Tory Lanez
I Told You


3.0
good

Review

by davidwave4 USER (55 Reviews)
August 19th, 2016 | 13 replies


Release Date: 2016 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Tory gets ambitious with the aping. Good for him.

As a reviewer of contemporary hip-hop and R&B music, I’ve been a bit hard on Tory Lanez. In a number of reviews, I’ve used him as an example of the most insidious and generic form of modern hip-hop. And to this point, his music has largely inhabited the space between Future, Travis Scott, and The Weeknd (which is to say, an increasingly narrow space). This being the case, I was curious to see how a Tory Lanez full-length would look to distinguish itself from an album by, say, dvsn or Roy Woods. I Told You answers that question very simply: it doesn’t. Surprisingly enough though, that may be its saving grace.

A look at I Told You’s tracklist reveals an ambitious and bloated album with just as many “skits” as tracks. The skits themselves have Tory literally telling the listener the narrative context for the songs. This belies one of the album’s biggest strengths, which is the general flow and coherence of the songs. The production here is largely standard fare post-Weeknd trap with minor electronic flourishes. Because of this uniform production, the tracks would seemingly blend well together and create a nice flow if they were allowed to. But unfortunately, Tory feels it’s necessary to hold our hands through the whole album. It’s certainly commendable that he’s aiming for a good kid, m.a.a.d city-style filmic narrative, but his “skits” lack the finesse or poetic nature of Kendrick Lamar’s output (both GKMC and TPAB boast outstanding construction, making the poems, skits, and interludes necessary instead of superfluous).

Another problem that kills the narrative quality that Lanez aims for is his own general anonymity. As I’ve said of Lanez before, his vocals are equal parts Future, Travis Scott, and Drake. It’s the Roy Woods problem: people begin to know you as “that guy who raps like Drake” or “that guy who kinda sounds like Travis Scott” as opposed to Tory Lanez. Songs like “To D.R.E.A.M.” and “Flex,” meant to establish Lanez as a man with amazing talents who follows his dreams to the point of being homeless and penniless (he can’t even give his friend $10 for gas, as per the skit), sound like poor imitations of other rappers. “To D.R.E.A.M.” has Lanez pulling off the best Travis Scott I’ve heard since Rodeo. “4am Flex” is the same, though it boasts an impressively aggressive beat that could have lent itself well to Lanez’s more acrobatic flow (read: not his Scott impersonation, but his Future one). What’s more surprising (and doubly infuriating) is that the backend features none other than a Kendrick Lamar impression (complete with an interpolation of “The Art of Peer Pressure”).

There are many moments on I Told You where Tory drops the veneer of being original or being decent in his own right and straight up bites other rappers’ flows or aesthetics. “Friends With Benefits” is straight-up Drake, even down to its icy If You’re Reading This… production and whispery, pre-coital tenor. Just listen to the way he enunciates words like “side” or “want” and you’ll immediately recall “Jungle” or any other number of Drake tracks. “Cold Hard Love” samples Zayn’s “Lucozade” and features Lanez’s best attempt at being Zayn (who, on “Lucozade” was trying his damndest to be post-Kiss Land The Weeknd). The second half of this track vaguely recalls the back half of “We’ll Always Have Paris” from Daniel Caesar’s “Praise Break.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.
The rest of the album proceeds in similar fashion. “LUV” apes Drake’s recent dancehall output (the beat is more “Controlla” than “One Dance” or “Too Good,” which is probably why it sounds so goddamn trite). You’ve heard “Say It,” and it’s no better or worse now that it’s got an album wrapped around it. “All the Girls” is just…I just can’t with this song. Again, horribly trite.

I have to give it to Tory Lanez though. He definitely tried with this album. He synthesized a number of disparate and popular influences and tried to bring them together into something he considered to be distinct. That takes a deft ear and a lot of ambition, and that’s commendable. However, many of the tracks here sound like pale imitations of other folks’ albums. Some of it is well-done (the title track is very good, even if it doesn’t justify its 6 minute runtime), and some is absolutely insulting (“Cold Hard Love” and “4am Flex” ). The argument for this album’s existence is that same argument that could be made for the existence of Sept. 5th or Waking at Dawn. If you like this brand of innocuous, vacuous hip-hop, then you’ll appreciate this release slightly more than the year’s others. If Views is your AoTY, then this album may give it a challenge. If not, then you can pass.



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user ratings (46)
3
good


Comments:Add a Comment 
TheSonomaDude
August 20th 2016


9206 Comments


aping?

davidwave4
August 20th 2016


93 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

@TheSonomaDude https://www.google.com/search?q=aping&oq=aping&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1394j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8



tl;dr: Aping is to "imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something), especially in an absurd or unthinking way." Basically to rip off someone else's flow or style.

marcymarc
August 20th 2016


2 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

You miss the point Tory is making. First of all, He doesn't live in a narrowing space between the sounds of Travis, Future, Fetty etc. He can live in ANY of these spaces when he so chooses, and can do it better than the inventors. Secondly, with regards to his originality... Tory has a unique voice, hard bars, and catchy hooks crafted with his own melody. Always has. This is one of the hardest working rappers in the game we're talking about, naturally his album is going to sound devised and planned more so than raw and uncut. It isn't "innocuous, vacuous hip-hop", but rather professionally executed hip-hop and it sounds DOPE.

marcymarc
August 20th 2016


2 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

didnt mean to comment twice

JeetJeet
August 20th 2016


12434 Comments


Heard this and all I got out of it is that Tory is just gonna remain a dollar value version of his peers.

Funeralopolis
August 20th 2016


14586 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

such a jam

TobiasFunke
August 20th 2016


25 Comments


Tried listening to this, and its just so meh. Just like all the other artists he sounds like-- every single person on OVO, Travis Scott, Future-- his music is fine for driving at night or just to throw on for some late listening, but not much more.

Funeralopolis
August 20th 2016


14586 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

sheeet didn't know this guy was from Toronto

Hurricanslash
August 22nd 2016


1831 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Liked this a lot. Pretty solid release from Tory, and, as a long-time fan, it makes me really happy to see him get more an more popular.



He does bite a bit more off than he can chew, though. I don't mind, but I can see that being off-putting for a lot of people.

davidwave4
August 28th 2016


93 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

@marcymarc I get that Tory works hard, but the work he's doing is in imitating what works for other people, not finding something that makes him unique. I'll concede that he's immensely talented, but he's far from perfect.

Keyblade
January 9th 2017


30678 Comments


LUV remix with my man S-Peezy is nice. this dude is a biting ass mf tho which leaves a sour taste

sneakers
August 9th 2023


1286 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

L bozo have fun spending the next 10 years in prison!

sneakers
August 12th 2023


1286 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

L bozo



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