Save Money is still alive in case you forgot. Vic Mensa really wants us to know that. I'm not sure what happened but somewhere along the way Vic Mensa lost a lot of fans. Maybe it was being so outspoken. Maybe it because he came off wrong. Maybe the music changed. Maybe the buf black skinhead look disturbs people, I don't have the answers. What I do know is recently released Hooligans and I sat down to give it a listen.
Hooligans keeps the trend of short projects. It comes in at just 8 tracks and three minutes shy of half an hour. I think that might have been the cause of the major issue for the EP, but more on that later. Vic does production for several of the tracks himself, other notable production comes from Travis Barker, mitus and Stefan Ponce. There's not really a lot of cohesiveness throughout the album sound wise.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy most of the project. It can just be a little jarring going from Vince singing about addiction, suicide and other things on "Dark Things," then Ty Dolla $ign comes in and they're singing about flying out women, then G Herbo slides in for "Rowdy," and we're on our third completely different track in a row. None of it really flows even when they're great tracks individually. Are we passing out fades, falling in love or popping pills?I don't think I'd call Vic Mensa the best lyricist of all time. What I do know is, he has bars for days. Maybe he should be in that discussion. Lyrically he doesn't slack off anywhere on the album. G-Eazy on the other hand, had the worst verse on the whole EP. I think Vic does a lot to show off versatility and he succeeded at that. The problem is that Hooligans is just so short you never really hit a specific vibe or mentality. Any emotions brought to the surface are sporadic and fleeting.
The one track I didn't really care for was "In Some Trouble" with Ty Dolla $ign. I don't know why. It certainly seems like it would be loved on the radio and probably and at the time of writing this it's one of his most streamed tracks for the month. It just isn't my kind of track. Favorites are probably "Rowdy," just because it gives me that old Pastor Troy felling where you want to go break something that isn't yours; or "The 1 That Got Away/No Shoes," because who doesn't like Charlie Wilson.
Overall I like Hooligans for what it is. Individually it's a handful of cool songs to bolster playlists. I'm not likely to ever listen to it all the way through again. I could put it on shuffle and it wouldn't necessarily make a different to the listening experience. A few voicemails included may be out of order but that's the only real difference it'll make. It's good music, it just doesn't create a whole project.
Download a free copy of Darrell's book Phantasmagorical, read some of his other work at 12AMFiction.com and hear him on the Powerbomb Jutsu Podcast
