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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
Consequence of Sound
It’s hard and sinister like a gangster rap album, but it’s also sprawling and even psychedelic at times. Nothing else sounds like it, and that’s a joy to behold.
90
FasterLouder
It is an album terrifyingly suited to our times: an eerie portent, punctuated by gunshots and neutered, robotic voices repeating the album’s title over and over, as though casting a hex.
86
HipHopDX

While Oxymoron balanced chutzpah and remorse with the maturity of a gang banger who has made it out, Blank Face LP sees Q almost fully immersing himself into his old world, brazen and remorseless.

83
Pitchfork

Blank Face turns away from the ambitious fusion of To Pimp a Butterfly, instead doubling down on a smoked-out atmosphere that points the listener’s focus toward rapping. That puts the onus on Q to hold attention for the duration of the record’s hour-plus running time, and he does so with a wide array of tricks.

83
Entertainment Weekly

With an impressive range of sonic and lyrical styles and numerous highlights, Blank Face LP stands as one of 2016’s most engaging rap projects.

80
XXL
This is Q’s longest, but also most consistent release yet, and it proves the 29-year-old Los Angeles spitter is really coming into his own.
80
The Young Folks
The album lives up to expectation if not more.
80
The Line of Best Fit
He isn’t a terrifically technical MC, but he has a stellar ear for beats and macabre samples that imply the negatives of his rock star lifestyle even if he never explicitly states them.
80
No Ripcord

Blank Face is occasionally too indulgent for his own good, as he also follows trap and net-soul trends in awkward fashion, but the amount of genuine, larger-than-life parables continue to expose an artist who still wrestles with his hard-knock past.

80
SPIN

It’s not easy to homogenize the opposing forces at play, but everything here feels like a genuine rumble through a mind scarred and inebriated by the reality of gang life and chasing the American dream while the room spins. Like the title hints, Blank Face LP is dark and full of stone-grilled stares that lay things out in plain terms, and there’s very little, if any, glamorization at play.

80
AllMusic
As a release born firmly in the age of streaming, playlists, and the Life of Pablo, it's a sprawling album to argue about and examine. In Schoolboy Q's discography it's the experimental LP with an attitude, and a giant Magical Mystery Tour that will dazzle his fans.
80
PopMatters

Pulling no punches: Blank Face is the second best hip-hop album of 2016 so far, after The Life of Pablo.

80
Tiny Mix Tapes

As far as major label rap albums are concerned, Blank Face is one of the strongest, most consistently enjoyable in years, even if its glossy and misanthropic merits falls just shy of GOAT status.

70
Sputnikmusic

Blank Face is still resolutely ScHoolboy Q in its misplaced bravado. In terms of pure thrills, though, it's difficult to argue against this being his best album yet.

70
Exclaim!

Blank Face LP refines the slight missteps that Q's 2014 album, Oxymoron, made; where Oxymoron tried too hard at times to keep up with passing trends, Blank Face LP manages to be versatile without sounding desperate.

70
Rolling Stone

Schoolboy Q's 2014 major-label debut, Oxymoron, marked him as the most street MC in L.A.'s Black Hippy rap collective. No less stressed or conflicted than that crew's breakout star, Kendrick Lamar, he's reporting from deeper within the fog of war on his follow-up.

70
Spectrum Culture

Blank Face LP is the end of the gangsta-rap arc. It might not be the most illuminating record for those who have heard the cycle play out before, but its execution has rarely felt this visceral.

60
NOW Magazine
On his unrepentant fourth LP, West Coast rapper Schoolboy Q is a troubled, cop-dodging sex addict.
50
The Needle Drop
The incredible ambition of ScHoolboy Q's new album is suffocated in the same album's lack of organization.
40
Slant Magazine

Blank Face LP is ultimately an unfocussed album, one caught between reportage and repugnant opportunism—its violence and sexism alike an appeal to commerciality. Q has no responsibility to be conscious, but he veers so drastically in the other direction that he doesn't merely represent the bleakness of this reality, but actively stokes it.

40
FLOOD Magazine
He dives head-first into his high crime tales here. What it yields is just sound and fury.
RemisReviews
91

A West Coast Gangsta Rap Musical.

REVIEW REPOST #085. I repost my old reviews, which got no attention, with updated thoughts. Posted this review 2 years ago, but I'm posting it again.

Blank Face LP is easily one of the greatest and my favorite Hip Hop/Rap albums ever released. It's a whole piece of art, an absolute masterclass, filled with experimentation, yet also direction and incredible production. I know I'm not a big fan of a lot of Rap anymore, but I have this album in rotation ALL THE ... read more

CJay
90

JPEGMAFIA moment

Blank Face LP. An album that is respected by many in the hip-hop community. While it's not seen as the best hip-hop album of all time, it is considered by others as Schoolboy Q's album, and I completely see why. It's very different from his previous albums. I wouldn't say it's experimental, but it's definitely way more unhinged and sometimes even off the wall. Its production is a lot more stranger and in your face, and Schoolboy himself is a lot more unhinged on Blank Face LP. ... read more

MickyT
80

MickyT and Phillip present...
THE ALBUM SWAP, SEASON ONE:
Episode Two: Blank Face Impala

Welcome back to the ALBUM SWAP, a series where me and fellow AOTY user Phillip give each other an album to listen to, preferably an album we haven't heard. For the 2nd episode I have tasked Phillip with listening to Currents by Tame Impala and Phillip has tasked me with listening to 'Blank Face LP' by Schoolboy Q, Blank Face is the 4th studio album from California rapper, TDE and Black Hippy member, and ... read more

geraldatrichome
94

Never lets go of your attention. The last song in particular spoke to me a lot but I do not know why.

Sharkwood
94

Everybody Has tHat one album tHat tHey tHink of for Summer '16. Some albums tHat come to most people's mind are THe Life of Pablo, Views, Coloring Book, etc. For me, Blank Face LP was THAT album. I recently bougHt and played tHis album on vinyl and it was a time. I love How experimental ScHoolboy Q was tHrougHout tHis LP wHile sticking to His roots. THe sounds are super gritty and entrancing at tHe same time, wHicH are cHaracteristics tHat normally do not mesH well togetHer. Blank Face LP ... read more

79

The best album released by ScHoolboyQ. The record is largely experimental with electronic tones reminding the The Big Fish Theory (2016) of Vince Staples, however it is less raw and more psychedelic. The melody line is consistent throughout the album staying more on the darker/abstract side. Very enjoyable record, much more ambitious and multi-layered than previous LPs of Q. To my ear, the second part after John Muir underdelivers a bit.

Best tracks: Groovy Tony/Eddie Kane, John Muir, That ... read more

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Track List

1TorcH
5:34
90
2Lord Have Mercy
1:44
81
3THat Part
5:13
88
4Groovy Tony / Eddie Kane
6:19
feat. Jadakiss
96
5Kno Ya Wrong
5:25
85
6Ride Out
4:47
90
7WHateva U Want
3:50
80
8By Any Means
3:34
84
9Dope Dealer
3:42
feat. E-40
88
10JoHn Muir
3:39
95
11Big Body
3:43
79
12Neva CHange
4:29
feat. SZA
86
13Str8 Ballin
4:09
84
14Black THougHts
3:42
84
15Blank Face
3:14
86
16Overtime
4:38
71
17Tookie Knows II
4:45
feat. Traffic, T.F
86
Total Length: 1 hour, 12 minutes
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Added on: June 14, 2016