EndOfTime (Feat. Marlo D.) [Prod. by Richard Desire]

  It's been a minute since I've gotten to check my inbox and an hour since I've found something in there that I absolutely like. Aus Taylor sent me one of his joints, "EndOfTime" back in April, but I'm bumping my head to it like it just came with Yeezus. I don't know the sample, but that beat is so triumphant. Richard Desire did his thing! This was Aus' first original track, and for a first, it's great. Marlo D on that last verse kills. They rap about the somewhat cryptic society we live in. Aus, Marlo, and Richard are all parts of a Baltimore creative collective called "The Creators." After this track, Aus already seems like such an established artist. I'm definitely looking forward to see more. "What's time, but some organized nonsense?" 4.5 Nerd Contemplations out of 5 Nerd Approved Follow @ImAusTaylor on Twitter Follow OGAus on Tumblr Follow me on Twitter @WaverlySpades This track was brought to you by Waverly Spades, and now I'm off to go cop Yeezus (on Spotify because a nigga broke).

Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap [Mixtape Review]

What's up my favorite trekkies and nerds? It's me, the real Carlton Banks aka Bill Nye's 2nd cousin, aka the original black nerd, and a bunch of other monikers. Today, I want to review Chance The Rapper's newest free album, Acid Rap. I've loved Chance for a few months and I've been excited for Acid Rap for a very long time. Even before the few amount of leaks, I knew I'd like it way before I even listened, so I didn't wait to blog it to listen. I know most of this mixtape by heart, but I want to give an in depth review as to why this mixtape is so amazing. If you don't know who Chance The Rapper is, he's one of the most talented out of the wave of Chicago rappers we've been seeing lately. His flow is unlike any other and his singer/rapper style is something completely new (No Drake, Kanye, Cudi, etc.).  Let's get my true thoughts of each song.

 

Good Ass Intro (ft. BJ The Chicago Kid, Lili K., Kiara Lanier, Peter Cottontale, Will for the O'my's & JP Floyd for Kids These Days) [Prod. Peter Cottontale, Cam for J.U.S.T.I.C.E League & Stefan Ponce] - Such a soulful, churchy start. This is just a nice little touch. Besides the great melody, the slightly off snares and kicks sound so new it's ridiculous. The line up of artists here is crazy. This is truly a small taste/foreshadowing of what to expect with this mixtape. "Better bet I'd take that deal. Gotta watch out for my mother." He goes from talking about his family, to his drug use, and his music in general. This track is crazy. The trumpets and that singing outro.. This is such a beautiful song. I hear the slight Kanye influence. At some points in the outro, you hear the autotune on "So Good." And the track was entitled "Good Ass Intro." Kanye West's album was going to be called "Good Ass Job." This track was a good ass job.

"Did I turn to drugs and do better than my Alma Mater"
7/5

Pusha Man (ft. Nate Fox & Lilli K.) [Prod. by Ceej for Two9] - This track is just cool as fuck. If I had a whip, I'd turn my windows down and blast this all throughout the white neighborhood I live in. It's so charismatic. "I'm the new Nitty. Fuck it. Nitty the old me!" Nate Fox on the hook almost sounds like Childish Gambino. Are we sure that's not Childish Gambino?
"She came to party. She popped a molly. Said 'Come to papa.' She said, 'Papa yes!'" Much better than Rick Ross' line in U.O.E.N.O. lol
"10 damn days and all I gotta show for it is shows and shows and chauffers with road rage."
4.7/5

Paranoia (Hidden Track) [Prod. by Nosaj Thing] - I know this technically is apart of the last track, but it's almost like the Buried Alive interlude. It's it's own creation that serves it's own purpose. Chance tweeted that if you listen to this while tripping on Acid, the space on between is enough to time to prepare for the sudden change. He goes from rapping about some baller stuff to rapping about the state of his city. "Somebody'll steal daddy's rollie and call it the neighborhood watch." This track is  probably my favorite. It's anger with a purpose and a direction.  "They probably scared of all the refugees. Looks like we had a fucking hurricane here." I feel this song is almost an unanswered call. No other songs on the album speak of Chicago's violence like this one. He even states that he's scared. He says that everyone in Chicago is scared. It's an amazing change of outlook that you didn't specifically expect from the young, party-crazy emcee. "I hear everybody dying in the summer. Pray to God for a little more spring." First time hearing about the violence of Chicago from someone who's not contributing. If you didn't feel for Chicago before. You should now.
"Down here it's easier to find a gun than a fucking parking spot."
8/5

Cocoa Butter Kisses (ft. Vic Mensa & Twista) [Prod. by Cam for J.U.S.T.I.C.E League & Peter Cottontale] - This here is one of my favorite songs on the tape. It's already got a nice, churchy, soulful feel when the organs start. Cam and Peter are geniuses for this one. There's a little bit of a battle between Chance and Vic and that is beautiful. Both had outstanding verses. Chance gets very nostalgiac and it's a bit heartbreaking. Vic goes from talking about how he smokes with his band, Kids These Days, all the way to talking about how he believes they are all addicted. A feature from Twista is crazy for an up and comer, and his verse is AMAAAAZING. He definitely had that stereotypical black family we all know and love. "This is just a testament to the ones that raised me, the ones that I praise and I'm thanking. I need em, but the chronic all up in my clothes and I wanna get a hug, and I can't cause I'm stanking. Never too old for a spanking." Besides all of the melodies and great verses, the genius to this song is that it speaks on an aspect of smoking that no other rapper has touched on before. Smoking always leaves a smell on the smoker and many other loved ones in that person's life who don't smoke may be completely repulsed by it. (If you don't smoke, you probably already think the smell is repugnant.) What Chance, Twista, and Vic show here is how smoking separated them from the people they love. I assume other rappers have never really talked about it because it's nothing to glorify. You can really feel the pain in the song. They sorta make me want to start smoking, so I can relate to this one. haha. Not really, but still a dope track.
"A generation above me, I know you still remember me. My afro looks just like daddy's. Y'all taught me how to go hunting!"
7/5

Juice [Prod. by Nate Fox] - When this joint first came out, it was fire, but as I listen to it more, it's not that great, honestly. I mean, it's a really good song, but this one definitely loses replay value. That beat is still smooth as shit and the chorus can get you hype if you're in that mood. That lackadasical flow never truly gets old. This song is probably way more cool live.
"Everybody wanna sip until the juice spill, then everybody wanna bib, and then everybody wanna dip."
3.2/5

Lost (ft. Noname Gypsy) [Prod. by Nate Fox] - I never realized how beautiful love was on drugs. So tripping on Acid is the ideal date, now? Some girl wanna try this? That is the basic idea to this joint and it's simply beautiful. This is my first time listening to Noname Gypsy and she has a beautiful voice. "The only time he's love me is when I'm naked in my dreams." It's a sad love story because for the guy, it's always just an attraction, and the drugs help a bit. There's not much more to the love, but for the girl, she sees herself as being objectified. Weird how that changed around from a playful love song to a wakeup call.
4/5

Everybody's Something (ft. Saba & BJ The Chicago Kid) [Prod. by DJ Ozone] - Is that a J. Dilla sample? Well I know J. Dilla probably sampled it from something else, but the first thing I think is J. Dilla haha. Throughout this whole song, there's a lot of Chance's offbeat, yet soothing flow. I believe the word to describe it is scintillating. The song has a great message and imagery, but as Anthony Fantano said, the variety of things said here only scratch the surface. Chance doesn't go deeper than a line or two about problems throughout this song. He talks about religion, racial identity problems, police brutality, patriotism, etc, and wraps each verse up with the fact that somebody loves everybody, but it's never anything that truly hits you. BJ The Chicago Kid's verse is great. (I've never heard of him. Is he in Save Money Army?) This song is chill, but it doesn't have much replay value for me.
"Why God's phone die everytime I call on Him? If his son had a Twitter, I wonder would I follow him."
3/5

Interlude (That's Love) [Prod. by Ludwig Gorranson] - This is one of my favorite songs on the tape. The organs that start everything are beautiful. I would quote the whole verse if I could. I like how positively Chano raps. He makes love sound so beautiful, much unlike rappers today who treat it as a thing for bitch-nigga RnB singers and sensitive ass females. Chance gives it true light and I sing this everywhere. Whoever knew an interlude could be so powerful? I don't know who Ludwig Gorransen is, but the beat is filled with such essence and I'm in love with it.
7/5

Favorite Song (ft. Childish Gambino) [Prod. by Nate Fox] - I know a lot of people love this, but not even gonna lie, this is my least favorite song on the tape. I sorta hate it. The beat is jumpy and happy, but it's so happy that it's almost cartoonish. When he sings the chorus, it just sounds so fucking corny honestly. The wordplay is crazy and Gambino has a great verse, but I still just don't like it. Blame the beat. (Sorry, Nate!)
2.6/5

NaNa (ft. Action Bronson) [Prod. by Brandun Deshay] - Chance made a rap out of one of his adlibs lol. I wonder when he'll make a song called "Igh." That's new. Brandun Deshay sampled Red Clay for this joint. It's so chill. This song is cool and I can bump if it comes on repeat, but it's not like this is the first Chance song I search for on my Zune or anything. Action Bronson's verse is hilarious and perfect. Not much to say here.
4/5

Smoke Again (ft. Ab-Soul) [Prod. by Blended Babies] - Anthony Fantono said this is like a trap beat without hi hats, but it's better. I don't know why. It just feels more major, more live. I need to stop watching/reading album reviews before I finish mine. This track isn't lyrically great or anything, but it bumps. It's random as fuck. "No Drake, but I get my Drake on." This joint is almost a Cocoa Butter Kisses part 2, except the struggle this time is that smokers always want to smoke. It interferes, but they're not complaining haha. Ab-Soul honestly had one of the weakest verses I've ever heard from him on this, but it's still okay. The "lemme put my mouth where you potty, boo" made me puke a bit. "She only got you as a nigga on the side. That's the nigga on the side of a side bitch, homey!" Not even gonna lie. That's one of my favorite lines on the album.
"Lean all on that square, that's a fuckin' rhombus!"
3.4/5

Acid Rain [Prod. by Jake One] - The mood completely changes here. That hype shit dissipates a bit. This is the most introspective song in the mixtape, and unlike Everybody's Something, this one cuts deep. It is big restatement of the recurring themes of the mixtape: His drug use, acid, his friend who died, his rapid popularity, nostalgia, his highschool life, his relationship with Vic Mensa, etc. At the end of it end, he sings and old R. Kelly tune. It's beautiful in a sense. Jake One made an AMAZING beat and the perfect one for Chance. This was a great first single and is an amazing song.
"The richest man rocks the snatchless neckless."
5/5

Chain Smoker [Prod. by Nate Fox] - Here's another one of my favorites. It's another song where it touches some deep aspects of Chance's persona, but because of the upbeatness, it all just slips aways and hardly scratches the surface. "Last Chance joint gotta be a dance joint from an introspective, drugged-out standpoint." It goes from all of that to a filler space where he talks about how "this part is his shit." The whole song is sorta hypocritical to itself, but it's bouncy, so it's still cool. "Lot of niggas wanna go out with a bang, but I ain't tryna go out at all... Got a lot of ideas still to throw out the door."
"You and I look just alike and I'm afraid that this one right here might be the last time I write a song."
4.6/5

Everything's Good (Good Ass Outro) [Prod. by Cam for J.U.S.T.I.C.E League] - The intro is so nice. It's a conversation with his father. That is so heartwarming. "I used to be worse than worthless. Now I'm  worth hooks and verses." The whole track is a nice reminder of how far Chance has come and even though he's still just starting, he is without a doubt at a comftorable point in life. For him, everything's good! The trumpets come in and all opinions are made. You have to love Chance at this point. I love how he reuses previous themes of the mixtape in that beautiful outro. This is a great way to end the track.
"I knew I was fly when I was just a catepillar"
6/5

This album was probably the perfect album. It was better and worse than expected, but the highs balanced with the lows. The high points of the mixtape were really high. The low points weren't too low, they just weren't my style. I think that's the best part of this whole mixtape. I might not have liked a few songs so much, but I know a lot of other people went crazy over those songs (such as NaNa or Favorite Song). There truly was something for everybody on this tape. (Well, everybody who likes rap, hip hop, R&B, soulful stuff, jazz, and Kanye West.) This was something that rap needed for a while. There have been game changers in the past few years, but nothing like this right. Some might find Chance's voice and adlibs annoying, but those are just specifically Chance to me. They make him stand out and I like it all. His flow is ridiculous. I honestly wish Chance had a few more songs like Paranoia or Acid Rain out. On most tracks, when he gets introspective, it only scratches the surface, but on something like Acid Rain or Paranoia where he gets introspective and aware of the world around him, it really makes you sad and makes you want to rethink things. That's the only problem with Chance. The beats determine how seriously you take his songs. They're still all great songs whether you understand what it means or not. His lyricism is damn near 2nd to none. This whole tape is versatility. This shit makes me want to go trip acid. haha. Well y'all take a listen. All nerds and nonnerds alike should love this one.
99% - A+

This review was brought to you by Waverly Spades and now I'm off to enjoy these wonderful 77 days of summer that are finally here. (I'm also realizing Phineas & Ferb lied to us.)