Review Summary: "I'll trade the noise for a piece of divine."
The concept of the blank face is that of conditioning and adaptation. For some, being exposed to an event several times makes them numb to it. Their minds classify any recurring event as normal, no matter how positive or negative. Once this happens, people make their adjustments to cope with these happenings. This is a process that happens everyday in countless places all over the world. Whether this is officially deemed a concept album or not, the meaning of blank face is made apparent in ScHoolboy Q's latest album.
Blank Face is a versatile album that gives the listener unique production, concrete messages, and good song writing. The way this album is produced, each beat has its own special feel to it, leaving no beat sounding too much like another. The album features trap, boom bap, lo-fi and even G-Funk type beats. These different styles are accompanied by pianos, guitars, tambourines, drums, and samples, of course. Overall, the mood of the production is dark and grimy, with the exception of tracks like WHateva You Want, and Big Body having a more upbeat, funky atmosphere. Songs like Lord Have Mercy and Groovy Tony have the dark and gritty sound that correlates with the messages Q is trying to convey in Blank Face.
The meanings behind the songs in this album are very concrete in nature. Q's previous album Oxymoron was a concept album about his early life of gang-banging, but lacked the conceptual structure that one would expect in such an album. Blank Face takes the themes of Oxymoron and delves deeper into them, painting a more vivid and dirtier picture. Opening track TorcH serves as the beginning of this tale. Q's frantic chanting of “Blank face!” followed by Anderson Paak's line “I'll trade the noise for a piece of divine” grips the listener and locks them in for the story to come. This track gives you an overview of Q's hood, with imagery depicting a place full of violence along with the desperation for the almighty dollar. With this track, Q lets us know that the days of simplicity are long gone.
Groovy Tony takes this same violence and desperation from TorcH and goes into further detail through the description of illegal activities. This track covers selling drugs, killing people, having sex, and getting high, all being done with a blank face. The way in which Q goes from angry to calm in this song leaves a chilling vibe. The track seems to be from the viewpoint of a single person, whether it be ScHoolboy Q or someone else. However, the track Ride Out seems to be from the viewpoint of gang inhabited neighborhoods as a whole, with Q and Vince Staples providing images of mass violence going down in their respective hoods.
By Any Means describes the life of someone who is willing to do whatever they have to in order to earn money. Q speaks on the sale of drugs and performing robberies in order to get paid. He describes the corner as both Heaven and Hell which shows the sporatic conditions that he's willing to undergo for cash. Though there are many tracks in between, the meaning of By Any Means transitions perfectly into that of Tookie Knows II, the closing track. The introspective lyrics in this song make it apparent that earning money by any means can land you in prison, or even get you killed. Q, Traffic, and T F, are aware of this as they admit that all these thing can happen as a result of their gang-banging. Ending the album with this song leaves a strong impression, as it can be considered the strongest message the album offers.
This album's songs are executed extremely well, and that is a result of good song writing. There isn't a feature verse that feels out of place other than Kanye overstaying his welcome on THat Part. Each featured artist serves their purpose and adds to the song. Anderson Paak, E-40, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, along with the rest of the artists blend in with the tracks to the point where it sounds like they made the track from scratch right along with Q. The album also handles its transitions well. The two part songs Groovy Tony and Kno Ya Wrong transition perfectly into their second parts without feeling unnecessary. The album is also fairly cohesive with only one track, Big Body, feeling out of place. Overall, Blank face is a well written album that flows well.
There's not much bad to say about this album. ScHoolboy Q takes the flaws of Oxymoron and improves upon them extensively. The album has such a profound atmosphere that it can't help but leave an impression. Everything from it's production and song writing to its subject matters are well thought out. Blank Face will take you through the first-hand experience of a gang-banger with it's imagery, and overall atmosphere. Listeners will come out of this album knowing what it means to need money, pursue it, and potentially go to prison or die for it, to the point where it can only be expressed through one thing, “Blank face.”
