Review Summary: you can't hate
There’s more to
808s and Dark Grapes II than meets the eye. When it’s at its best,
808s is cloud-rap perfection, wrapped in haze and sprinkled with some slow-mo, scattershot flow. But even in its more awkward, choppy moments - and there are a few – Squadda and Mondre’s earnestness and lyricism are gripping. The end result is a beautiful marriage between the all-out bliss of “Chuch” or “Perfect Skies” (the two Friendzone-produced tracks here and undoubtedly the duo to which new listeners will first be drawn) and the gritty realism found elsewhere. It’s almost too easy to get sucked in by the hazy, waterfall choruses of the first two tracks and miss the pulsing heart of the mixtape found in its less glamorous moments: “ain’t shit gon’ change, but your ass can” or “in order to survive, gotta learn to live with regrets.”
There’s some fat to be trimmed - obviously, it’s a mixtape - but even so, this is an impressively succinct, complete piece of work. For all the half-cocked ad libs and the lazy imagery conjured by this brand of “cloud rap”,
808s is expertly produced and stunningly executed. For all the haze in their beats and wobble in their voices, Main Attrakionz are airtight.
808s didn’t happen by accident; it’s the product of Squadda and Mondre’s sixth sense for taming some absolute behemoths of beats and their consistently incisive lyricism.
That’s what makes
808s so brilliant. It’s not just the masterclass in production - it’s the quiet professionalism of the two amateur rappers that elevates the mixtape above the swarms of Clams Casino and Friendzone-inspired efforts that are creeping ever-closer to the mainstream. For however long this trend lasts,
808s deserves to be the standard-bearer.
