A Review of Juice WRLD'S "Death Race For Love"
Coming off his impressive 2018, Chicago rapper Juice WRLD, looks to increase his already impressive success with the release of his 2019 project titled, “Death Race For Love.” Juice WRLD exploded on the scene in May with the release of his debut album titled “Goodbye & Good Riddance.” Streamlined by the hit single “Lucid Dreams,” the project did remarkably well for a debut. What caught my eye was Juice WRLD’s ability to make a hit song by himself, as originally the project had no features until the Lil Uzi Vert featured a song titled “Wasted” was added to the project. Juice WRLD continued his impressive debut year in October when he teamed up with Future to create “Future & Juice WRLD Present… WRLD ON DRUGS.” The project didn’t gain the traction I thought it deserved, leading me to believe it’s a tad underrated, however, the project still added to the success of Juice WRLD. Fast forward to “A Death Race For Love” and Juice WRLD appears to be attempting to follow the same formula for success he had on his debut project. The two singles for this project that have been released titled “Robbery” and “Hear Me Calling” give off the same vibe as songs heard on Juice WRLD’s debut. “Robbery” feels like an attempt at making another “Lucid Dreams” like song and “Hear Me Calling” sounds like a “Scared to Love” inspired song. Looking at the tracklist, Juice WRLD looks to give us a total of 22 songs, which equate to an hour and twelve minutes of music. On the entire project, Brent Faiyaz, Clever and Young Thug are the only three features spread out amongst three songs on the project. This is a bit worrying because of the threat of repetitive songs, which will be a point of emphasis for me. Without further ado, let’s get to the review.
Categories
The songs on this album divided into five lanes that are prevalent throughout the project
Autotune
“Empty” (1), “Maze” (.5), “Big” (.5), “Won’t Let Go” (1), “She’s The One” (.5)
The presence of autotune on these songs set them apart from the rest of the songs on the project. Juice WRLD looks to find a new sound as he experiments with voice alterations.
Emo Rap
“HeMotions” (.5), “Fast” (1), “Flaws And Sins”(1), “Syphilis” (1.5), “Out My Way” (1.5), “Rider” (1)
On these songs Juice WRLD raps about his emotions such as wanting a girl, fearing heartbreak, getting his heart broken, etc..
Experimental
“Ring Ring” ft. Clever (1), “Desire” (1), “The Bees Knees” (1), “10 Feet” (1)
On these song Juice WRLD experiments with different sounds such as a rock vibe amongst other sounds and cadences.
Goodbye & Good Riddance 2
“Hear Me Calling” (1), “Robbery” (1.5), “Feeling” (1), “Who Shot Cupid” (1), “ON GOD” ft. Young Thug (1.5), “Make Believe” (1)
Songs that could easily go on Juice WRLD’s debut “Goodbye & Good Riddance.” The beats, cadences, and content present on these songs identify with the same themes on the first project.
Interlude
“Demonz (Interlude)” ft. Brent Faiyaz (.5)
Must Listen Songs
The concept of Must Listen songs are the songs that would give the best overview of the album as a whole. Songs that stand out for reasons to be described in the pending descriptions of the songs.
“Robbery”
The first single released and now the eighth track on Juice WRLD’s “Death Race For Love.” The beat, produced by Nick Mira, who had a huge role on producing the beats on Juice WRLD’s debut “Goodbye & Good Riddance.” This beat follows the formula of hits like “Lucid Dreams” and “All Girls Are The Same,” with a soft melodic piano beat with a heavy bass presence and high hat presence. This creates a misleading feeling of positive vibes and Juice WRLD sings about his depressing experiences with love and heartbreak. This is by far the best song on the project as it would easily have a place on Juice WRLD’s debut project.
“Syphilis”
The eleventh song on this project gives us a different Juice WRLD that listeners are used to. On this song, Juice WRLD makes a song that mimics Florida flows and sounds present in much of XXXTENTACION’s (R.I.P.) and Ski Mask The Slump God’s music. The heavy bass beat created by Yung Exclusive and Cardo with a faint high hat in the background is similar to songs like “What in XXXTarnation” and “RIP Roach,” both songs by XXXTENTACION and Ski Mask The Slump God.” Juice WRLD helps to add to the similarities between the songs as he yells in the familiar flow and cadence XXXTENTACION and Ski Mask The Slump God are known for. Juice WRLD had unveiled his capability do this cadence on Ski Mask’s 2018 song “Nuketown.”Juice WRLD’s verse consists of him yelling, which hinted at his use of the cadence in future songs.
“Ring Ring” ft. Clever
Juice WRLD experiments with the rock sound on the thirteenth song on this project. The beat made by Rvssian contains a heavy presence of a rock guitar with the standard hip hop bass and high hat over it. On the hook, Juice WRLD uses a cadence that is familiar to rock, where the performer’s voice sounds faded while he switches to his regular cadence on the verse. The cadence used by Juice WRLD is similar to the cadence he uses on his 2018 song “Used To.” Clever adds to the rock feeling of the song with his second verse where he shows off his rock vocals. I like Juice WRLD in this cadence and on this rock beat.
“ON GOD” ft. Young Thug
The story of the seventeenth song on this project is Young Thug’s chemistry with Juice WRLD. The last few Young Thug features on projects I have reviewed have been on point and have showcased his chemistry with other artists. Like the song “3 Headed Snake” by Gunna featuring Young Thug on Gunna’s “Drip or Drown 2,” Young Thug and the premier artist, in this case, Juice WRLD trade turns on each verse. The chemistry makes each song more appealing because there’s no way for the listener to be able to tell when the artists will switch on the verse. The beat made by DY Krazy and Rex Kudo is comprised of a sharp bass combined with a fast-paced high hat. This is a quality song that would be able to fit on his debut.
Final Review
To describe Juice WRLD’s “Death Race For Love” in a word, the project is experimental. This album feels more like a mixtape because of how much experimenting that happened within the 22 songs put together. Because there was so much experimenting going on with this album, the project lacked the cohesiveness one would expect from an album. However, my fear that some songs on this project would sound repetitive was quickly squashed with the different sounds that are present on the project. One sound that I don’t want to hear again is Juice WRLD’s autotuned voice because I think juice WRLD sounds better without the use of voice alteration. I would like to see Juice WRLD on more rock beats like the one on ”Ring Ring” featuring Clever. Overall, this project is a lot darker in some areas, but can still give the feel of Juice WRLD’s debut “Goodbye & Good Riddance” in others. The darker feel in some songs comes from the beat selection Juice WRLD puts forth on this project compared to the beat selection he has shown on “Goodbye & Good Riddance,” which overshadows Juice WRLD using similar cadences as the ones he used on his debut. The lack of cohesiveness prevents me from wanting to go back to listen to this project fully, however, the experimentation present on this project probably requires another listen. It will be interesting to see which sounds Juice WRLD uses to bounce back from this subpar follow up to his debut.
Scoring
Raw Score: The number of good songs on a project versus the overall amount. Songs must have a +1 or above to be counted.
Quality Score: The total amount of points accumulated over the total amount of songs.
Playback value: The resonance an album is perceived to have if played again in full. Scale out of 5.
Raw Score: 17/21
Quality Score: 21.5/21
Playback Value: 2/5
Go out and listen to Juice WRLD’s’ “Death Race For Love” wherever you listen to your music. Also, don’t forget to check out OLDMLK’s Instagram page (@OLDMLK) and Twitter (@OLDMLKDOTCOM) for updates on OLDMLK.COM: The Most Essential Hip Hop Blog, The OLDMLK.Com Playlist, The OLDMLK Radar and more!
