Quincey Hanley, better known as ScHoolboy Q, dropped his brand new album CrasH Talk last night. Q finally released the highly anticipated follow up to his 2016 Blank Face LP. It’s been three long years since we last heard from the L.A. born rapper and a lot has changed. You can tell just by looking at the track list, with not one feature from any of his TDE label mates. Instead we’re greeting with a lot of new faces from Kid Cudi to Lil Baby. As we’ve seen chronicled on his social media, his interests have evolved as well. He’s picked up boxing, video games, and even golf. Hitting the course almost daily with everyone from artists like DJ Mustard to actor and comedian George Lopez. ScHoolboy Q is 32 now, long past the life of Hoover St and gang banging- so how will gangster rapper turned soccer dad translate on the new album?
CrasH Talk starts on familiar pace from past albums with ‘Gang Gang’, eerily similar to ‘Gangsta’ off his 2014 album Oxymoron, the beat is big and he holds no punches over the loud bass and lines like “You talked about it you ain’t sold it uh, Shoot up fed but I ain’t Kobe, uh”. When ‘Chopstix’ dropped as a single this month I was not a fan. It felt like a forced single that didn’t feel authentic to Q. I still feel this way, it’s the one song that really had no place in this album, I’m still slightly confused how it made the final cut.
The beats on this album are some of the best of his career, from the lead single ‘Numb Numb Juice’, the the DJ Dahi produced ‘5200’, and ‘Floating’ done by Cardo, you get a very wide range of sounds and style all of which Q plays beautifully. ‘Drunk’ with 6lack is mood music like his ‘Studio’ single from a few years ago. ‘Dangerous’ is another standout, featuring what sounds like extra vocals from SZA. Layered with Kid Cudi on the hums and the hook, it only leaves you wishing he did a verse too. As we get deeper into the album the sound gets darker as does the context, 21 Savage and Schoolboy trade verses trying to figure out whos been higher on ‘Floating’. ‘Die Wit Em’ is unapologetically angry “Dropping bodies in the casket, uh I’m a legend in the set, yeah. Your big homie getting checked, uh the realest n***** out the West, uh Makaveli in the flesh, uh”.
CrasH Talk is wild, it feels like you’re going from drive by’s to coasting down the PCH, with stops for weed in between. That vibe is perfectly encompassed with the title song ‘Crash’. Over what sounds like an A$AP Rocky beat from his ‘Purple Swag’ years, Schoolboy floats “Family friends want a piece of mine, I can tell they all piecin’ up and I can show ’em where peace resides. Since eight years old, I knew I’d be rich cause the college route, it wasn’t ’bout shit. Tried the honest route, but chose house licks, tried to lock me up, but can’t catch this”. Moral of the album; he’s going off until he crashes. Life has changed for Q, but the problems still sit around waiting like dope dealers on street corners.
Favorite Tracks: CrasH, Floating, 5200
