After months of dread and assuming Old would be a disappointment of boring dance shit, I must say I was wrong. It's a stunning album, and easily my favorite album of 2013 thus far. I will not be comparing it to XXX for awhile, considering technically the album isn't even "out" yet. But after a few listens I'm more than ready to hail it as a worthy followup.
Side A manages to be as shocking and emotional as nearly anything on XXX. Torture may be Danny's best song as he details his pain over a death march of (live) hi hats and throbbing bass . There are simply too many standout tracks to discuss in the first side, but Clean Up and Wonderbread really blew me away. Freddie Gibbs stops by with another standout feature verse over dope bass.
Side B opens with another of Danny's best tracks ever: Dope Song. After the bruising first side, it's not hard to understand why he considers this his last dope song. There is no glorification here. The mainstream pop trap facade is nowhere to be seen. This isn't a guy
leaning against a brick building eating Doritos, casually serving fiends like he doesn't have a care in the world. It's a realistic portrait of that world, and it's not pretty. I remember the first time I heard The Infamous as a kid and thinking I would never want to live like that, or deal with that nonstop stress and fear and violence. That vulnerable street hustler take on coke rap is a lot rarer today, and almost non-existent in trap rap.
Side B has a mis-step, ie Way Up Here, but overall it's solid. Darq E Freaker seems to "get" Danny more than just about anyone btw: Handstand is mind blowing.
The final track isn't 30 status but that's a good thing. Float On ends on a somewhat positive note, and you can tell Danny is in a better place than he was on that devastating final track of XXX. It's a confident, well executed end to a stunning album.
