Follow Anywhere the Dope Go on Twitter
Youngboy Never Broke Again’s sixth release this year sees him in another pocket stylistically once again. While The Last Slimeto has him over plenty of hard beats, and 3800 Degrees has him tapping into his NOLA roots instrumentally, Ma I Got A Family shows a softer side emotionally. Many tracks here have him singing introspectively on his life & what it means to him. Unfortunately though, the instrumentals & performances do not call for anything remarkable.
While on 3800 Degrees, you had him playing with his flows & hometown instrumentals, this project opts for more generic instrumentation. Majority of the tracks here see a guitar & extremely basic trap drum pattern, with him annoyingly whining through each one. A style like this works for an artist like Rod Wave, as his voice is clear & emotive, but Youngboy’s is slurred & unclear. Even though what he speaks on is emotionally damning, its lost with the instrumentals.
Youngboy Never Broke Again – Act A Fool
Even when he picks up with a feature, he rarely switches gears. The song with Nicki Minaj feels exactly the same as the others, just with the addition of Nicki. “I Don’t Text Back” sees Yeat completely steal the show with his unique brand of vocalizations. Its so easy to forget you where just in the thick of a YB song thanks to this track.
The highlights here fall upon the intro & “Act A Fool.” The intro being “Pop Out” sets up the false promise of the album, showing off an intense electric guitar along with him playing with all different modes of rapping. From aggressive to singing, his full range is on display on it. “Act A Fool” is another harder cut on the album from him, featuring a much more detailed trap beat & releasing an ignorant banger.
This is a tape for a specific kind of YB fan, as all his projects from this year have landed on a specific niche. While this may not satisfy everyone stylistically, those invested in what YB has to offer will be interested in his more transparent approach lyrically. Somewhere amongst all these projects, there certainly is a perfect project among them. However, that’s clearly not his focus.