A Review of Lil Pump's "Harverd Dropout"
Florida Rapper Lil Pump looks to turn his ability to make catchy songs into a good project with the release of his 2019 project “Harverd Dropout.” Lil Pump, known for his trolling and catchy hit “Gucci Gang,” has seven singles on this project, starting with the release of “Esskeetit” in April of 2018 and ending with “Be Like Me” featuring Lil Wayne, which was released a day before the release of this project. With that being said, I don’t expect a turn from the catchy repetitive word yelling music we are accustomed to hearing from Lil Pump. With that being said, let’s take a look at the tracklist! With the release of “Harverd Dropout,” Lil Pump drops off sixteen songs which account for a total of 40 minutes of music. Throughout the sixteen songs, Kanye West, Smokepurpp, Offset, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, YG, and 2 Chainz all have featured verses spread out throughout seven songs. I’m interested in seeing what Lil Pump does on the songs without featured artists. Without further ado, let’s get to the review!
Categories
The songs on this album divided into three lanes that are prevalent throughout the project
Repetitive Cadences
“Drop Out” (.5), “ION” ft. Smokepurpp (.5), “Racks on Racks” (1), “Off White” (0),
Lil Pump tries to create a catchy song by yelling out the same words on the hook in these songs.
Turn Up
“Nu Uh” (0), “Too Much Ice” ft. Quavo (0),
These songs have a huge presence of bass in their beats. At times, they can drown out the lyrics on each song.
Chill Cadences
“I Love It” ft. Kanye West (.5), “Fasho Fasho” ft. Offset (1), “Butterfly Doors” (.5), “Multi Millionaire” ft. Lil Uzi Vert (1), “Vroom Vroom Vroom” (0), “Be Like Me” ft. Lil Wayne (1.5), “Stripper Name” ft. YG and 2 Chainz (1), “Drug Addicts” (0), Eskskeetit (0), “Who Dat” (0)
These songs have a more laid back feel to them in the cadences used, and beat selection, however, some of the repetitiveness is still present.
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.
“Racks on Racks”
The sixth song and sixth single leading up to the release of this project is produced by Diamond Pistols and Diablo. This beat starts off with a string instrument in the background until the bass-heavy beat drops with Lil Pump yelling “Racks on Racks” over the beat in the hook. The hook is catchy, however, that’s the only value to the song aside from the fire beat. There isn’t much to talk about when discussing the single thirteen line verse Lil Pump decides to add to the song.
“Be Like Me” ft. Lil Wayne
The twelfth song on this project and seventh single released leading up to the release of this project doesn’t have much character until Lil Wayne once again proves he can rap on anything. On this beat put together by CBMIX, the presence of a piano and quick high hat stands out amongst the bass. Lil Pump puts forth a solid verse between his hooks where he repeats “everybody wanna be like me.” Lil Wayne’s verse is the highlight of the song as he speeds up the song with his flow and keeps the listener's ear with his references such as rapping “Lil nigga, please, yall my mini-mes | but the kid is not my son, shout out Billie Jean.” On this line Wayne references the hit song by Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” where Michael famously sings, “but the kid is not my son.” References like these show Lil Wayne’s lyricism is still sharp as ever making this a solid song by Lil Pump.
Final Review
After this project, I don’t think Lil Pump should make another project. This project feels less like a collection of songs that compliment each other and more like a bunch of singles thrown together in the effort to create one body of work. Aside from the Lil Wayne verse on “Be Like Me” there’s very little playback value to this project aside from some nice beats. On some songs, the hook uses more time than the single verse, Lil Pump decided to rap which shows this project was simply meant to throw some songs out in the music world and whatever sticks, sticks. The project feels like randomly throwing paint at a wall. Lil Pump is clearly a singles artist and with this project, it shows.
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: 5/16
Quality Score: 7.5/16
Playback Value: 0/5
Go out and listen to Lil Pump’s “Harverd Dropout” 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!
