KAYTRAMINÉ

I love KAYTRANADA's production style so much. The Haitian-Canadian producer has been one of my favourites since I was 14, discovering his music on a YouTube channel named Majestic Casual, and I still jam out to some of his tracks since then; they're so infectious.

He effectively blends together funk, R&B, house & hip-hop in his music that makes for such a unique contrast that any artist could fit with his style in collabs.

Well, now we get KAYTRAMINÉ, where he's collabed with American rapper-songwriter Aminé, and suffice to say... I'm very conflicted with it, but it's mostly disappointment I feel from it.

Don't get me wrong, KAYTRANADA's production is stellar on here, blending together each aforementioned genre effectively, with each track feeling quite versatile in sound. The mixing is quite good and the beats go rather hard, most notably in the tracks '4EVA', 'Master P' & 'Sossaup'.

My biggest issue with this album is Animé himself, who feels like he's not stepping out of his comfort zone, still hiding his true talent. He's clearly capable of delivering good flows and he's shown that in the past with tracks like 'Caroline' & 'Charmander', but I don't know why he's not showcasing that to his fullest ability on here aside from a few occasions like on 'Who He Iz', '4EVA' and 'Eye'.

It has a list of features from Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, Freddie Gibbs, Amaarae & Snoop Dogg. It's kinda sad when I have to say I found their features to be better than most of Aminé's performances, who show much stronger chemistry on here with their verses.

The lyricism on this album is sometimes quite trash as well, with 'STFU3' being one of the worst tracks I've heard this year and 'Ugh Ugh' having a chorus that can't be described in any other way than embarrassing.

Shame to say that I'm quite disappointed by KAYTRAMINÉ, an album that has stellar production choices & versatility, but uninspired flows kill the vibe completely for me. KAY is a talented producer and that cannot be denied, but Aminé has a lack of energy that drains the charm out of this album for me. 33mins that I'll not get back.