Pusha T proves his worth in the shrines of the Rap Game Hall of Fame on My Name Is My Name, with slick wordplay and surreal depictions of his drug-dealing past.
With Pusha's pen at full force and his performance a proper combination of cold and tense, the album is as if Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury were atom-smashed into something more artful and unstable. My Name Is My Name is a remarkable and vital solo debut.
My Name Is My Name is as strong a “debut” full length as anyone could hope to produce, and reminds the world why it fell in love with this coke-rap wizard more than ten years ago.
In My Name Is My Name, Pusha T has produced one of the most diverse and constantly rewarding hip-hop records of the year; twelve tracks tied together by a man at the top of his form and who, quite soon, may yet reach the highest summits.
With MNIMN standing at a lean 12 songs, these missteps are hard to gloss over. Regardless, Pusha T accomplishes a lot here, crafting a record that is big in concept but is still rooted in the longstanding hip-hop tradition that lyricism is king.
Pusha’s released a fair amount of music since joining Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music army three years ago, but My Name Is My Name is really the first release that delivers on the excitement initially engendered by the pairing.
While not the defining statement it could’ve been, My Name Is My Name shows different sides of Pusha T as he becomes a more multidimensional rapper.
Though the album isn’t peppered with tons of standalone quotables, it is laden from top to bottom with stellar, succinct verses, and with Kanye West at the helm of production, My Name Is My Name comes out a near-perfect product, and one of the most satisfying hip-hop releases in recent memory.
With an accumulation of gritty street tracks, Pusha T delivers “unpolished” and “unapologetic” lyrics, but frankly, it does not live up to the hype.
On My Name Is My Name, Pusha doesn’t really give much away about his past, present or future, and it’s a disconcerting thought for an album posited as a vanguard for a more “real” presentation of rap.
Kanye and all the production cosigns he can bring to this thing make this record too ambitious to fail; Pusha T, forever an outlier even when he had clubby crack-rap hits, has finally made a solo project that isn't totally beneath him, even if parts of it still are.
My Name Is My Name is a reminder that Pusha T hasn’t changed, and his stubborn reliance on maintaining his brand is probably not the wisest strategy in today’s shifting hip-hop climate.
I mean yeah, the album is alright, but why is Nosetalgia the highest rated track? It’s great, but idk man, Numbers On the Boards is sooooooo much better to me. One of the best beats of the last 10 years easily
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🟩: 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 12
🟨: 0
🟥: 0
73🟩 King Push
72🟩 Sweet Serenade
72🟩 S.N.I.T.C.H.
71🟩 Hold On
71🟩 Suicide
71🟩 Let Me Love You
71🟩 Pain
70🟩 Numbers On the Boards
70🟩 40 Acres
70🟩 No Regrets
70🟩 Who I Am
70🟩Nosetalgia
P: 70
A: +10
Nota: 80🟩
The coke rapper supreme is doing what he does best... Rap about cocaine. I feel like this record got a little carried away with it's open concept production and stapled together sampling, because it's a little rough. It all felt tacked together. That being said, it was still quite enjoyable, despite my nit picks. A really solid record, but nothing that special. In my opinion, of course.
1 | King Push 2:52 | 82 |
2 | Numbers On the Boards 2:43 | 94 |
3 | Sweet Serenade 3:39 feat. Chris Brown | 72 |
4 | Hold On 4:45 feat. Rick Ross | 80 |
5 | Suicide 3:42 feat. Ab-Liva | 71 |
6 | 40 Acres 4:42 feat. The-Dream | 68 |
7 | No Regrets 4:48 feat. Jeezy, Kevin Cossom | 68 |
8 | Let Me Love You 3:43 feat. Kelly Rowland | 67 |
9 | Who I Am 3:41 | 67 |
10 | Nosetalgia 3:36 feat. Kendrick Lamar | 98 |
11 | Pain 4:11 feat. Future | 72 |
12 | S.N.I.T.C.H. 4:03 feat. Pharrell Williams | 74 |
#3 | / | Complex |
#8 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
#11 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#14 | / | Red Bull |
#16 | / | The 405 |
#19 | / | Listen Before You Buy |
#30 | / | Gigwise |
#33 | / | Rolling Stone |
#34 | / | Paste |
#34 | / | PopMatters |