Arts

Hip Hop Heroes Review: The World Is Yours

The new-age rap acts have a lot to prove to the “community.” Albums such as XXXTentacion’s and Lil Pump’s recent projects have succeeded as a result of their cult-like following. Nevertheless, the quality of the music almost never reaches the expectations put on it.

Rich the Kid’s debut album, “The World is Yours,” does the same. The singles “New Freezer,” featuring Kendrick Lamar and a dark piano, and “Plug Walk,” with its celestial chimes, are great. They were released in a timely fashion, which is rare of most modern hip-hop acts, leading to the mounting anticipation behind the artist’s debut. The tracklist boasts featured names like Offset, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Khalid, and Chris Brown.

On paper, the album is just crazy enough to be good, and with just one listen, it is. Yet, two listens proves to be a different story. The big name features depreciate Rich the Kid’s verses on his own album. Lil Wayne drops wordplay in his verse on “End of Discussion” that is too complex for Rich the Kid to follow. In “Made It,” Jay Critch and Rick Ross do the same. Rick Ross is too unique, and Jay Critch and Rich are essentially the same, which proves problematic for the song.

However, I do not think that this project denies Rich the Kid the place he deserves in the game. His debut is exactly that, nothing more and nothing less. What undervalues this is the fact that he wants it to be more.