Several weeks ago, rapper IDK announced the release date of his debut album by tweeting, “I’m dropping my album for Beyoncé’s birthday. It’s my gift to her.” Unless Beyoncé has an affinity for mediocre rap albums, she may be disappointed with her gift.

With his new album “Is He Real?”, the 27-year-old rapper from Prince George’s County, Maryland, has followed a promising LP with an album that shows his potential but doesn’t address its ambitious themes in a meaningful way.

From the moment the album begins with a boy saying, “you wake up from your dream because God isn’t f***ing real,” IDK makes clear who the question in the album’s title is referring to. In a genre saturated with artists who are passionate about their faith, these words stand out. The following track, “42 Hundred Choices,” serves as an examination of faith — an 808-filled banger that contrasts IDK’s religious upbringing with the violent environment in which he grew up.

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In the strongest stretch of the album, IDK delivers the bangers “24” and “Porno,” on which the rapper’s braggadocious attitude shines, and the latter song is the best track on the album. “Porno” features an IDK verse with impressive flows with which he recognizes the sinful perception of his enjoyment of sex.

There is also a raucous bridge from artist KAPRI and guest verses from rapper Pusha T and J.I.D — both of whom are seemingly incapable of delivering anything less than stellar features. Unfortunately, this strong stretch is interrupted by “Lilly,” a song plagued by its mediocre and tired hook.

IDK populates the rest of the album with longer, more thematically focused songs, but they do not prove to be very effective. First, there is a short interlude where IDK and Tyler, the Creator ponder the existence of a higher power before IDK offers a nonsensical comparison involving Noah’s Ark, cavemen and sex robots.

The following track, “December,” is a forgettable, spacy R&B tune. Then, on “European Skies,” IDK delivers lyrics that simultaneously interrogate conventional Christian wisdom and offer more nonsensical, hypothetical musings, “there must be a lot of room in Heaven because only a baby is pure, so maybe we’re born there.”

In contrast, “No Cable” actually does offer some thought-provoking lyrics in its verses, namely the idea of the privileged community having the ability to ignore suffering by “changing the channel,” while those who are actually affected do not have that option.

The end of the album sees IDK returning to the subject matter that made his previous project so compelling. Several tracks on that LP provided emotionally resonant moments in which the rapper remembered his relationship with his late mother.

On the “Is He Real?” outro, “Julia . . . ,” IDK recalls the shocking revelation that his stepfather gave his mother AIDS. And yet, this moment is ruined by a final conversation held between IDK and an unknown person that reaches new heights of “*hits blunt*” nonsensicality, ending in a comical question: “If me and you can like literally talk about colors And we’re not advanced enough, um, like Society, humanity, whatever you wanna call it, or technology To say that, to know if we actually even see the same colors, then how can we say there is no God?”

It appears that IDK has bitten off a little more than he can chew. He fails to directly connect the horrible death of his mother with the questioning of his faith, instead choosing to connect this anti-God sentiment with his enjoyment of women.

The way in which moments meant to be deep fail, it almost seems that IDK wasn’t fully invested in the theme of his own album, evidenced by the confusing closing words on which he (maybe) reverses his stance on the existence of God? In the end, the talented rapper has disappointed with what many thought would be an impressive debut.

Score: 5.5/10

ejmermel@syr.edu

Published on September 10, 2019 at 12:16 am