Hey everybody, Harvey VD from the band ROUGE! here! We’re gonna try something a bit different on the blog and start adding some more variety to break up the monotonous flow of announcements and statements, so in the style of the TRAINWRECKORDS series that is produced by YouTuber and music critic Todd In The Shadows we’re gonna share our own stories about albums that maybe didn’t “kill” an artist’s career but definitely left a line of demarcation in them, alright? Alright? Cool. Let’s move on.
There’s a difference between “White Rappers (c)” and “white guys who rap.” “White Rappers (c)” tend to appropriate the style of rap for a demographic that doesn’t normally listen to rap because “all they talk about is sex, drugs, and violence” while listening to folks like Eric Clapton, 80s punk, or any given hair metal band, but in the end all you get is fairly cheesy pop music with some mediocre rhymes over them (see: Jack Harlow or early Mac Miller). They think it’s “real rap” or whatever but won’t listen to someone like Kendrick Lamar or A$AP Rocky because it’s “too ghetto” or whatever other racial codeword one could throw in.
Meanwhile “white guys who rap” are simply just rappers trying to make it in the genre while also acknowledging that they’ve got it a bit easier because of their race (think Beastie Boys post-License To Ill or late-period Mac Miller). They’re just focused on their craft and that’s really it, more or less.
Sometimes you get artists who teeter-totter between both categories (…dare I say Jimmy Pop from Bloodhound Gang?), sometimes you get artists who switch categories as their career progresses (see again: Mac Miller), and sometimes you get artists trying for one category while winding up in the other.
That last part is the story of one of those rappers, so buckle up because we’re in for a funky-ass ride.
The year is 2010.
A 30, soon to be 31 year-old rapper by the name of Yelawolf has released his major label debut project, a reworking of his Trunk Muzik mixtape (which he released earlier that year) and is now called Trunk Muzik 0-60. Across 46 minutes the album spans a wide variety of hip-hop subgenres and features a nice little list of artist cosigns including those of Atlanta rap legend Gucci Mane, Houston legend Bun B and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon. The project is released to some critical acclaim and he continues to build his profile by working with a wide variety of artists. A few different reviews that I could find name-check Eminem as a comparison and it’s not exactly hard to see why. Both rappers are, well, white, both came from rough backgrounds and both worked hard to get their way to their respective stations in life. Both rappers are also story-tellers; when Yelawolf raps about how he grew up in the rough parts of Gadsden, Alabama or raps about selling crystal meth out of a trailer park it strikes a few similar chords to a few different Marshall Mathers songs, and much like Eminem, Yelawolf has a fair share of songs that send chills up and down the spine.
Trunk Muzik 0-60 was released in November 2010, a solid 10 months after the original version was released and it helped build up a taste of Yelawolf to the general music-listening public. Between then and February 2011 there was more than just a little speculation (in part due to the comparisons laid out among many others) that Yelawolf was going to sign with Shady Records, the label run by Eminem, and sure enough in the March 2011 issue of XXL Magazine there’s Yelawolf alongside fellow Shady signees Slaughterhouse and the big man himself. A little while later that year, Yelawolf appeared alongside 10 other rappers for the XXL 2011 Freshman Class, an annual feature the magazine does to highlight up-and-coming rappers to watch out for. Featured in that year’s class alongside Yelawolf were a handful of other rappers who definitely made their mark in one way or another whom you may have heard of (Meek Mill, Big K.R.I.T., Mac Miller, YG, Lil B, and Kendrick Lamar). Though Kendrick Lamar had released Section.80 that year and was a year away from releasing his classic Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Mac Miller released his first official studio album with Blue Slide Park and The BasedGod was always going to have a strong online following, there was a lot of particular hype for Yelawolf especially after being seen as a protege to Eminem, arguably one of the greatest rappers of all-time. What was this white guy who rapped that came from Alabama going to drop on the world and make his mark with?
We get the answer to that on August 8th, 2011 with the debut single from his upcoming project Radioactive, the name of the song is called “Hard White (Up In The Club)” and features a guest appearance by Lil Jon.
….wait, Lil Jon?
YEAHHH!
As it turns out, the guy who made the certifiable banger “Get Low” had been in the next phase of his career with a solo album in 2009 (appropriately titled Crunk Rock) was still getting himself onto plenty of tracks including another pairing-up with Yelawolf on a song for, I kid you not, a solo album that Travis Barker of Blink-182 fame put out in early 2011. But enough of that; it’s the summer of 2011, you’re following Yelawolf and trying to find out as much as you can about the guy, and this song comes out and is the first proper introduction for his new upcoming album.
Let’s see what these two have brought to the table together for this momentous occasion.
Actually this is alright, I give it a thumbs-up. Having Yela’ over some more aggressive drum beats tends to work in his favor and this song especially highlights how he could work in the context of both poppier material alongside his business-as-usual rap flow. I kinda like that little vocal loop they use as well, honestly.
Alright, so the single drops in August and peaks at #17 on the bubbling-under hip-hop charts for Billboard, the music video for “Hard White” comes out in September, and in October the second and final single from the album comes out before the album comes out in a month.
The song is called “Let’s Roll” and features our good friend Rob Ritchie AKA Kid Rock on the hook. It’s a bit lighter and poppier than “Hard White” but is pretty much what I would still expect from a Yelawolf song; it’s got those rattling hi-hats and snappy 808 drums, fairly gentle piano and Kid Rock’s hook fits perfectly with the mood of the song. A pairing like Yelawolf and Kid Rock is more like what I would’ve expected as the lead single since it feels like an obvious pick and it gives that redneck hip-hop fusion a bit of a run for its money. Overall this song is perfectly fine. Again. Perfectly fine.
From what I could find “Let’s Roll” didn’t hit the charts either but it did manage to get a gold certification so maybe that’s not bad for a follow-up single, but the real question is how will the album as a whole sound? The two singles that were released for it don’t sound much like each other though they feature two good performances from our leading man on both songs.
Well, it’s now November 21st, 2011 and Radioactive is out in its entirety, so let’s listen to the album in its proper form. You go to the store and buy the CD, you pop it in your car and the first thing you hear is this…
Alright, that’s more what I was expecting from the guy who made “Get The Fuck Up” and horrorcore classic “Pop The Trunk.” It’s rightfully sparse and forces you to focus more on the actual rapping on display instead of the production behind him, and it’s a good way to open an album up (especially for an artist who knows a thing or two about opening up a project).
Up next is “Get Away” featuring guest appearances from Shawty Fatt and Mystikal. The beats on it are pretty and sparkling in part due to the sampling of “Strawberry Letter 23” by Brothers Johnson (which I’d recommend listening to anyway) and Shawty Fatt works over this as well. I’m still a bit fence on Mystikal’s contribution but I don’t hate it necessarily, it just feels so out of place compared to the other verses that came before it.
“Let’s Roll” and “Hard White” come after that, we know those songs since we already covered those, right? Right? Cool. Let’s move on.
“Growing Up In The Gutter” follows those two, and honestly it’s one of the stronger songs on the album. The buzzsaw synths used on the chorus along with Yela’s screams really act as a nice piece of dynamics alongside the quiter/gentler sounds of the verses. Lyrically Yela’s verse takes inspiration from “Children’s Story” by Slick Rick as he talks about a child who is abused by her father who also is picture as Lucifer himself. The mention of the “twin box spring” makes it clear where this child’s family is in terms of social/financial class which helps set the exposition of why outside the abuse life is such a nightmare for this child. The guest verse from Riitz features a chilling set of lyrics as well, but his vocal delivery feels a bit detached from Yela’s, who immerses you into what’s going on in the song. Here it just sounds like Riitz is kinda going “yeah is that fucked up or what?” A short film about the song came out in 2012 that’s equally as chilling as the song itself.
After that we get “Throw It Up” which features Three Six Mafia member Gangsta Boo and finally gives us the appearance of Eminem that we all basically knew was coming, right? The track is produced by Eminem alongside WLPWR, one of Yelawolf’s main producers and let me tell you, it absolutely sounds like Eminem’s fingerprints are all over the track with that little piano loop that is featured prominently throughout. The song is one of the strongest as everyone brings their A-game here including Eminem on what is definitely a reminder that he wasn’t as washed-up and over-the-hill as his “haters” would like you to believe.
So we’re six tracks into a fifteen track album, so far everything has been good, right? And it’s going to stay good, right?
Well, it was fun while it lasted, but allow me to introduce you to the point where this album goes fully off the rails and never fully recovers.
You see, at the end of “Throw It Up” we get something of a skit (which are rarely welcome on rap records in general, let alone on a rap record from 2011) where Yelawolf calls Eminem up after he records his verse, and the two share this exchange.
Eminem: Urm, yo, you know what I was thinking, man? I think the one thing that er… that the album don’t have that might be missing is like er… a song for, like, for girls
Yelawolf: Uh, what do you mean? For like bitches?
E: Nah, girls. Like a love song
Y: [awkward pause] No?!
E: We need one!
Y: Like—love song, love song?
E: Yeah, man, bitches like love songs!
In an interview with Complex Magazine where he talks about the making of the album, Yelawolf straight-up says this about the song “Good Girl,” and I quote;
I fucking did not want to do this record. I was totally against the song. All artists have one or two of these records in their career that they’ll record and be like, ‘I don’t know about this shit.’ Then their whole team will be like, ‘Dog, I’m telling you.’
-Yelawolf
and BOY DOES IT SOUND LIKE IT. His energy almost instantly drops when he’s rapping on here. Don’t get it twisted, the beat itself is nice but man, he sounds like someone put a gun to his head and told him he had to record this. The lyrics are so bad, the hook is so bad, and the song as a whole outside those beats is so bad. Unfortunately for him, he later goes on to mention in that article that Eminem really liked the song and so it wound up on the album. Yela specifically requested that skit at the end of “Throw It Up” to make it clear he didn’t want to do this but that he had to do to appease Eminem and the higher-ups at Shady Records. Not a good sign when you’ve gotta do something explaining “I didn’t want to do this but here we are” on an album.
Before we can get too much further into this I think it’s important to provide some background into Eminem in the year 2011 and the run-up to his part in Radioactive. After all, he’s the reason we’re even here so let’s talk about it.
In 2009 Eminem releases Relapse, his first album since 2004’s Encore. It’s the first record he’s made after fighting his battle with addiction and it pops up plenty on the album in many ways/shapes/forms, and even includes the return of his Slim Shady alter-ego. The album’s reviews are mixed to put it gently, and Eminem admitted that he wasn’t necessarily paying attention to what average listeners were and weren’t listening to these days so his next effort, 2010’s Recovery was released to slightly more favorable reviews but also featured songs like “Love The Way You Lie” which were way poppier than many of the other greatest hits of Marshall Mathers. But, “Love The Way You Lie” is a #1 hit and Eminem & co. are probably thinking they can get Yelawolf some radio hits with a similar formula, but one of the major differences between Eminem and Yelawolf is that Yelawolf at least knows this shit doesn’t work. Eminem’s vocals on those poppier songs he does don’t fit in with anything at all, it’s like trying to make a rose grow in concrete; sure we can appreciate the idea here but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. But again, it’s 2011 and Eminem is the one calling the shots so what he says is the bottom line.
It’s a shame, too, because of the fifteen songs on here there’s at least a solid six or seven tracks that all give off the vibe of “you have to follow the formula.” It comes out at you especially hard on songs like “Made In The USA” which features a Rhianna-like singer on the hook, the same can be said of “Write Your Name” which also features a Rhianna-like singer on the hook over gentle piano beats. There’s also “The Hardest Love Song In The World” which sounds like a fucking joke title that even the fucking Bloodhound Gang would’ve looked at and said “no.” The lyrics are far from “hard” too which makes the whole song feel even cheesier than it already is. It really gives off this whole “how d’ya do, fellow kids?” vibe and let me tell you, I don’t like it. Then there’s songs like “Radio” where there’s a message there in theory about the lack of quality content on the radio. Incidentally that song did not become a single but I guess he can find consolation in that there’s a lot of folks on YouTube who still really love this song 11 years later so good for him, I guess.
Alright, is there anything good on the back half of this record or do I just keep bitching about it?
Well, I like “Animal” and the hook that FeFe Dobson provides despite the dated dubstep production that came courtesy of Diplo. It’s one of the only times on the back half where Yelawolf sounds alive and energized. Yelawolf and FeFe ended up getting married in real life too so I guess it’s a nice bright spot on this album. I like “Everything I Love The Most” and that Billy Joel interpolation that’s being used on the hook as well as some of the lyrical content. If Yela was going to make a “love song” at the insistence of the higher-ups this would’ve been the perfect song to have as the obligatory “love song” because it’s not as obvious as the other songs that get thrown together on here. There’s also “Slumerican Shitizen” which features Travis Barker on drums and a pre-Run The Jewels Killer Mike doing a damn good verse about for-profit prisons. It’s also very much yee-haw as hell and when I went into this album I was expecting some more songs along the lines of that instead of what we got. It would’ve been possible to make stuff that didn’t feel so generic and cheesy, but instead we have almost half an album’s worth of tracks that I’d rather skip than keep listening to.
The album ends with a song appropriately titled “The Last Song,” and it’s a little closing ballad featuring beatbox drums and a piano while Yelawolf raps about his absent father and how he had to learn to be a man in spite of his dad not being around to teach him how to be one. Yelawolf is no stranger to heart-wrenching songs, he did it beautifully on Trunk Muzik 0-60 with “Love Is Not Enough,” where he puts his heart on his sleeve albeit from a somewhat angry perspective about a girl who left him for “some college graduate,” so it’s no surprise that this song is alright. However even with the lyrics talking about what I guess could be a happy ending, he’s big and famous now and he doesn’t need his dad, it still feels like a weird way to close the album off, but it also feels like the only way to close the album off. An album of mishmashing and compromise could only end with a ballad like that.
Alright, that’s the album in its entirety. What now?
The album was a relative chart success upon release; it peaked at #27 on the Billboard Top 200, #6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and #4 on the Top Rap Albums chart while selling 41k its first week. As of now it’s sold upwards of 200k copies so it’s not a complete and total failure, right?
Let’s see what the critics have to say.
Okay, XXL Magazine gave it a 4/5 “XL” review, AllMusic gave it a 4/5 review and noted it as an album pick, noted rap magazine The Source gave it a 4/5 and labeled it a “near classic” (though unfortunately I can’t find the review and am going off Wikipedia’s word for that), and Paste gave it a 7.2/10 in their review as well. A whole lot of positive reception here, that’s got to mean something, right?
Wellllllllll….
That was most of the positive reception to this album, overall a lot of critics were more brutal to it than I could’ve ever been. Popmatters and Sputnik Music deliver brutally honest takes, the former mentioning, “the end result is an album during which the main protagonist seems unaware of what’s going on, playing second fiddle to the ruminations of backseat A&Rs and misguided grasps at populism” while the latter laments “his album is simply a case of a young artist’s talent and vision being compromised by the wishes of his new bosses to make an album that can relate to the general public at every possible level, or something.” Independent simply says “it seems a huge effort being expended to achieve so little.” The AV Club points out much of the same, and that “for an uncomfortable seven-song stretch, the rapper seems so alienated from his own album” and I could not fully agree more. The most amazing thing though is that this album provided me with a Pitchfork review that I found myself agreeing with, which feels more likely than I would’ve initially thought, especially when they say “the worst part isn’t the songs themselves, but that the album didn’t have to go this route. Outside the sagging middle section, the subject matter and production will be nothing new to those familiar with Yela’s music; his voice and perspective remain sharp and unique, and he certainly hasn’t lost any of his technical skill. The guests (Mystikal, Killer Mike, Three 6 Mafia secret weapon Gangsta Boo) are also otherwise the type of people that should be on a Yelawolf album, rappers from whom he pulls his vocal style or sharp wit, or to whom his fans likely also listen. … This isn’t Yelawolf’s first foray into trying to make pop songs or songs for women, but it’s by far his worst.”
At the end of the day it’s easy to try and forget that those bad songs even exist, but they’re also a large part of why Yelawolf went on to crash and burn so hard. But what exactly happened that leads to him going that way? Well, after the album is released he says in so many words he made the record the label wanted him to make and not the one he wanted to make so he felt compromised by the label and didn’t want that happening again.
He also made a big deal about how his next proper album was going to be the sound of what he wanted Radioactive to sound like but in the meantime he gave us a handful of projects that range from interesting (the Travis Barker collab EP Psycho White), to just okay (the mixtape Trunk Muzik Returns which does in fact have some good stuff on it), to the out-right questionable (a collaborative EP with Ed Sheeran (????) called The Slumdon Bridge that was released right in 2012 when Sheeran was starting to put out his own records but a few years before he became a household name).
Depending on who you ask Radioactive was the moment Yelawolf’s career crashed and burned and then never fully recovered the way it could have. When he started he was simply a white guy who rapped in a way that drew comparisons to Eminem and whose lyrics paralleled living in trailer parks and hick-towns and living in ghettos and slums in a way that was thought-provoking and showed that we have a lot more in common than we all think, but with Radioactive Yelawolf was forced by Shady Records to become a White Rapper (c) chasing after pop hits, and that simply wasn’t him. After talking to a friend whom as long as I’ve known her has been a self-proclaimed Eminem Stan, she echoed a lot of the feelings I had about this record and how Eminem handled Yelawolf’s career in general; he was a rapper who had a lot of potential to be great but was pushed aside as another White Rapper (c) and never got his proper due. And it’s a fucking shame. At least now Eminem is in the “White Rapper (c)” phase of his career so it all evens out I guess.
Remember when I mentioned that Yela would say after Radioactive came out that he was going to make the records he wanted to make and not the ones he had to make? Well he did make good on that promise, and while Radioactive may have dealt a critical blow to his career, the story of how Love Story helped deliver the final fatal blow is best left for another time.
Cheers, and kick out the ROUGE! motherfuckers,
Harvey VD of ROUGE!
ROUGE! Azul Productions 