KYLE - See You When I am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!! (Album Review)
Happy vibed rapper KYLE drops his new studio album titled 'See You When I am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!!', 2 years after his debut album 'Light of Mine'. With his unique, happy style, KYLE began making pop rap tunes including the platinum hit 'iSpy' which really blew him up - and it seemed he was to take a slightly experimental approach on this album while still maintaining that joyous energy of his previous bodies of work.
The production on this album overall is great - there's a few really good beats but also a beat here and there that don't really enhance the listening experience. It's refreshing to hear unique beats like this, which are very guitar heavy, with heavy drums too and light, summery vibe throughout. The beat on 'Money Now' is this light hearted beat, with heavy 808s and a happy piano as he tells us a rags to riches story. Johnny Yukon provides us a really good hook with his entertaining delivery and soft vocals while Tyga was a nice edition with his fun flow and the way he glided over the beat. The beat is genuinely a great fit for the track, while KYLE's singing wasn't too great - it wasn't horrible but it made his verse the worst (was still a good song though). 'GIRLS' has these crazy, heavy clashing drums and some catchy, sweet electronic synths as the song is all about girls and wanting them. Rico Nasty provided a decent verse, with a style matching KYLE's well but both rappers drifted into this teen pop segment almost and the singing again on the hook wasn't that good - at least the beat was unique. It's a decent song overall but it evidently flawed. Even the interlude 'A Message from Mr. Man (Interlude)' has this nice, twinkling sound reminiscent of childhood nostalgia to it as it's a nice addition with someone telling KYLE to keep up his carefree attitude.
KYLE himself has his moments with a witty punchline or a good bar here and there, but other than that he ranges from average to just plain basic. He has a few funny lines on the first track 'Bouncin', "Oh, my bad I was busy countin' cash (Countin' cash, yeah) // It takes a minute when you suck at math (Damn) // If I knew I'd be rich, I woulda took my ass to class, yeah (Fuck)", as he dedicates this entire track to flexing over this spacey, almost psychedelic beat. It's a decent first track and sets the tone down to the project, and the synth drop is great giving us a casual listen with a bouncy and catchy flow. As I said he can be generic at times, as shown on the track 'What It Is', "And the shit you textin' got me feelin' strange // Yeah, yeah, 'cause you don't feel the same // I'm sorry that I feel that way". Despite this the song grew on me and it's good, with this R&B influenced beat and a decent enough hook - it's only really the verses that don't stand out on this. 'Mr. Man & K.i.D' is also pretty basic with its punchlines, but again it's the catchy synth keyboard instrumental and the nice flow and distinctive voice of Mr. Man make this a good track. His fun delivery really works well with the style of happy, bouncy, pop rap he makes.
For the most part, the features on here were quite good, and they fit the beats and jolly tone set, demonstrating decent chemistry with KYLE. An example of this being the song 'See You When I’m Famous', where AZChike works over the beat perfectly with his laid back delivery, and Too $hort was also alright, he did what he was expected to do over this darker toned beat with deep 808s and twinkling synths. The track focuses on making it in the rap game, and while the beat is a pretty generic club beat, it sounds decent and the track runs smooth - everybody knew their role. However, there was also a few that didn't add too much to the track, such as iann dior on 'Forget', who was pretty basic and didn't stand out unlike the other feature Trippie Redd who gave us great vocals and stole the show here. The beat was simplistic but creates a nice, foggy but uplifting atmosphere as it talks on being over an old girlfriend. The Drums provided atmospheric vocals but I don't know if they did enough to make an impact (not even sure how they were credited with a feature), and the track was decent but the rappers, both iann and KYLE, should have done a bit more in their verses to make this something great. Bryson Tiller joins KYLE on 'The Sun' as they make a song about wanting to get back on track in a relationship over this summery vibe and light guitar strings. Tiller's vocals were nice, and the beat was a great vibe but I think that's about it because KYLE was boring and Bryson didn't stand out too much. The fact I think it's decent still shows just how good of an atmosphere the beat has.
Content wise, you get what you expect with a few tracks dedicated to flexing, such as the single 'YES!'. The catchy guitar riffs and whistle sound good as well as the heavy drums, while Rich The Kid actually provides an entertaining verse and K CAMP bounced off KYLE so well to provide a catchy hook. KYLE has a few witty lines, "Got so many hoes, I'm surprised I don't have a baby", as they all create this ridiculously catchy song - everyone's part gets stuck in your head and this song has been one of my most played all year - I love it! A lot of the tracks however focus on heart break which actually surprised me, such as the song 'Over It' which takes a more optimistic look at a breakup. The rock inspired beat sounds great and the hook is catchy but also seems familiar and quite generic - anyway the melody is nice. It's a short but sweet track and yet another enjoyable one in this good first half of music. 'Bye' takes a look at KYLE leaving home to try and make it big, and the beat here creates a great mood with the layered vocals and suspense building clicks and sounds incredible. It's a great track, the whole mood created clashes with KYLE's soft vocals and they work together to make a pretty emotional yet heart warming song. Despite the shift in focus, it wasn't the deepest dive into these topics.
To conclude, this project takes the classic pop rap formula, experiments with it a bit and sprinkles KYLE's good vibe energy on top of it for a good album. His joyous tone sounds good over the beats selected - but occasionally his signing isn't that nice on his ear. There was some bangers and not really a bad song on this, it's just sometimes the ideas could've been executed better. He made pop song after pop songs that were extremely catchy - not much else you could ask for.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: Money Now, YES!, Over It, What It Is, Bye, Mr. Man & K.i.D, See You When I’m Famous
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK: GIRLS
OVERALL RATING: Light 7/10