The title of Yelawolf’s new album, Trial By Fire, is an apt one. The Alabama MC is no longer the blog era darling who impressed with Trunk Muzik. Now, he’s an established artist who’s shot himself in the proverbial foot in recent years with his defense of the Confederate Flag and multiple on-stage meltdowns that led to the cancellation of a tour.
Trial By Fire marks his big return to the consciousness of Hip Hop fans following these self-inflicted roadblocks, which is why it’s such an important release for him. The project is an opportunity for redemption and a vital effort to get the focus back on music.
From a creative standpoint, Yelawolf does all he could possibly do to redeem himself. Trial By Fire is his most compelling work since Trunk Muzik, fine-tuning some of the ventures into blues-rock and country-infused rap that he broached on 2015’s Love Story.
The title track sets the scene, introducing a crew of bikers who show up at a blues bar where Yelawolf is ostensibly performing his album for a rowdy crowd. He continues to cultivate this backwoods aesthetic on the lead single, “Daylight,” by meshing an ode to alcohol with the banjo-heavy production.
Unlike what someone would hear in the less-refined and polarizing Hick Hop subgenre, Yelawolf has a knack for infusing these elements into his music while still crafting Hip Hop at its core. The Juicy J and Travis Barker-assisted “Punk” is a shining example of this, successfully pulling off a unique blend of fiddle, drums and DJ scratching. It shouldn’t work on paper but it does in practice, a testament to Yelawolf — who produced a majority of the album by himself.
Catfish Billy proves himself to be capable behind the boards but it’s ultimately his writing that shines brightest. The storytelling on “Sabrina” is top-notch, capturing the horror and panic of a parent’s worst nightmare — the loss of a child. Yelawolf’s autobiographical “Son of a Gun” is another strong narrative, addressing the realities of not having his biological father in his life.
Where Yelawolf gets in trouble is when he, directly and indirectly, gets political. “Row Your Boat” is seemingly effective as he condemns police shootings — “Police they shoot and kill, they shoot at will/ They will at you, they’ll execute if you don’t leave,” — and racism — “Streets are not the only place that you can find yourself laying up under white sheets.”
Unfortunately, there are some mixed messages about protests that are puzzling. “They steal and run/ They pulling guns out on police,” he raps right before denouncing police brutality. That would be a minor quibble though, if not for the fact he collaborates with Kid Rock on “Get Mine.”
Kid Rock’s vociferous support of the Confederate Flag already creates bad optics for Yelawolf, who is trying to distance himself from his past affection to the hate symbol. And that’s not even mentioning Kid Rock’s incendiary words about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest and backing of Donald Trump.
Throw all that in together and Yelawolf’s got a PR nightmare for a white rapper. The decision is all the more questionable because the song itself doesn’t add anything to the album. It’s basically a throwback to the glory days of nu-metal, a sound that’s out of place on the album and in the current musical landscape.
Only Yelawolf can explain that head-scratching decision, but it doesn’t take away from what he accomplished on Trial By Fire. Outside of that misstep and the run-of-the-mill “Do For The Love,” Yelawolf has reached new musical heights in his career with this LP.
For those who’ve been following along with his journey, Trial By Fire is the culmination of the promise and potential he’s shown throughout the years. While Catfish Billy didn’t come away unscathed, he stepped into the fire without going up in flames.
Yelawolf is very creative in a cookie cutter clone industry ! Salute from Brielle Marie
Yela and the slumerican movement is incredible. His work has multiplied in skill and sound from creekwater through trunk muzik to Love story(amazing album). Now we have trial by fire- possibly his best work yet. Lyrically he is in another level, production wise this album is almost perfect. From bones guitar work to the shady records team finally mastering this correctly. For a southern hip hop fan this artist has grown and made me proud to have something to truly follow and stand behind. His live performances are energetic and memorable, I’ve seen 4 this year. Hats off to a great artist who has worked extremely hard to get to this level. ⚡️⚡️⚡️??⚡️⚡️⚡️
Wrong again.. this is one of the best albums of the year easy. Def 5/5
Nice Work Yelawolf ….Kickass Album
Head and shoulders above anything else around at the moment. All these mumbling dickheads around calling themselves artists lol. This trailer trash mf pisses out more talent on a 12 hour binge than what they’ll ever have…good day to all of you fine readers of HHDX
The album is GARBAGE! Once you leave this blog you’ll never ever hear about it again
Great album!!!! Get your ass to Ireland again Wolf
What makes this album frustrating is that 5 or 6 songs have already been out awhile. 2 of them are over a year old. If these were all rolled out at once, the rhythm and flow would have been a lot better. With that said, there are some excellent tracks in here.
Straight fire. Thank You Yela. Keep coming hard…
Album is fire, this will stay in the rotation for a long time, worth the wait. Yela has really hit his stride with this style, he feels at home meshing different sounds and styles, and I am surprised at how much I like the country vibe. Creatively he’s firing on all cylinders. 5/5
Incredible
y’all talk about the kid rock track, but don’t mention anything about the lyrics or production (not a fan of it). Instead you go straight to politics, review the album and not some one else views! hiphopdx you just like to beat a dead horse. album 3.5/5
Fully Produced by Yelawolf .. One of the most versatile artists EVER
Beautiful album
big yela fan but this album is crap
Yelawolf is underrated. One of the best in the game – but will never be recognized for it.
See no matter how hard you try to give this dude a break he continues to show his underlying feelings on the very culture he wants to be a part of, Not to mention working with sworn racist kid rock. I don’t give a damn how shiny this release is, he deserves no love or redemption from us, he still don’t get it. The love he got from the culture is the reason he was getting play and then he decides to throw the confederate flag at us and tell us to take it or else. So here he is again trying to slide his b.s. back into the culture. negative 20 stars.
I can definitely appreciate and understand your perspective, but I hope you give him another chance. I’m not really down for the Kid Rock feature either, but I can also appreciate and understand that they are friends and knows him on a personal level, not the artist persona. It’s easy to just say Kid Rock is racist, period, but actually Yelawolf’s music itself has taught me to look a bit closer into everything and be able to see beyond all of the symbols, hype and manufactured thinking. In their first video together, Let’s Roll, they were driving around the Bronx with DJ Kool Herc. It still doesn’t give Kid Rock a pass for me, but Yelawolf has earned that trust for me and the music is Pure Art.
I appreciate and respect your thoughts on my post, the problem is as African Americans we are always being ask to understand and accept views like Kid Rocks and Yelawolfs fence riding. I know this site caters to a younger set but let me give you a little history lesson. Black music has long been “appreciated” by white artist both inside and outside the U.S. long before Elvis did it and definitely before Em came along (And notice how he shows respect and love for where the art came from) why are we in 2017 and still dealing with people like Rock and Wolf? and we are we still being preached too by white’s who love black music about how we should be looking at this ongoing issue, like they’ve live our lives. Yela is talented but I will not support him and just like Kid Rock he will get fame from the music and continue to give us the sly finger. And by the way Kid Rock appearing on his album was that sly finger to blacks because he feels he was done wrong over the confederate flag issue. so no I will not give him a break, he needs to step off.
Once you allow garbage to infiltrate hip hop dress wearing purse carrying now strung out white boys like this dude who only had one good album to hang around its over hip hop is in the toilet thank God for independent artist who have talent
The album isn’t for everyone, but I feel it’s his best… he found his lane- a lot of us wasn’t feeling him when he was straight rapping… I’m digging the country/rock/rap vibe.. the lyrics are good, but I hate the kid rock track- other than that I play it front to back
This album is actually so good that it made ‘Love Story’ sound a bit “not-as-good-as-it-used-to-sound-like”. No idea why, but after this one was released, I haven’t been able to listen ‘Love Story’ without skipping some songs on it. Not feeling the Kid Rock -track, except for the production. And speaking about production, this album is just a damn banger! ‘Son of a Gun’ and ‘Sabrina’ are two of my absolute favorites. Only bad song is ‘Get Mine’, which I always end up skipping.
4.5/5
wack
Was thinking, wow what a racist review… then come to find out, at ZERO surprise, it’s a fat white kid that wrote it, lol. Because fat white kids have virtue signaling DOWN, almost as good as ugly/fat white women. THEY are the true masters of virtue signaling tho… Kweenz.
Wow, what a racist comment… clown
Got my ears on this earlier. I think this is a pretty strong offering. Not sure where it stacks in his catalog. Some things I have read make this album sound like his most country infused. And while that may be, his song writing has improved. I appreciated the emphasis on story telling in the lyrics. With only 2 or 3 throw away songs this might be his best release ever (til him and K.R.I.T. make that album!) “Sabrina” and “Violin” stand out most to me. “Violin” in particular is shines brighter than a bulk of his work.
daylight sounds like it could be on a bubba sparxxx album!
Mulatto complex
Row your boat has to be top ten of the year
Yeller a beast
Thanks for the review and everyone else’s, I downloaded but haven’t given it any run yet, still on Big K.R.I.T., def will get a listen this weekend!
A game by yelawolf here! Incredible album!
Few good songs, but overall a pretty wack album.
“Trial by Fire” is an album that was released in 2008 by an artist from Jersey named “Ja the Gift”
Angelz Inc… sorry yell wolf
“Trial by Fire” is a common phrase that has been around since the Salem Witch Trials… sorry Giffy
Great album. Great sound. Mafks from city don’t get this sound so just stfu on what u don’t know about.
Amazing album and production
The review is unfortunately affected by the author’s political views differences with Yelawolf. The last 3d is dedicated to flags and Kid Rock connections and the ‘outcomes’.
If taking into consideration a pure project though, we have great music and lyrics, a true artist on the scene. Probably the most authenticated album in 2017 so far. I didn’t expect Yelawolf to perfect Love Story (which is one of my favorites ever). But he did.
I think I would give this a 7.5/10.
Great album, I’ve listened to it front to back a few times now and theres a ton of great songs on there with a couple misses in my opinion. But when you take in to account proper use of “genre blending” this guy has the krabby patty formula. lol
Love Story was better, but maybe that’s because it was such a shock to hear different sounding rap and I wasn’t expecting it.
Bought it on physical CD and it was worth it
Absolutely love the album, yup love me some Yelawolf.
this is an extension of love story
his music definitely got something that attracts people to it
Eh I’m not a fan of the country sound and wish he just went back to his raw sound he had back when he was coming out but that’s never going to happen, unfortunately.
I’m extremely embarrassed for the extremely regressive fat pathetic writer. this is what happens when someone has no friends and get no pussy, they fall for far left politics and victim identity consciousness. confederate flag a symbol of hate? to some people it represents their city and their roots, did you not see the video of the guy in the boat with confederate flag that saves the black man from flooding? how hateful huh?! and cuz he did a kid rock collab he is a racist? how many years has kid rock had a black female as his drummer? how does that go with your narrative fat boy? ever thought that maybe they were friends as human beings and he just likes to make songs with them? that white guilt “i just want black people to like me and accept me in hiphop” is pouring out your skin, because we know no girls every liked you, no kids in your class ever liked you, so mind as well throw a hail marry and hope the black hip hop community throws you a bone..
Better than I expected it to be, definitely could have been better.
I don’t even like Yelawolf’s music but this is a major improvement.
“Unfortunately, there are some mixed messages about protests that are puzzling. “They steal and run/ They pulling guns out on police,” he raps right before denouncing police brutality.”
He could see that both sides are wrong, and sympathizes with both.
A solid 4.5 album! wonderful beats, great lyrical content and like how different the album is from conventional albums i’ve heard recently. there are very few projects that top this one this year
Not nearly as good as Love Story or even Hotel
tbh, it’s not as good as love story, BUT it is a very solid album, really enjoyable album.
Great album, great artist and needs more attention.
By far the best album he has put out,
mixing is a large improvement on “Love Story”.
The story telling is the best Yelawolf has done to date.
His vocal performances really pop compared to previous albums.
The worst part of the album is the first song “Trial by Fire” but its setting the mood and the feel the album will have I personally would be fine if it was never there in the first place.