Tracklisting Hinders Pusha T’s ‘It’s Almost Dry’
After a little over three years since the release of his last project, Daytona, G.O.O.D. Music CEO Pusha T is back with his newest record, It’s Almost Dry. With his last project buried in the controversy, Daytona was still a project that was able to cut through the noise and stand by itself with or without the gimmicks outside of the music. The issues surrounding Pusha T’s last album were: track seven, ‘Infrared’ serving as the warning shot in Pusha T’s 2018 beef with Drake, Daytona’s cover art being a controversial picture of the bathroom of the late Whitney Houston, and the album being the first of a series of Kanye West produced seven-track albums. With It’s Almost Dry, Pusha T hopes to once again create an album that stands alone as one of the album of the year contenders among critics.
It’s Almost Dry isn’t necessarily contrivance free. During episode 305 of The Cap Podcast, I told my cohost, Taylor McCloud, that Pusha T’s newest album feels like a beat battle between the two most prominent producers of the album and of all time. With Pharrell Williams producing seven tracks on the twelve-track album and Kanye West producing six tracks, (track seven ‘Rock N Roll’ featuring Kid Cudi and Kanye West is produced by both Kanye and Pharrell) it’s quite noticeable which producer concocted which beat. On Monday, three days after the release of the original album and two days after Taylor and myself recorded our episode, Pusha T released two more versions of It’s Almost Dry titled It’s Almost Dry: Ye vs. Pharrell and It’s Almost Dry: Pharrell Vs. Ye. The release of these two new versions of Pusha T’s latest album confirms that the noticeable differences between production styles within the flow of the album were intentional.
The tactic of pitting two of the best producers of all time for a friendly beat battle is certainly one of the most unique maneuvers I’ve seen in a while. With It’s Almost Dry selling 55.5 thousand units in its first week, this strategy has worked in getting enough people to point their ears in the direction of Pusha T’s latest record. However, the tracklisting of the overall album hinders it from what it could be.
An example of tracklisting setting the original version of It’s Almost Dry back is the organization of the first four tracks on the album. In order of production credits, the first two tracks are produced by Pharrell Williams, the third by Kanye West, and the fourth by Pharrell once again. Pharrell’s production throughout most of the project especially the first three tracks he’s credited for consists of some form of an intense 808 that blasts against your eardrums. Additionally, the first two Pharrell-produced tracks have a similar pace that is much faster than the album’s third track, produced by Kanye West. Furthermore, Kanye West’s mastery of sampling is once again on display throughout many of the tracks he’s produced on this album, including It’s Almost Dry’s track three. While the pace of the Kanye produced track three and Pharrell produced track four are more similar compared to the two tracks that come before, that appears to be the only semblance of cohesiveness that connects track three and track four.
Overall, I think It’s Almost Dry would’ve benefitted from a part one/part two or side a/side b structure that separates the production of Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. The concept of separating the production styles of two of the best producers of all time to see who could concoct the most cohesive group of beats would’ve been a better execution of the overall concept Pusha T was aiming for with his newest offering. As I mentioned towards the beginning, Pusha T has released two more versions of It’s Almost Dry titled It’s Almost Dry: Ye vs. Pharrell and It’s Almost Dry: Pharrell Vs. Ye. While this adds validity to the point I’m trying to make with this article, I think establishing what the concept of this album was from the start would’ve better served the album’s first contact with my ears.
Despite my nitpicky criticism of It’s Almost Dry, Pusha T still shows his lyrical talent throughout the album. Some of the criticism about the number of coke bars Pusha T has on the album seemed asinine at first glance until Hip-Hop by the Numbers did some data collecting and reported that It’s Almost Dry had the highest percentage of coke bars of any Pusha T album. Sporting a near 15% jump from Daytona to It’s Almost Dry in coke bars does give me a cause to pause a bit because, while Pusha T’s lyrical persona is built in the image of a coke dealer, there’s usually another aspect to what he’s saying throughout his albums. Through my first listen, I did notice the gap in diverse content throughout the album, which may also have slightly sunk my enjoyment of It’s Almost Dry overall.
Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry isn’t the perfect album, nor is it an album of the year contender but it is still a major example of how talented Pusha T is. The use of his access to two of the best producers of all time to pit them against each other for this friendly beat battle is a brilliant concept I’d love to be fleshed out more. Aside from the yearning for more diverse content, Pusha T is still as sharp as a knife in his ability to put words together. Ultimately, what It’s Almost Dry shows is Pusha T on an off day is better than most of your favorite rappers.
