Redemption is the fourth full-length project from Jay Rock and the first album he's released since 2015. Jay Rock's first big hit came earlier this year from his track on the Black Panther Soundtrack called "King's Dead," which he also announced as the lead single for this album. Jay Rock isn't a widely known artist, as he is mostly talked about among internet circles and people who are fans of Kendrick Lamar's Top Dawg Entertainment label. His singles indicated that he was trying to gain a wider audience and go for mainstream appeal. Here's what I have to say about his latest effort.
Positives
The album is pretty concise at 13 tracks and 44 minutes, so there weren't any parts of the album that felt like a tedious slog. On tracks like "ES Tales," "OSOM," and "Broke +-," he still lays down some solid bars and flows and shows why he is underrated as a lyricist. For the most part, the guest contributions throughout sounded pretty good. I don't have too much of a problem with his beat selection either since most of these songs were pretty listenable. He enlisted big names such as Boi-1da, Hit-Boy, and Cardo for his instrumentals.
Negatives
It's honestly hilarious how obvious it is when he tries to appeal to the mainstream. He's not even trying to hide it. There are so many songs on here where he tries to get plays in clubs and appeal to the trap crowd like "Knock It Off," "Rotation 112th," "Tap Out," and "Troopers." Another weakness this album suffers from is the hooks, which range from repetitive to dragging for too long. Songs like "Knock It Off," "Rotation 112th," and "Tap Out." are the biggest offenders.
Features
5 artists have credited features throughout the album, two of which are TDE label mates.
1) Jeremih (Tap Out) - He wasn't the problem on this track at all. In fact, I liked his hook before he started repeating "tap out" and going on about hooking up with a fine woman.
2) J. Cole (OSOM) - That was one of J. Cole's best verses. In my opinion, his verse was the best on the entire album. The production on "OSOM" is the kind of beat that best suits Cole as he flows almost flawlessly. It sounded reminiscent of his sound on 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
3) Future (King's Dead) - LADIDADIDA, SHLOB ON ME KNOB! But seriously, his falsetto bridge has grown on me and gets funnier every time. I hate that it overshadows his verse because that's actually a good part of the song.
4) Kendrick Lamar (Wow Freestyle) - This wasn't on the better end of Kendrick Lamar's guest verses. His contribution picks up on the third verse that he shares with Jay Rock, but it's pretty forgettable overall.
5) SZA (Redemption) - I thought this track was kind of boring, but she didn't disappoint. Her chorus is by far the highlight of the song.
Brent Faiyaz and SiR have uncredited vocals on "For What It's Worth" and "OSOM" respectively and Kendrick Lamar is uncredited for his hook on "King's Dead" as well as numerous tracks where he provides ad-libs.
Singles
Three singles were released ahead of the album. Each will be described in order of appearance on the album, not by release date.
1) The Bloodiest - This is my favorite of the three singles. We have some solid production from Boi-1da as well as some of the best flows and bars on the album. The hook is also pretty catchy.
2) King's Dead (feat. Future) - Why did Jay Rock feel the need to fuck with this song? Were the Black Panther references too much? He doesn't credit Kendrick Lamar even though his hook is still present. James Blake's transition and the beat switch with Kendrick's verse was taken out. Jay Rock's verse and Future's LADIDADIDA were kept in but the intro was changed from chants to Jay Rock saying he's still in the projects through audio that sounds like a phone call. This version is so much worse than the original it makes me wonder why he even bothered to put it on the album.
3) WIN - I'll admit, this song has grown on me since I first heard it. I love the fanfare within the production. The hook went from annoying to endearing. Kendrick Lamar's ad-libs went from annoying to amusing. This song sounds better than most of the other trap-influenced songs because it seems like Jay Rock actually had fun. Maybe the music video helped change my opinion but I think more highly of this song now.
Best Tracks
1) ES Tales - This track had some of the hardest verses on the entire album. The production sounds menacing and I love the one-up sound from the Mario games laced in throughout the beat.
2) OSOM (feat. J. Cole) - This might be my favorite track on this album. The beat sounds silky smooth. J. Cole delivers one of his best verses and it seems like Jay Rock actually tried on this song.
3) Broke +- - This was one of Jay Rock's more personal, serious tracks. I liked the smooth piano-based production quite a lot. The hook on this song is amazing as Jay Rock spells out the word broke as an acronym.
Worst Track
Tap Out (feat. Jeremih) - This song felt the most obvious that Jay Rock is trying to get plays in the club. Jeremih's hook wasn't really the problem even though that one dragged on for a bit too long. Jay Rock's autotuned vocals were what brought this song down. If this were just a Jeremih song, I wouldn't mind since these kinds of beats are up his alley.
Conclusion
I don't think that this is a bad record by any means. However, Jay Rock could have tried much harder than this.
Score: 5/10
I listened to a bunch of his other songs before, but never really a full project. Songs like "Hood Gone Love It," "Code Red," and "Pay For It" blow this project out of the water, that's for sure.
This concludes my fourteenth review. I will be changing my post schedule once again as I just found out that Beyonce and Jay-Z's collaborative project was released on Spotify last night. It's a bit of an odd choice since there are lyrics where Beyonce disses Spotify but I'll take it. Here's my schedule for the rest of the week.
Tuesday: A review of the new Nas album
Wednesday: A review of The Carters' album
Thursday: An artist review of Ski Mask The Slump God; there will be no revisit this week
Friday-Sunday: Reviews of whatever gets released this week
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