While still on house arrest, YoungBoy Never Broke Again has proven to be nothing less than prolific. His output not only saw multiple projects of lengthy tracklists, but him playing with a variety of subgenres. 3800 Degrees saw him dive headfirst into his NOLA roots drawing influence from Cash Money/No Limit Records, I Rest My Case seeing him embracing the new trend of rage music, and Ma’ I Got a Family delivering a more somber record with classic DJ drops provided by DJ Drama.
Don’t Try This At Home looks to add to his streak of records, but doesn’t provide much new groundwork to be explored. Tracks here don’t play with many, if any, new sounds. The album opens with tracks that feel like he’ll embrace the NOLA sound, providing a few more aggressive cuts (especially “Big Truck”), but he quickly starts diving into other sounds that he’s previously explored. It has range, doing his more somber melodic tracks in-between, but around the midway mark it starts to peter out.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again – Big Truck
Immediately after the collaboration with Nicki Minaj, a track that doesn’t even feel that notable considering they had a much more interesting collab on a previous album (“I Admit“), its as if the album enters its b-sides. Nothing in the second-half is of note, and if it is it’s for the wrong reasons. “What You Say” sees YoungBoy collaborating with high profile artists like Post Malone & The Kid LAROI, but none of the artists on the track pull anything interesting out of each other. We do get to see Post Malone rap again, but it almost feels like its an old feature since he hasn’t done so in so long.
While the tracklist is once again bloated similar to The Last Slimeto, it does have its moments. “Choppa Docter” might be the hardest track on here, with him letting loose melodically with a broad range of threats. “Rear View” sees him in much more introspective view, supported by Mariah the Scientist’s beautiful voice. “While the tracklist is once again bloated similar to The Last Slimeto, it does have its moments. “Choppa Docter” might be the hardest track on here, with him letting loose melodically with a broad range of threats. “Rear View” sees him in much more introspective view, supported by Mariah the Scientist’s beautiful voice. “Mr Gaulden” sees him speaking on his street lifestyle & demanding respect.
It does feel frustrating to write-off half an entire album, but unfortunately that’s the case here. YoungBoy’s recent run looks like a content dump, but when broken down you see him playing with all new sounds & full of collaborations with other artists. Yet here on this album, you don’t get much of that.