(6/11/2022) Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats - UNLOCKED

Released February 7th, 2020

Tracklist:

  1. Track 01
  2. Take_it_Back_v2
  3. Lay_Up.m4a
  4. Pyro (leak 2019)
  5. DIET_
  6. So.Incredible.pkg
  7. Track07
  8. 'Cosmic'.m4a

Favorite track: DIET_

Oh my goddddddd. I think this album seriously affirmed in my head that Kenny Beats is one of the best producers in the game right now. Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats are seriously a match made in heaven.

This album has a lot of fun samples all throughout... Kenny himself has mentioned that this album was a bit Madlib-influenced, and it shows. I personally always liked how he didn't use alot of the usual trap-style percussion, and he seems to have a bit more fun with the drum track on this album. I think the DIET_ drums really go harddddd because it mixes that booming bass with this real jungle-y beat. Each song has a morphing and changing instrumental that almost takes you on a journey.. which is pretty impressive, considering how SHORT each song is! AM I EVEN MAKING SENSE? KENNY BEATS JUST FUCKS HARD DUDE.

Denzel's energy perfectly complements the super active instrumental, with his flow and tone changing sooo organically. I'm gonna keep going hard on DIET_ because I love it so much. He starts off with a pretty calm tone, gradually ramping it up 'til he's just yelling at you when he hits the hook, when the instrumental hits its final form. It's like Denzel and Kenny are on the exact same wavelength! When Denzel changes up his flow to work with the beat switchup on Take_it_Back_v2, you can still feel the beat changing to match and accentuate his bars, which just leads to banger after banger.

I should probably talk about the actual bars, huh? The flow mixed with his lyricism is just so MENACING. Diabolical, even. His wordplay is still fire as usual ("Harry Potter clip filled with deadly ass hollows" UGH!!) If I'm being honest, there's not much I can say other than just making a long ass list of lines that I thought were hard, which would just end up making this review a Genius lyrics page for the entire album. Denzel spits so hard on every track that it's overwhelming.

Overall, you really can tell that this album was a quick little passion project between some friends. It's for real just such a BLASTTT. Apparently they're planning on making a sequel album, so I'm gonna be on the edge of my seat waiting for that to come out.

Sorry in advance for how this reads - it's hard to truly describe how hard this album goes. I just gotta gush about it. You really just have to listen to it yourself to get what I'm talking about.

Also, there's a series of music videos that compliment the album that are pretty fun. The art shifts can be a bit jarring (you'll go from claymation to a pretty amateur hand-drawn style) but it's still a fun watch. I particularly like the one for 'Cosmic'.m4a, I'm a sucker for that sorta style.

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