This Friday, Jaden Smith released his sophomore studio album, a follow-up to his 2017 debut, SYRE. A roster of big names, including Tyler, The Creator, Trinidad James, his sister Willow, A$AP Rocky, and Kid Cudi–are featured on the album, while Lido and YUKItake on production duties. The project takes you through a journey of genres, as you move from one track to the next, but most of the album maintains a mellow, melodic vibe throughout. Jaden previously spoke to Zane Lowe about switching up his sound into more of a hard-hitting rap style on this album. “I’m just tryna lead up until ERYS,” he said. “You know, so that people can kind of start to slowly make that transition with me into the more rap world… ERYS is going to be just extremely hard. Just every song, back to back, high tempo, a lot of bass like just crazy.”
Indeed, his 5th song off the album, which features Tyler, The Creator, lives up to Jaden's promise of a high tempo, bass crazy tune. The two team up to talk smack, discussing constant criticism from the media, and the influence that they're each making in hip hop. Jaden's auto-tuned vocals deliver flows that show a clear lyrical evolution from the young musician, as he weaves through softer melodies and sung out verses to harshly contrasted chaotic flows. Jaden carries the chorus and verses until the end, when Tyler is slowly introduced first in the chorus, then for a verse of his own. In typical Tyler fashion, he delivers a deliberately low-energy but highly charged flow, spitting out lyrics laden with word-play and clever depiction.
Quotable Lyrics:
I’m with the boys, making the noise
This is the uh, Tesla toy
We stackin' the toys, end of the story
We already bored, I'm smokin' a Port
Niggas ignored us, flyin' it solo
Gone in the mornin', you never know it
I'm on a private, I'm on the block
Now we ’bout to blow up, now we ’bout to pop
We the rascal, dead cam, punk kids
Runnin' through the club, where the music hella pumpin’