In 2017 I was supposed to deliver a writeup for Migos - Culture. I wrote up like 80% of it but wasn't able to finish and deliver it in time. With /u/NerdGasem's post yesterday collecting signups for the 2020 writeups, I figured I should finish this and post it for the people who told me they were interested in reading it or to be used as an example for anyone doing an AOTY writeup for this year.
Artist: Migos
Album: Culture
Listen:
(YouTube)
(Spotify)
(iTunes)
Album Background by /u/nd20
Migos are a trio from Gwinnett County, Georgia—just outside Atlanta—who have become rap's biggest group. Migos, composed of Lord Quavious, Offset, and Takeoff emerged on the scene in 2013 with their smash hit Versace. They had put out some work prior, including minor regional hit Bando and two mixtapes. Versace; however, catapulted the group into receiving a Drake remix and national radio play. Some wrote off the group as a one-hit wonder, but the triplet flow popularized by Migos (originally created by Lord Infamous and Three 6 Mafia) only spread and soon could be heard in most new rap songs—or so it seemed. Over the next few years, Migos proved that they weren't one-hit wonders—putting out several mixtape that included singles like Hannah Montana, Fight Night, Handsome and Wealthy, and Look at My Dab. Looking back now, their unique deliveries, charisma, and trapper work ethics suited to dropping frequent projects make it seem as though they were guaranteed to blow up. However, it wasn't a completely smooth ride to the top. The period between their breakthrough 2013 mixtape YRN and 2017's Culture was marred by some legal troubles (Offset was in prison for an extended period of time) and a debut studio album (Young Rich Nation) that was considered a flop by many. However, in late 2016 a slickly-produced and incredibly catchy lead single (Bad and Boujee) and a well-timed shoutout by Donald Glover took the Migos to greater heights than ever before.
Album Review by /u/nd20
Culture represents a refinement of Migos' sound and a culmination of their mainstream potential. The album itself isn't a reinvention of the Migos by any means—Quavo himself says about the album "We're doing the same thing we've been doing, making the same music...I feel like the world just caught up"—but it is the Migos refined and taken to the next level. Their vocal arsenal is beefed up, with more flows and styles available to them. Quavo has become a master of hooks and Travis Scott-esque autotuned background melodies, while still retaining the ability to bust out quality trap raps. Offset's flow is more varied than ever, and he jumps from punchy staccato rapping to his own autotune-assisted bars and melodies. Takeoff (with his bassy and consistently-toned voice) mostly stays true to the intricate, tight triplets that the Migos first became known for—only he's better at it than ever and his verses steals the show on several of the songs. That's not to say any of them are pigeonholed into roles, as they all trade hook duty throughout the album and are more than willing to occasionally step back in favor of spotlighting a single member on a song—which makes the album feel much less samey. Their production is slicker and darker than ever before, and their hooks are more developed than the one word repetitions that tended to fill their early work. Their bars are better too, as (with some exceptions, such as mixtape deep-cuts Cross the Country and Commando) they were never really known for their lyrics during their comeup. Yet there are quite a few quotable lines on this project that make you pause and think "Damn, that was cold". Their flows are a joy to listen to—eclectic, high-energy, and constantly peppered with adlibs. Their flows are likely the most standout component of the album, and of Migos as a whole. As Vulture stated in their review of the album, "Migos' verses and choruses warp, double, and distort voices like fun-house mirrors". Their lyrics are still nearly entirely dominated by talk of money, designer clothes and watches, drugs, and women, but presented with a refreshing technical dexterity and the entire package—from flows to beats to hooks—positions the Migos at the top of the modern trap scene.
Culture may be the Migos continuing to do what they do and talk about what they talk about, but it is done so in a more polished way than ever before. Though technically their second studio album, Culture feels like their true introduction to the mainstream, a breakthrough project proving they belong in an upper echelon of rap much as the YRN mixtape was to the first level. The album is in some ways reminiscent of L.A. rapper YG's debut studio album My Krazy Life—following a string of mixtapes and regional club bangers, a project that refined the artist's sound and took them to the next level while staying true to who they were. As Pitchfork stated in their review, "even when Culture grasps for the radio dial, it skirts expectations. The arc here is not one of artists leaving their roots to chase pop—it's pop coming back around to accommodate them". And it does indeed sound that way—in a year where streaming and changing demographics allowed hiphop to utterly dominate the charts and the culture (no pun intended) as a whole, basically every song on Culture sounds like it could have been the smash hit that Bad and Boujee was. Fellow Atlanta-based group Rae Sremmurd's 2015 Sremmlife was the last album I can think of where this was the case—when every song on an album sounds like a single you know you have a special project on your hands.
Barring the slightly offputting DJ Khaled opening to the intro track (which is otherwise short but sweet), the album is fairly front-loaded with singles. T-Shirt is a powerful start with its menacing and slightly disorienting synths courtesy of production duo Nard & B. Quavo interpolates lyrics from the late Shawty Lo in a clever reference to cocaine (clever references to cocaine being a recurring theme on Culture) and Takeoff has a really dope halting flow ("YOUNG nigga poppin WITH A pocket full of COTTAGE / WOAH kemosabe CHOPPER aiming at your NOGGIN"). Call Casting continues the coke talk with increasingly impressive scale—not only do the Migos have birds and chickens, they have so many their bando is comparable to Zaxby's. Bad and Boujee's appeal almost doesn't need to be explained. It's dark, it's high-energy, and it's catchy—practically all of Culture's appeal in a single song. Offset has one his best performances ever…unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Lil Uzi Vert, whose grating feature likely inspired millions of people to smash that mf skip button. The next two songs are what really make the project for me. While a lesser album might die out in this middle stretch, after placing the three already released singles in a row, the Migos don't allow the dial to be turned down even a notch. Get Right Witcha and Slippery are real gems, and sound like either could easily have been the album's smash single had they been released in place of Bad and Boujee. They are the epitome of what's dope about the Migos in 2017. Equal parts trap banger and pop sensibility, they have a cool refinement to them that the colorful and bouncy (sometimes nearing on goofy) Zaytoven-produced songs the Migos were doing 3 or 4 years ago didn't. Get Right Witcha has one of the best beats on the album, courtesy of one of 2017's breakout producers Murda Beatz, and is chock full of quotables. It just sounds cool—from the way Quavo tells the listener to hol' up on the hook and the beat momentarily pauses out to the way Takeoff casually delivers what is arguably the best verse on the project. It's the same story on Slippery. Quavo comes through with a hook melody so catchy they reuse it on a later Gucci single, and he floats over the song's wailing synths. Gucci and Offset have dope verses, and Takeoff yet comes in with the best verse on the track.
After this, the album does slow down the pace a little. Big on Big and Brown Paper Bag sound more like tracks that could have been on a prior Migos mixtape, with the tinkling Zaytoven keys. While they provide a break from the sound of the previous songs, they end up sounding really similar to each other. Deadz, probably the strongest track on the second half of the album, picks things up again. The song starts in an unorthodox fashion—the first 30 seconds (which return as the pre-chorus later in the track) are just them chanting "you niggas in trouble" as the production starts to build up—but it just works and sounds hard as hell. The star of the track is probably the production courtesy of Cardo. With its ominous horns and booming bass, the production on this track is hard as hell and also stands out from the rest of the album. 2 Chainz has a dope feature and all three Migos verses are enjoyable. The only part of the song that could have used tweaking was the hook, which just slightly overstays its welcome with eight whole repetitions. All Ass is a stripper anthem dripping with autotune, which sadly is pretty meh. Kelly Price keeps the autotune going, but is overall a much better song. The production, by smaller names Cash Clay Beats and Deraj Global, features spacey synths and sampled screams in the background, as well as a pretty dope outro that was no doubt inspired by feature artist Travis Scott's own music. Out Yo Way, a track dedicated to the ladies, is alright but is a pretty forgettable closer to what is otherwise a great album.
The Migos are unapologetically themselves on this album. They're here to rap about coke, trapping, money, and jewels over dope trap production, and they do exactly that. It's their infectious flows and charisma that really seal the deal and stamp them as the face of trap (and by extension, popular hiphop culture as a whole). Culture isn't perfect—the second half of the album is weaker than the first half and a few tracks would have been better off left out completely (All Ass, Out Yo Way). However, overall it's one of the best trap projects we've seen this decade and nearly every song sounds like it could have been a hit single. Culture represents a refinement of their sound that proves to any naysayers of their earlier work that they are here to stay in the mainstream. Like DJ Khaled screams into listeners' ears on the intro, HOW THE FUCK YOU FUCKBOYS GON' ACT LIKE MIGOS AIN'T REPPIN' THE CULTURE? THEY REP THE CULTURE FROM THE STREETS. FUCKBOY BOW DOWN.
Favorite Lyrics by /u/nd20
Plug called, tried to front, I don't need it
I don't need it, pockets strong, wrist anemic
...
Grandma, Auntie Ab, and Auntie Neesa
Uncle Bo, Auntie Greta serve ya perkys
Auntie Eva, she got a pound she might just serve it (serve)
Fuckin' on vixens (vixen)
Whole gang itchin' (itch)
Fuckin' with the wrong one, trippin'
Thirty round extension for the tension
Hundred round drum, listen
Fuck around and end up missin' (brrt)
- Takeoff on Get Right Witcha
Woke up, cocaine all in my hair, thought it was lice
- Travis Scott on Kelly Price
Still be playin' with pots and pans, call me Quavo Ratatouille
...
Ice on my neck, I'm the coolest
Hop out the suicide with the Uuuzi
Rackaids on rackaids, got back-ends on back-ends
So my money makin' my back ache
Ayy, it's a fuck nigga in the back
Just look at him, look at him plot
He prolly think it's a club light, but really it's the red dot
Discussion Questions
Do you think Culture avoids the trap (no pun intended) many trap projects fall into, being samey and not suited for listening all the way through?
Do you think Culture was a solid improvement on their previous projects or were they always this dope—with mixtapes like YRN, No Label II, etc?
What were your favorite songs on the project?
How could Migos evolve their sound in the future? Or should they not try to evolve since they know exactly what their lane is?
