I guess Halloween is a big music holiday now because on Tuesday, there was a flurry of releases, headlined by a Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and Offset collab album. The tape, titled “Without Warning,” was released, as advertised, out of the blue. The reigning two-time BET Awards producer of the year, Metro Boomin, is the center of the 10 song album, with Offset and 21 Savage as his rappers of choice. This is not Metro’s first experience with this type of collaboration, as he joined with 21 Savage for 2016’s “Savage Mode” and Gucci Mane this year with “Droptopwop.” The combination here results in an absolute gem but, instead of a normal review, I decided to choose some winners and losers from the album.
Winner: The Quavo/Offset Debate
This was not a debate in February. Migos’ second studio album, “Culture” was preceded by a slew of Quavo features in 2016 that made this discussion meaningless. “Pick Up The Phone,” “Good Drank” and “Congratulations” were too much for Offset to handle and the domination of Quavo’s individual efforts eventually became an internet meme.
It turns out, all we needed was more Offset and in, 2017, we have gotten all the Offset anyone could hope for. “Slide” was a taste of his fast-rapping pyrotechnics, but the turning point for Offset came with his feature on “Met Gala.” Produced by Metro Boomin, the song was a coming-out party where the Migo could spread his wings and fly on both hook and verse. This ability to excel at all aspects of a rap song is what has closed the distance between him and Quavo and this skill is in full view on “Without Warning.”
“Rick Flare Drip” is all Offset and all kinds of awesome. The hook is catchy and he finds flows that nobody else thought possible, even speeding up his voice in the second verse (don’t quote me on that). Offset’s recent demolition of “Patek Water” and now “Without Warning” has closed the gap between him and his partner in crime and heated up the debate considerably going into “Culture 2.”
Loser: 21 Savage Metaphors
“Hurricane Irma on my neck, n***a, flooded out/ Hurricane Harvey on my wrist, sh*t, flooded out.” – 21 Savage (“Disrespectful”)
21 had to come up with a water comparison and this is what he went with. I am not saying this is too soon (some might) but it is a pretty lazy way to use these references. 21 doesn’t even rhyme anything with the hurricane references. He just says five lines in a row that talk about his diamonds and ends all of them with “flooded out.” This is the kind of stuff with 21 Savage where you just shake your head and move on because with the good comes the occasional (unbelievably) bad.
Winner: Patek Philipe
Patek Philipe, the luxury wrist watch company, is getting so much free advertising with these songs that I am beginning to think it is not free and they are paying for name drops. Then I think about who Patek Philipe’s main demographic is and I am pretty sure it is not the listeners of a Metro Boomin album. Sixteen to 28-year-olds probably do not make up much of Patek’s clientele so they would not be spending money for advertising. So, after much deliberation, I am concluding these rappers keep referencing Patek to sound cool, which is less interesting.
Loser: Travis Scott and Quavo
After this star-studded project, the heat is now on the rumored Travis Scott and Quavo collab album. I, being a rational human being and all, should not think this collaboration will ever happen but seeing as I enjoy disappointment, I will keep hoping for it. Things like this tweet are what grounds these hopes in some sort of reality. This collab idea sounds like the pipe dream, reminiscent of the Kendrick/J.Cole album that never happened, but maybe “Without Warning” will make Huncho and Cactus focus a little more on their combined efforts.
Teddy Craven is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at edward.craven_jr@uconn.edu.
