Review: YG - My Krazy Life
[Pu$haz Ink; 2014]
Rating: 7.5/10
By Xavier Veccia, Features Editor
Key Tracks: “Meet The Flockers,” “Who Do You Love,” “Bicken Back Being Bool”In 2012, Kendrick Lamar made one of the most influential concept albums in recent memory.
In short, it was a look at Lamar's life growing up in Compton--a life filled with spiked joints, gang violence and a "pool full of liquor."
good kid, m.A.A.d. city was sort of the last album one would expect out of someone so close to the drug and gang culture of Compton. And that's what made it so brilliant.
Almost a year-and-a-half later, YG is making the exact album listeners expect Compton natives to release. And that is what makes My Krazy Life so brilliant.
YG, short for Young Gangsta, hails from Compton (or Bompton as he refers to it) and is one of the reasons DJ Mustard basically owns hip-hop radio nowadays. Together, the leaders of the Pu$haz Ink crew have released a slew of mixtapes, including three in the past two years. Many were thinking YG was forever a mixtape rapper, making My Krazy Lifenot only a surprise, but also a must-listen.
When one thinks of Cali rap, G-funk and ratchet rap are some of the first sounds that come to mind. YG has done ratchet, as shown by the fact he's at the forefront of the ratchet movement. But on My Krazy Life, YG pays tribute to the original Western bangers by combining the new with the old.
It doesn't take long to hear the G-funk influence. The first song on the album, "BPT," features some classic West Side synths and "Bicken Back Being Bool" contains some funky bass lines and gangsta synths. To no one's surprise, both of these hip-hop time capsules are produced by Mustard himself.
But YG also shows he's not done with his "Bompton" flare. One doesn't have to look far for the signature "mustard on the beat, ho" bangers, as the two lead singles--"My N----" and "Who Do You Love" featuringDrake--are about as bass-heavy as a song can be.
Of course, to make the transition from mixtape rapper to album rapper, YG makes sure to bring in some connections for some "krazy" features.
King Kendrick himself comes by on the Ty Dolla $ign-produced song (he might have a future in producing, surprisingly) to prove that, no matter how hard YG goes, Lamar's got this Compton scene on lock.
Lamar's labelmates Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock also stop by on the absolute jam "I Just Wanna Party." And that's not even including all the Pu$haz Ink features from the likes of Dolla $ign and TeeCee.
Heavy beats and high-profile guest spots were easy to predict from My Krazy Life, but where YG surprises is the one thing with which he's struggled in his career so far: quality content.
My Krazy Life may not be a GKMC, but it's a concept nonetheless, depicting YG's growth from a robber--YG was jailed in 2009 for residential burglary--to a successful and sorry rapper.
In just 14 tracks, YG grows in front of our eyes. In "Meet the Flockers," the listener is there with YG mid-burglary, but by the end, he's telling his mother how he's failed her as a son.
It's quite the change for YG, especially considering he's mostly been coasting off Mustard's beats. He grows as both a person and an artist throughout the run time of the album. My Krazy Life is not only everything expected from YG, it's also everything wanted from him.
