The signs of a Migos resurgence began to appear a few months ago. Quavo underwent a messy breakup with Saweetie, Miley Cyrus shouted out the decade-old classic “Hannah Montana” and Joe Budden experienced a tremendous professional embarrassment.
Before we knew it, Culture III was upon us, an album that delivers flickering visions of the group’s timeless trap alchemy while making it painfully clear the Migos are on the decline.
Migos’ placement in the trap hall of fame is long past assured, but Culture II was 105 minutes of hot, indulgent garbage and they clearly recognize the damage it did to their legacy.
The Atlanta trio sounded comatose throughout large swathes of the project. The grandest commendation for Culture III is the Migos sound interested in making music again. Quavo sounds revitalized on this record, focused once more on being the tie that binds the group together. His rapping is pitch-perfect in lockstep with the vocals and production.
Conversely, Offset seems to have regressed. He lost the intense, menacing aura that heightened the gloomy moments of the original Culture. His most memorable spot on the album is as a Cardi B afterthought on “Type Shit.” Takeoff continues to be the best rapper but is characteristically more than happy to shirk the spotlight.
Moats of filler in the second and third quarters repulse a front-to-back listen. A harsher cut would have improved this album since even though there are legitimately great Migos songs present, they’re all too easy to disregard as a result of the 25 tedious minutes.
Some of the lowlights include “Birthday,” “Roadrunner” and “What You See,” which all sound like they were ghostwritten by a rap tutorial AI. During those catwalks, the glossy, expensive beats grease the wheels as best they can.
But Migos’ production has never been this consistently solid. Each beat is at least good and many stand out prominently in their all-time catalog. The Temptations’ sampling “Avalanche” is among the most intriguing beats they’ve ever rapped over.
“Malibu” and “Jane” each contain blaring horns that interplay with the growling baritones of Takeoff and Offset. The production on “Straightenin’,” “Vaccine” and “Picasso” reminds audiences when you get the Migos in sync over complementary instrumentals they’re magic.
But as the years pass and the commas move left, it’s obvious they’re in sync less and less. They reached the pinnacle of commercial success and lost the camaraderie and hunger that made them, a development as sad as it was inevitable. The mechanical punchlines and market researched boasts can never conjure the same enchantment as listening to the young Migos regale us with tales from up out the bando.
The Migos are too large now for flights of fancy or lyrical experimentation. Culture III is peak outside music, designed for radio spots and thoughtless consumption. The beats are pleasant to excellent, the raps are practiced yet dry, and the trio that has come so far finds itself not moving at all.
They stand still at the top of Mount Olympus, and unfortunately, the townspeople simply have better things to do than listen to them brag.
Glad young dudes are waking up to the bullshit and realizing they do not want 15 tracks of singing.
Aye yo shut da fuxx up! Just because
Was that even english?
Anyone got anything negative to say is just hating. None of you fux have creativity to be critiquing any ones music. The album is fire. Most of ya’ll hating is listening to it when you ain’t doing shit. Probably chillin at the house, nothing going on. That ain’t Vibin’ bruh. Baby that shit riddin’ 80mph on the freeway swervin. Bet that shit hit different. Hahaha….
Anyone that has anything positive to say about this is probably either heavily on drugs or mentally handicapped or both.
Stfu hoe
You’re the hoe. Learn how to spell, fucking retard.
I think the album is litty.. ???
Replace the L with an sh in front and you have the correct label for this album
How is there still no Lloyd Banks COTI review?
No one cared for that mid
Way better than expected. Huge migos fan so I can’t give them anything other than a 5. Obviously there were things that could be better
The entire album is STRAIGHT ?
The entire album is STRAIGHT FIRE!!!!
Agreed
This site reviews are always the worst on internet. Now they even add 2 3 no names from twitter ” look here more people share our opinion ” lmao
They’re clout chasers
Fart.
It’s hot and download on my phone.
I like it! ?
Nice
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Avalanche ???
Great album
Damn theres some real squares here, wonderin what they doing listenin to trap
I thought it was a coo album not a classic or nothing but its not garbage
Migos came and delivered as usual. The Culture saga is completed but there’s no doubt this last one is ? No kizzy!!!
Straightenin
Whole album hot ?
Take out Straightenin and Need it feat. NBA YoungBoy and you’ll still have a straight up classic album. Avalanche did it perfectly for the intro and Quavo redeemed himself in this album and sound like the Quavo most of the fans all know and love instead of filling this album with overused auto tune. As for Takeoff and Offset, they took their skills on a whole new level and it was amazing in most of the songs like Roadrunner, Malibu, What you See, Picasso (surprised that Future did well too), Mahomes, Handle My Business, and Light it Up. All of the beats are good tho half of them are bangers, I really find them on par with Young Nudy’s Dr. Ev4L album when it comes to that and they’ve been giving more replay value that it has to offer in my opinion. Overall, I give this album a 4.5 outta 5 and I’d recommend this album to any Migos fan especially those that came from the YRN and No Label 2 era.
I like his album
I rememeber when these soft thugs came out 5 years talking about walk it like I talk it, they had internet thugs thinking they was the best thing since bone thugs……. now that same crowd is on too the next new wack rapper
That shit was trash, as expected. Wish zero was an option
The album is fire?
WHERE IS THE LLOYD BANKS ALBUM REVIEW???
Album was trash
This thing is really bad ?
Y’all bugging,trash review honestly.and I don’t even fuck with Migos like that, never heard culture 1 neither 2…but this one is extremely good
Album is fire, may be their best Studio album if their catalog. Actually it is. Y’all bugging!
Forgot the rating.
Hardest Migo album yet
Cough cough ….. Lloyd banks aoty.. No review
There’s no 0 stars for these boring ass culture vultures.
The more I listen the better this album gets. One of Migos best albums yet.
Bro, how can y’all give such a bad rating. We jus saw em comeback. But at least it’s better than pitchfork. Migo gang for life
It’s called having ears
Straight out of butt cheeks.
This is the most lack lustre album I’ve heard in a while, I waited up for this to drop and played the whole way through, some songs gave me hope but I was just disappointed.