As of late, much ado has been made about the Southern California music scene. Between Nipsey Hussle’s $100 physical copies of “Crenshaw” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” verse, Southern California artists have remained a part of Hip Hop’s top stories this year. While South Central and Compton, (stomping grounds of Nipsey and Kendrick respectively) continue to sprout artists left and right, within Los Angeles County, another city, Inglewood, hasn’t been heard from for a little while. As a smaller city, Inglewood deals with a lot of the same issues its bordering neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles faces; however, it also contains several independent, black-owned businesses. From this environment comes Skeme. While Skeme is no newcomer, with Ingleworld, he leaves his stamp on the West Coast scene that is now watched a lot closer by the rest of the Hip Hop world. Ingleworld’s consistency and avoidance of formulaic approaches makes for an overall solid project.
Ingleworld relies heavily on two things—Skeme’s delivery, and its production—which combine to create solid songs throughout the album. Outside of Boi-1da (whose past collaborators include Drake and Eminem) the producers on Ingleworld are all relatively new names. While Skeme has worked with some of the now famous names within the Los Angeles scene, those chosen for Ingleworld create soundscapes that match the tone of the tracks far more often than not. The mellow, flute infused instrumental provided by Sean Momberger on “Ain’t Perfect” is an ideal backdrop for a track that features laid back flows from both Skeme and Wale. At the same time, the keys, hand claps, and occasional bass kicks provided by the aforementioned Boi-1da create a darker setting for Skeme’s warning to detractors, “Bullets.”
Throughout Ingleworld, Skeme displays several styles of flows and rhyme cadences. On “No Time” it’s slower, with a more serious tone, but slick jabs are still present. While on “Our Way” he brings the bouncy, Southern-influenced flow his longtime fans are used to. While the tone overall throughout Ingleworld is pretty serious, the change up for “High Level” (featuring Iggy Azalea) and “Oversick” keep the album from dragging. The faster yet not quite double-time flow and wordplay on the latter show what Skeme is capable of as far as straight rhyming. Skeme’s overall songwriting ability has improved, so while he can still make songs like the previously mentioned “Oversick,” songs like “Ain’t Perfect” (with its catchy yet unforced hook) add to the repertoire of an already diverse, unique emcee.
The highlights of Ingleworld come consecutively near the close of the project, with “Million Dollar Meetings,” “WhatYoLifeLike?!” and the bonus song, “Thankful.” While the tone of the whole album remains pretty serious, the closing three tracks probably feature the most heartfelt lyrics. It’s a fitting way to end, as Ingleworld as a whole rarely ever reaches for lanes it can’t exist in. While the “I did this for myself and people like me” theme has become cliché due to the combination of its misuse and overuse, the lack of overreaching allows that ideal to fit this project perfectly. Solid production, combined with Skeme’s overall excellent and varied delivery, and lyrics that are solid without an over reliance on clichéd punchlines make for a solid project from Inglewood’s latest representative.
Yo, I’m sorry, y’all but I can’t do this. My integrity as a journalist might be at stake here, but I don’t give a fuck. I’m quitting any damn way. I hope you motherfuckers at HipHopDx fire me. Here is my real review of IngleWorld. Firstly, let me start off by saying that this album was absolute dog shit, from beginning to end. The name Skeme isn’t exactly clever nor is his rhyming ability. I would much rather listen to a Dr Seuss audio storybook if I wanted to hear simplistic rhyme schemes. Secondly, the man calls himself Skeme (as though he schemed his way through the rap game via bribery). Thirdly, the so called gangster persona is so played out. He’s not exactly a tough guy, and I should know because Skeme and I worked together at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. Yeah, I said it, Roscoe’s. He pretends to be a Crip or Blood or whatever just to cover up the fact that he was a straight A student who couldn’t smack the wings off a mosquito if he tried. Everyday he would get severely beaten for his lunch money. Anyway, the last point I want to make is the overall production. I’ve heard babies banging on pots & pans that could make better beats than these cats. Producers nowadays think that they can take a soul sample and just loop it repeatedly, like we won’t fucking notice. Some of us aren’t that god damned stupid, so I will call one of you so called hungry, lazy ass producers out. Ingleworld is nothing more but a trashy, overhyped album by a wannabe West Coast gangsta rapper who thinks he’s hardcore but is really as hard as a marshmallow. 1.5/5
Let’s try this again. Here’s my review: The album was horrible, the production on it was lazy, and the rapper’s lyrics and rhyming put me to sleep. I give this a 1.5/5.
I was pleasantly surprised by Skeme’s album. It’s one of the better produced albums that I’ve heard in awhile, and Skeme has some wicked flows on display here. Good shit. Shame that this dude is not mentioned with this new West movement going on.
The bomb !
The bays hotter baby
Dope!
Dope album… seems that Skeme has some serious Haters on here
Probably just morons trolling.
Its dope
hard.
Cant fuck with him
Singularly negative
GTF
This album is straight GARBAGE save your money and download time
So right baby !
5 STARS
DOPE ALBUM
smh
Dude is aight at best, good production tho.
Just a really good album – thanks
just not lyrical depth, dude is real basic and unimaginative, not rap’s avante guard, but good for background noise
Best Album Out Right Now
West coast classic
H
this dude needs more attention, hes so good
This is a great album. Skeme is the future of West Coast. Not YG or Nipsey. Sorry
Underrated
Amazing album! Bangs the whole way through and Skeme’s flows, sound and lyrics are dope af!