Ben Grunow
Staff Writer
With the recent drop of Quavo’s first solo debut album, it was slightly expected for the other members of the Migos to follow this trend. Most recently Takeoff and his most recent album The Last Rocket. Unlike Quavos album, Takeoff’s 12 tracks, are significantly more economical than Quavo’s, revealing more of his personality through a diverse set of strongly rapped songs.
This album does a much better job lyrically wise compared to Quavo. Yes, a couple of songs such as the first track, “None to Me”, may have similar subject matter when it comes to the general Migos music, as Takeoff raps about his lack of attentiveness in a basic flex. He initiates the song with a brag about his wealth—“Like looking at my money stacked/That’s why the whip I ain’t bought one”—but immediately turns it around, creating an opportunity for reflection and a slight deeper meaning. “Not that I can’t get one, or not that I don’t want one/So booked, if I even got it, I wouldn’t have time to drive one,” he then continues. These bars underline the extreme positive of a solo record, as more time to fill in a song means more time to muse, and Takeoff is definitely a great person to show this off, as of the three migos he is the most reserved. He uses the Migos’ catchy and simple lyrics and transitions to quirky thoughtfulness.
People may argue that the attractive one liners from the Migos are the best part. So listening to Takeoff’s new album did not disappoint fans. One student, Danny Silva, thoroughly enjoyed his album, “Yes Benjamin I actually did. I love his dope flow and his vicious vocabulary choice. My favorite line is I go to space with the stars might smoke a blunt with my pilot.” Many people including Danny Silva really enjoyed the inventive lines rapped by Takeoff.
Now although these lyrics were quite creative and thoughtful. (Much more than Quavo.) He failed to capitalize on the one section it seemed he was focusing on. This was the narrative aspect of each song and the ability to story tell. Although his verses clearly show he has the biggest potential to be the most narrative Migo of the three. “I Remember,” one of the more expressive and vivid songs on the album, shows potential of something better , as Takeoff uses each verse to reflect back on winters trapping, describing them with vivid details about his illegal activities in the past and the events that went down in his mother’s basement. The bludgeoning hook could be considered a stepback to otherwise a pretty good song, and due to Takeoff’s generally lack of refined pop instincts the song is not the best it could be. Junior Matt Rothchild has strong opinions on this particular information , “ Oh these lyrics were definitely more developed and mature compared to Quavo’s album. I just wished Takeoff was able to fully close on these songs as the majority of them provided fun and interesting moments as well as thoughts. The only problem was it seemed he got lazy and when the repetitive lyrics came in it fell flat.”
Finally the only other mistake that was really an eye sore in this album was the lack of features. Yes, it may be a solo album and people making one are expected to be alone, but the Migos have never experienced this before and have always relied on one another to carry a song or an album together. With their classic “Migos flow” or Triplets style, a standard in musical composition. This occurs when three notes occur over one beat. In rap this appears in a very similar way, except the three notes are actually the syllables in a word or phrase. With Takeoff missing the other two members of the Migos he seems to struggle covering the whole song and this problem could have been eased with a couple features in some songs from well known artist to provide an enjoyable twist on the songs. Junior, David Dong explains his concerns, “ Now Takeoff is a really good artist and I enjoyed many of his songs on this album and his performance as a Migos members, but he seemed to struggle on fully completing his songs. When listening it’s just awkward and really weird not hearing any other Migos members.” Multiple fans feel the same way as Takeoff on the album rapped in a similar fashion solo as he would with the other Migos. In doing this it made each songs slightly goofy with the expectation that either Quavo or Offset were going to jump in.
Overall, Takeoff definitely put more effort lyrically into his album compared to Quavo’s solo debut album. With his attempt to bring past stories into light, rapping hardships and crimes he committed, this album was certainly more creative. On the other hand,The Last Rocket lacked other artists to participate in the album and it was obvious Takeoff struggled with this concept. For a debut solo album by an artist who has never performed alone in his career, it was slightly above average with a score of 6/10 .
