle stick jokes like: "Treat you like a cow, you better mooooove!"
CG: The more uptempo tracks always pop out to me first, so in this instance it would be stuff like "Struggle" and "Story I Tell" just because I love when MIGOS HITS THE THROTTLE. I appreciate you highlighting "All Good" because that definitely represents something different for them. But I feel like listening through mixtapes, I have a hard time picking out the hits on the first few passes—for instance I didn’t think "Fight Night" popped out to me when I first listened to No Label 2. It sucks to be on the wrong side of history. Do you think there’s anything on this that might slowly rise up the singles charts, i.e. "Handsome and Wealthy"?
WC: I hope “Buyin' 'Em” blows because it’s the first song in which I’ve heard a rapper say he’d circumcise a brick.
MG: "Pop That" is pretty weird but Quavo yelling "She make me wanna make a MILLION BABIES!" is pretty addictive. The real question is: are Migos better than the Beatles? My dad has checked in to say, "No."
Future: Monster
CG: Future’s new mixtape Monster is a few weeks old and has been met with less hype than a Future mixtape would have seen a year ago. A good number of songs feature a pitched-down Future sounding paranoid, and one song in particular, "Throw Away", is quite obviously about his broken relationship with Ciara. There’s skits on this that are ridiculously insensitive. Future links up with Metro Boomin’ for most of this, who apparently wanted some more. Did you guys like this?
MG: I'm really conflicted about Future in 2014!
CG: There is way less enthusiasm about Future these days. What are the major issues at hand?
MG: After the repulsive shit-flinging fest that was "Pussy Overrated", it seemed the Future I thought I knew and loved—the guy that made "Turn on the Lights", the most romantic song of the 2010s!—was maybe just not that good of a dude. Honest didn’t do much for me: the high points were high, and the rest was forgettable.
WC: The Future hangover was inevitable. There was a lot of idol-worshipping surrounding Honest, like this guy was here to lead rap into its romantic period. Aside from "Turn on the Lights" and "I Be U", Future was ever meant to be that guy. Throw in a public separation from Ciara and the lack of enthusiasm surrounding Monster seems inevitable.
But, lowkey, this is a pretty solid Future mixtape that gave me Streetz Calling and Dirty Sprite vibes. And there’s still no denying Future’s true gift—melody. "My Savages", "Fuck Up Some Commas" and the title track lean heavily on that sing-song flow, and it remains effective. I wish Future would trim the recurring, racist Abu skits. "2 Pac" in particular surprised me because it’s an obvious bite of Young Thug’s "Danny Glover". It’s a well-executed bite, but bite nonetheless.
MG: I almost feel bad for the guy. He brags about "taking a bitch to Chipotle" in the same breath as describing how he’s crying endless tears. I was ready to write this tape off until the mid-song pivot of "Throw Away", where my notes went from "Wow he even makes Nard & B sound jaded these days WAIT OH SHIT THIS IS SO DEEP AND REAL." This is his "Runaway" moment, his emotional scumbag rock-bottom breakthrough, and I am HERE FOR IT. "Got my dick sucked and I was thinking about you"?! This song alone is more interesting than Honest in its entirety, and if Future continues on this path of soul-seeking, then I am willing to continue toasting to this douchebag.
Drake: "6 God", "How Bout Now", "Heat of the Moment"
MG: Have you guys heard about the kids? They don’t even read anymore.
CG: Even though Drake’s career is over I feel like these three songs are a valiant attempt at a comeback though I have my doubts about how much can be salvaged at this point. How would you rank them?
MG: Gotta be "How About Now" > "Heat of the Moment" > "6 God". The most redeeming quality of the latter is weird ass OB OBrien’s adlibs. When I hear these songs I feel like I am experiencing Drake through the mind of a hater for the first time, just shaking my head like, "Is he for real?" A long-winded yarn about literacy that somehow, by way of cops eating donuts and more semi-gratuitous recordings of "private" conversations, leads in to, "But anyway, never mind, we’re FUCKIN' right now": has Drake finally tip-toed too far across the threshold of self-memeification?
CG: Possibly! Between these tracks and Taylor Swift’s whole "my new album is a comment on the perception of Taylor Swift" feedback loop I feel like there’s this whole wave of meta-ness that I can’t even wrap my brain around but I’m already bored with it. In conclusion, "Heat of the Moment" > "How Bout Now" > "6 God". From what I understand, this bundle of tracks was on some hackers’ hard drives so Drake putting them out was a pre-emptive strike, thus I’m not going to try to read into the timing too much. I’m with this direction but I also wonder now that it’s Raptors season if he should be spending some time you know, shooting in the gym.
WC: They’re perfectly fine songs that should keep fans happy as they wait for Views From the 6, which I don’t expect to sound anything like these Soundcloud uploads. Anyway, my ranks: "Heat of the Moment" > "How Bout Now" > "6 God", even though they all have imperfections. "Heat"—which he told XXL was a Nothing Was the Same bonus track—has that cringey opening verse (there must be other ways to portray lazy cops other than having them chill at Dunkin Donuts), "How Bout Now" is crazy petty even by Drake standards and "6 God" feels like a "Worst Behavior" retread. But Drake, even at his most generic moments, offers reasons to keep listening.
MG: I liked Jordan Sargent’s piece, "Drake Is the Taylor Swift of Rap," which aside from being totally accurate, made me think about a weird discrepancy: people will trip over themselves to bash Taylor for sort of democratizing her narratives on 1989, but on this bunch of songs, I find Drake’s lyrics similarly flattened.
CG: Then again, we don’t know what these tracks are, necessarily—the drop wasn’t as deliberate as it usually is. At least he’s trying to make "6 God" happen!
WC: A Baltimore rapper jumped on it and called it "4 Lord". I’m not feeling this trend.
CG: In close, I feel it’s time we try something different. Take it away Tyga: