90’s nostalgia has been a reoccurring theme throughout my year end list primarily zeroing in on various forms of alternative rock music including emo, dream pop, or shoegazing. Twenty-year-old Joey Bada$$ brings that retrospective feel to the hip hop realm with his massive debut, B4.Da.$$.
Joey’s lyricism is sincere and paints a vivid picture of the daily struggles encompassing his life. Leading single “Paper Trail$” shares with the listener the financial difficulties of himself and his family as he exclaims “they say money is the root of all evil; I see money as the route of all people.”
The instrumentals on this record are excellently produced exploring soul-jazz and boom-bap influences. The album’s opener “Save the Children” features a unique backing of sliding ambience and highlight track “Hazeus View” has a piano-driven beat that will cause one to reminisce on “N.Y. State of Mind.” The overall production has a sound similar to that of ’93-94 era hip hop and Joey’s genuine and clever hooks add to the nostalgia.
The young rapper sets his aims high by attempting to craft his own Illmatic in 2015. Such boldness has caused him to receive recent backlash in the alternative hip hop community for not even being born yet upon its release. What most fail to realize is that most current hip hop does not stand up to the authenticity of the classics, and for a young up-and-coming artist raised under the magnifying glass of the social media generation to stand proudly and confidentially release a mammoth of an album such as B4.Da.$$ is a feat in itself.
It is at this state of the game a young MC must find his own sound and trademark flow to make it to the top. The irony is that this identity crisis and passionate pursuit “before the money” tends to be the classic everyone remembers. Jay-Z had Unreasonable Doubt, Eminem had Infinite, Nas had Illmatic and Joey Bada$$ has B4.da.$$.