TESTING

For an album that receives so many strays I expected something far worse. Rocky is known for really pioneering cloud rap and pushing it to the heights it’s at now. He took some older sounds along with some more experimental psychedelia and made them into LIVE.LOVE.A$AP, the mixtape most would call a modern day classic. Here on TESTING, he does something similar. He took his sound from his previous 3 projects, experimented with it by adding things he previously wouldn’t have, and created this.
Now what makes this different then?

Well the first thing I have to mention is the amount of filler on here. Specifically songs like Brotha Man, Tony Tone, OG Beeper with that goofy ass synth line, and Black Tux, White Collar. I don’t think most of these tracks are necessarily bad, however, they’re pretty forgettable and I don’t see myself returning to them outside of a full album listen. I mean there are even redeeming qualities within most of them, they just don’t end up going anywhere. There are also the tracks that don’t go over very well at all. CALLDROPS is the clearest example of this, I understand it's meant to be more of an interlude type moment, but it lasts longer than the intro track and just wanders for most of it. I feel like it could have been only the Kodak verse and still got everything it was trying to say out. It’s also stuck between two of the most energetic songs on the record, which is just a rough placement (I do like that transition into Buck Shots though).

There’s Gunz N Butter too, which I did mostly enjoy. My main problem with it is how the sampled vocals are played along with Rocky’s. It can leave his lyrics a bit unintelligible. They do try to fix this by burying the entire instrumental, however, that leaves these not so great moments where Rocky is rapping over this super muddy beat. There are some experiments that I think actually go fantastically though. I really like the guitars on Kids Turned Out Fine, it reminds me a bit of CALLDROPS but this time the instrumental is actually interesting. Changes is great too, it can feel a little slow at points but I do like where each of its three parts end up.

The three songs everybody loves, Praise The Lord (Da Shine), A$AP Forever, and Purity, are amazing as well. I think Praise The Lord is my favorite track on the album. Those flutes are just electric and the flows are so iconic. I’m also realizing that I absolutely love Skepta. A$AP Forever is so big with those reverbed out kicks and claps along with the strings. Cudi goes off with his humming too and the verses are great. Purity is also outstanding rapping all around, Frank kills it and Rocky has a super introspective closing verse for the record.

Overall, this is a pretty good album. It’s not Rocky’s best, it may even be his worst, but I don’t think it deserves the amount of hate I see for it. The experimentation (or testing) done throughout leads to some interesting results and to something new that Rocky hadn’t done before. The highs are excellent and the lows are mostly just forgettable, creating an album that I'm not sure how much I’ll be coming back to in full, but I will for sure be coming back to songs off of.
Fav Tracks: Distorted Records, A$AP Forever REMIX, Praise The Lord (Da Shine), Buck Shots, Kids Turned Out Fine, Changes, Purity