Florida rapper XXXTentacion’s posthumous album Skins has arrived. With 10 songs and a guest appearance by Kanye West, this is a strong album that demonstrates his diverse sound.
The songs are short, not mixed particularly well and—perhaps due to his untimely passing—feel unfinished. Had X been around to see this album all the way through and hash out some of its rushed wrinkles, it has the potential to have been his best project yet. But as it sits right now, Skins renders itself another opportunity for XXXTentacion's cult-like following to continue enjoying new music.
In his meteoric but short career, XXXTentaction conveyed his emotions with such rawness that it stopped hip hop in its tracks. He was never quite there in terms of lyrics and songwriting, though, and SKINS doesn't turn out to be the album where it all finally clicks into place and he creates the masterpiece some believed he was capable of. There are no songs as refined or showing such potential as ?'s “infinity (888)” and “Moonlight”, and many of them feel like half ideas.
These unconventional genre hybrids point to an unexplored direction that XXX might have veered toward if he hadn't been killed, but unfortunately this is as far as they go.
One unpalatable explanation for XXXTentacion’s success is that there are people out there stupid or disaffected enough to be turned on by his damaged nihilism. But there’s also just enough evidence of a maverick talent on Skins to make you see why others are willing to hold their noses, ignore the stern op-ed pieces and dive in. Whether you can do that is a matter for your conscience.
Skins remains almost as morally muddy as XXX’s previous output, privileging the emo rapper’s pain above all else, but maintaining his deserved reputation for genre-shredding timeliness.
It’s possible that this all sounds fresh to XXXTentacion’s core audience of disaffected teenagers—navel-gazing angst, after all, transcends generation—but Skins fails to bring anything genuinely new to the table.
Skins is one of the year's least gratifying albums, but out of everyone involved in its creation, X is probably the least at blame.
The Lil Peep release felt complete. This trash... I could make this myself in a day. It’s fucking laughable. Easily the worst thing under X’s name. Not even his fault. The label is grave robbing and it is disgusting.
They should have given him a better sendoff than this shit. This is insulting
1977-Elvis Presley
1980-John Lennon
1991-Freddie Mercury
1994-Kurt Cobain
1995-Selena Quintanilla
1995-Eazy E
1996-2Pac
1997-Notorious B.I.G
1999-Wilt Chamberlain
2001-Aaliyah
2002-Lisa Lopes(Left Eye)
2009-Michael Jackson
2011-Amy Winehouse
2012-Whitney Houston
2013- Paul Walker
2016-Muhammad Ali
2016-David Bowie
2016-Prince
2017-Prodigy
2017-Chester Bennington
2017- Chris Cornell
2017-Lil peep
2018- Dame Tu Cosita ah ah
if this wasn't posthumous and rushed to capitalise on his death, some of the ideas here could've really pushed the envelope for trap music. instead, we got a bunch of demos which barely stretch over the 2 minute mark at times and some really half baked, boring, lazy songs. 'guardian angel' offends me.
1 | Introduction 0:31 | 11 |
2 | Guardian angel 1:48 | 56 |
3 | Train food 2:44 | 66 |
4 | whoa (mind in awe) 2:37 | 49 |
5 | BAD! 1:34 | 53 |
6 | STARING AT THE SKY 1:25 | 37 |
7 | One Minute 3:17 feat. Kanye West, Travis Barker | 43 |
8 | difference (interlude) 1:16 | 37 |
9 | I don’t let go 2:01 | 46 |
10 | what are you so afraid of 2:30 | 49 |