With such a Googleable name as Skinnyfromthe9, the New Jersey rapper’s actual search results indeed pulls some eyebrow-raising articles.
Most recently, he was grouped amongst the seemingly routine (and fatal) rapper-involved shootings of 2020, although he emerged with his life. Several months prior to that July shooting, the 25-year-old said he was “set up” for a chain-snatching — which virtually commemorated the year anniversary of a similar physical altercation.
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He first captivated SoundCloud audiences in the late-2010s, brandishing that “IDGAF” persona onto digital downloads — while earning the mug shots to separate the cap from the rap.
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And while it’s no secret agents of chaos are known to transfer negative energy into positively good music, studio focus appears to have alluded Skinnyfromthe9 on his new album, Love Me More. The 11-track offering smothers every moving sound with Auto-Tune in order to make it listenable, (similar to tolerating dry-ass fries through a sea of ketchup) while exposing the versatile artist’s unwillingness (or inability) to craft meaningful music.
From the jump, Love Me More wastes opportunities to be deep and precise. Album opener “Far” rides its hypnotic hums with scatterbrain thoughts of paranoia from the past shooting. But the song’s off-beat crooning about smashing an ex-flame one last time reinforces the same hapless themes that bring down the album’s replay value completely.
The album’s closer, “Important,” gives off acronym triggers as frivolous blurbs about “diamonds on the neck” and “crashing the coupe” does nothing to suggest a decent curtain call. Skinnyfromthe9’s envisions of “love” are mostly spurts of horniness in efforts to induce escapism, resulting in one pointless song after another. The mid-center filler track “Groupie” is a prime example of crap-rap where Skinnyfromthe9 uses its starry, atmospheric chords to “skeet” in a fan’s face — before ghosting the track midway, leaving the track’s stock sound limitations to fade into the Fruity Loops abyss.
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Love Me More sounds largely unfinished, as in a late-night studio session good idea turned bad once it was uploaded onto Spotify. (The aforementioned “Important” literally flatlines with 90 seconds of dead instrumentation to spare.) Despite its low-quality, Skinnyfromthe9 does maintain solid artistic prose throughout the project. A track like “Me” smoothly patches together blocks of catchy melodies, despite the generic mentions of “racks” and “flexin’.” And despite going against the album’s vision, “Love Is Fake” ranks as the most complete record, as the jolts of electronica get eaten alive atop an untamed flow.
While Love Me More won’t put Skinnyfromthe9 back into notable rap conversations, it does prove he can benefit from or be a beneficiary to the right musical situation with the right resources.
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That is if he’s done absorbing all the hate out of the streets.
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Damn, it costs you nothing to not pay attention!
Even with a 2.3 rating for this particular album, we find that hard to believe — but go awf!
