Joey Bada$$
ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Album Release Date: April 7th, 2017

ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ is Joey Badass's second official studio album, but he's had so many mixtapes, EPs, singles, and guest appearances since emerging on the American HipHop scene in 2012 (at age 17) that it feels like he's been around for decades. Indeed, Joey's rap style and production aesthetic has been lauded as hearkening back to HipHop's golden era—the end of which he was born, in 1995. As HipHop now enters the third generation after its inception, the movement as a means of cultural expression has been thoroughly co-opted by profit-driven corporate interests. This has left many artists and fans lamenting HipHop's corruption by the pop music industry and yearning for a return to the art form as it was in earlier manifestations. Hence Joey's success, as his music epitomizes the sound and values of Golden Age HipHop in which innovative songwriting took precedence over superficiality and sensationalism.

With a steady vocal delivery focusing on lyrical prowess and socially-relevant subjects more than braggadocio and glamour, and favouring unvarnished beat production over studio slickness, Joey has developed into one of contemporary HipHop's creative giants—joining the likes of Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamar. But while those two have found mainstream appeal despite stretching HipHop boundaries into sometimes genre-bending, experimental territory, Joey retains many now-classic elements of underground HipHop in sound, style, and content.

AMERIKKKAN came out one week before Kendrick's DAMN., yielding comparison between the two albums. Both have a generally somber, introspective tone underscored by primarily mellow, bass-heavy R&B and jazz grooves (and on a curious side note, both album tracklists stylize the titles in exclusively capital letters). And there's a lot more singing than on previous releases by either artist, so an overall lighter sound to each LP. But only lighter in sound, because content-wise both works espouse a hardcore anti-Trump, antifascist ideology and pro-black values. But while Kendrick has been politically outspoken for awhile, and remains so on DAMN., he explores a wider range of themes than Joey who is more singular in his vision here, presenting his dissent more overtly than he ever has before. Virtually every song expresses a pointedly political, antiracism sentiment complemented with a compassionate view towards the suffering of underclass America.

There are a lot of references to Trump, racism, and police brutality and murder of unarmed black people in America. This is of course all understandable given the outrageous state of things, and the abhorrent new low that Trump represents in U.S. election history. By unabashedly addressing it, Joey shows that he's continued to develop into a conscious, conscientious artist unafraid to challenge the establishment in its ugliest incarnation—as in true HipHop spirit.

The lack of uptempo, bangin' tracks is intriguing given the seriousness of the subject matter, resulting in a contemplative narrative voice that alternates between angry and sad, rebellious and resigned. It feels like Joey's narrator is exhausted from having to deal with America's racism, xenophobia, sexism, and classism, which are in some ways worse than ever. But his cynical outlook is punctuated with no-holds-barred calls to action and activism, solution-based proclamations, and progressive protests as effective counterpoints to the doom. So the album's not completely devoid of heavier, louder tracks as well, such as "RING THE ALARM" which addresses the emergency state of the country, and "ROCKABYE BABY" in which Joey passionately raps "If you 'bout this revolution, please stand up / We ain't got no one to trust / Time is running up / Feel the burn in my gut / And if you got the guts, scream 'Fuck Donald Trump!'." The song may indeed be about putting Trump to sleep, permanently, with it's refrain of "Rockabye, rockabye, rockabye, baby... Look at what they made me".

Another of many highlights is the melodic, reggae-inflected "BABYLON", an impassioned plea for justice within an atmosphere of madness: "Turn on to CNN / Look at what I see again / It's another black man / Died at the white hand of justice / To tell the truth, man, I'm fuckin' disgusted / I fear for the lives of my sisters, my brothers / Less fortunate than I, let's formulate a plan / I'm sick of holdin' grudges / I'm loadin' all my slugs and aimin' it at the judges / Fuck the cops / Fuck the system and the government, you fuckers not / Protectin' and servin' / More like damagin' and hurtin'." The album is full of this kind of potent emotional expression, and as such is captivating from front to end.

"Justice won't be served with a hashtag" Joey raps on the 6-minute-long album closer "AMERIKKKAN IDOL", a song whose title and content resonate as yet another indictment of the worst aspects of American capitalist culture. Joey provides an intense, focused response to America's violence, war, poverty, and racism, describing a bleak reality seemingly ruled by social media, fake news, tabloids, celebrity, "reality" TV, Trump, and the attitudes that put him in office. As much as this final track illustrates a grim, dystopian reality, it's also an uplifting rally call for unity and self-empowerment, an appeal for the marginalized to join forces and strengthen their communities: "It is for sure time that we as a people stand up for acknowledgement and accomplishment of what we call human rights / It is time to rebel, better yet, raise hell". The song and indeed entire album is therapeutic, registering as a revolutionary, spiritual, political manifesto.

Not only is it refreshing to hear a talented young MC like Joey Badass progress to deeper levels as he expounds on subjects with greater intellect and emotion than ever before, but it's actually cathartic. It's soul music, in a sense. As if a vehicle to a higher plain, Joey's unhindered expression touches the spirit in profound ways. It reminds us of the power and necessity of good art, especially in dark times.
• Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
April 20th, 2017