Denzel Curry is a south-Florida rapper who's been making a name for himself since he was about 17 years old. In 2013, he released his first mixtape "Nostalgic 64," and it made a big splash in the underground rap scene. While there were some good tracks on it and Curry's flow is very impressive, the songwriting was very weird, with a lot of tracks having these weird bridges and interludes that really didn't make any sense.
His second album, "32 Zel/ Planet Shrooms," was slightly more pleasing as far as songwriting went, but the overall sound of the album was very spacey and was trying too hard to sound like a drug trip. So with this third mixtape, "Imperial," I was really hoping for some more consistency with his songs. And this project really delivered that. Although it's his shortest mixtape at only 10 tracks, each one has a consistent sound and they all flow together very well.
The overall production on this thing is pretty dreary, with lots of reverbed synths and piano laced throughout most of the songs, as well as some echoing vocals that give the music a haunted vibe. The type of music here is definite trap rap from the heavy bass, rattling high hats and snapping snare drums, but it also has a touch of cloud rap in it from all of the dreary synths and drone-like sounds.
Denzel's performance is incredibly aggressive right from the get-go with him dropping this very long first verse and practically yelling these first lines on the song "ULT." This track also has a great hook on it as well, making it a very strong opening to this mixtape. Denzel's lyrics and song topics on this project are just as aggressive as his flow and delivery, mostly dealing with topics of racism, violence and crime, and loyalty among friends.
The track "Knotty Head" is about Denzel growing up in a very crime-ridden neighborhood and what he witnessed there. This track sounds kind of eerie with these woozy synths bouncing all over the beat, and it has a great bridge with some decent singing vocals from Curry. The track also has a pretty impressive (and unexpected) verse from Rick Ross that adds to the mood of the track.
And the hook to the song "Gook" references the recent fallout between Curry and former collaborator Spaceghostpurp. "Sick and Tired" is probably the angriest song on the whole mixtape, with Denzel practically screaming for the entire track and resembling Wocka Flocka Flame in a sense. "Narcotics" has one of the hardest beats on the project with these wobble bass synths everywhere and a very heavy trap beat behind it all. It also has a pretty cool little sample from the NWA track "F**k the Police."
I also think Denzel's flow is completely on point over this instrumental, and his verses on this track sound great. The very spacey track "Zenith" featuring Joey BadA$$ is the only non-trap instrumental, and it actually has a very strong New York influence to it with the saxophone-laced into the instrumental, and the record scratches in the hook.
Denzel and Joey work very well together on this track, and it does well at adding some variation to the instrumentals while not sticking out too much. However, the most notably different track here is the closing track, "If Tomorrow's Not Here" featuring Twelve'len. I actually hear a strong Kendrick Lamar vibe with the sort of neo-R&B instrumental (the melodic baseline, soulful guitar parts, and interesting uses of percussion), as well as the singing from Twelve'len.
There are two things about this album that I really wish had been fixed. The first is the production quality. Although I really like a lot of the beats on this thing, the production can sometimes sound very muddled when all of these different sounds mix together. It can kind of be justified in the fact that this is a mixtape and they generally sound a little worse as far as recording quality goes, but I almost expected more since this is his third major project.
The other thing that bothers me sometimes is how preachy and cheesy the lyrics can be at some times. On the song "Story: No Title," there's a pretty nerdy line about why Jesus can't be black, because even Luke Skywalker's father was on the dark side. Some might find that clever, but I just thought it was kind of ridiculous.
And on "Pure Enough," I think Denzel tries to blatantly call out tons of different people, and I don't personally feel like he's justified to question a person's purity. He almost sounds like Hopsin on this track when he yells "Are you pure enough?" on the hook. The instrumental sounds too sweet compared to the rest of the tracks as well, and it just kind of adds to the corniness of this song.
Curry really didn't leave himself much room on this 10 track project to make mistakes, and I think he did a very good job at giving us some quality material. There are only a few songs that don't go over very well with me, and the rest of them are very catchy and show the same skill that Curry's been showing us for the last few years. Curry may have finally found the sound that matches his flow and voice well, and his songwriting has definitely improved a lot since his first project. I really hope this mixtape finally opens some major doors for Curry and he can start doing more in the mainstream and achieving his full potential as a rapper.
Fav. Tracks: ULT, Gook, Knotty Head, Narcotics, Zenith, If Tomorrow's Not Here
Least Fav. Track: Pure Enough
