“It’s Almost Dry” Review – The Rap Game’s Very Own Joker Delivers an Immediate Album of the Year Contender

APRIL 22

|

BEST OF THE WEEK

|

APRIL 22 | BEST OF THE WEEK |

No one has encapsulated the role of rap’s villain greater than Terrence LeVarr “Pusha T” Thornton. Four years ago, the Virgina Beach-based rapper was knee deep in a beef with the face of rap music, all while campaigning for 2018’s rap album of year through his seven track, Kanye-produced album “Daytona”; a record considered an instant classic near unanimously. In those long four years – two of which suffocated by the COVID-19 pandemic – Push has taken a step back to be a father to his newborn son, affectionally named Nigel Brixx Thornton, after his personal favorite subject matter to rap about. More importantly, he’s moved on from the Drake beef, with no desire to let the surgical dismantling of the pop star’s clean image define his own career.

Instead, Push has spent nearly the last half decade crafting a magnum opus of coke rap overflowing with Virginia Beach swagger, with each song demanding the listener to blast the album in a top-down convertible down the sunny streets of the 757. To put it simply, this is some of the best luxury rap ever put to wax.

Each half of the dozen track LP is produced by one of Push’s longtime collaborators: fellow Virginia artist and visionary producer Pharrell Williams, or label mate and close friend Ye. Williams’ retro-synth based production on songs like “Scrape It Off the Top” and “Neck and Wrist” make for some of the best production of his career, harkening back to his work in the mid 2000s with Chad Hugo. The 808s are fat, and the dusty hats and percussion give each Pharrell beat the grit and grime associated with the early work between Clipse and The Neptunes. Another highlight on Williams’ side of the album is the deep cut “Open Air”, which opens with electric piano chords before expanding into deep bass hits and an ear worm synth flute melody. Adding more dynamism to the track is the addition of a choir in the second verse, allowing for Push’s lyricism – which starts with the braggadocious “bricks like blocks of government cheese/700 for the Japanese dungarees” – to sound that much bigger. Suddenly, through a small addition, your ears have found themselves in church.

Ye’s half makes use of the rapper/producer’s legendary sampling skills. The backbone of “Diet Coke”, the album’s lead single, is produced around a chop of Fat Joe’s “Get It Poppin’”. The Kid Cudi assisted “Rock N Roll” brings it back to Ye’s chipmunk soul beginnings, using a pitched-up sample of Beyonce’s “1+1” to form the melodic blueprint of the track. Ye also makes contributions to the album’s closer, “I Pray For You”, where wide synths combined with panned, off kilter hi hats make each verse so much more impactful. It’s the perfect album closer and feels like a song that is meant to be played as movie credits roll.

There isn’t a single mediocre beat on the album. Whether it’s dusty vinyl chops like “Dreamin of the Past” and the aforementioned Diet Coke, or the retro-sounding-yet-forward-thinking beats of album opener “Brambleton” and “Open Air”, Push flows beautifully on each.

Push is already well known for his intoxicating flow, but it’s his incorporation of melody in both hooks and verses that brings the album a step above “Daytona”. “Neck and Wrist”, as well as opener “Brambleton”, feature sections by Push that lean into melodic territory, and he straight up belts the hook on “Dreamin of the Past”, something uncommon in his discography. While none of these hooks are on the melodic level of pop-rap icons like Drake or Roddy Rich, it’s nice to hear Push add a new element to his music, especially when he has already proven his lyrical skill. This is a massive improvement in comparison to “Daytona”, where many of the hooks are either sample-based, or through features, and gives a more casual listener something to latch onto.

That’s not to say that Push doesn’t make use of features on this new LP. Don Toliver brings his iconic register to “Scrape It Off the Top”, one of the biggest highlights on the album. Lil Uzi Vert, someone from the opposite spectrum of hip-hop compared to Push, gives one of his better verses to the song as well. Ye has two vocal contributions: a short six bar verse on “Dreamin of the Past”, as well as a typical verse on “Rock N Roll”. Jay Z’s verse on “Neck and Wrist” feels smooth and luxurious, and Malice reunites with his brother on “I Pray For You” for the closing verse, and a damn good one at that.

Even with the strength of his features, Push remains the main event, and the villainy in his verses is accentuated with the way the atmosphere of each song is built.  “Just So You Remember” is a lyrical highlight, built around a sample of “Six Day War” by Colonel Bagshot, and exemplifies the longevity and pristine quality of Pusha T’s coke rap. The minimalist beat – which lacks any drums and instead uses only bass notes and a synth melody filtered to sound underwater – feels eerie, evil, and paranoia inducing. The production sends chills down your spine, all while Push asserts his status as the baddest rapper alive with lyrics like “Flew your bitch to Cuba for the thrill of it/But I ain’t go, to show you what you shoulda did/Ten inch chains to hide all my blemishes/My Joker smile, you know who the villain is”, topped off with an instance of a recurring recording of his own Joker laugh.  

The Joker and his laugh are mentioned often in the album and Push even admits to watching the 2019 film while in studio. It lends even more credence to the idea that Push is determined to cement his status as the rap game’s villain and it’s extremely evident through the insane amounts of attitude in each of Push’s verses. He knows where he stands and what he’s good at, and frankly, no one else is doing it like him. The biggest strength of Push’s lyricism is that the rapper is sincerely believable. There isn’t a line that feels like he’s embellishing, and after all, what would Push gain from lying? Much like Arthur Fleck – the Joker’s true identity in the 2019 film – the seeds of fear that come from Push’s intimidating verses is planted through the thought that this guy isn’t playing around.

As it currently stands, the only real negative to the album is the fact that" “Hear Me Clearly” was reused from this past March’s “I Know Nigo” when a new song could’ve taken its place, as well as the rough mixing around both Ye verses. A small nitpick: some variety amongst the percussion on Pharrell’s production would have been nice to hear, but given the fact that Pharrell was instrumental in creating Clipse’s signature sound, it barely hurts the final product, if at all.

Sitting next to “Daytona” in Push’s discography, “It’s Almost Dry” feels just as good, if not better. Push is doubling down on this album, and even though he has nothing to prove, he can still plague fellow rapper’s thoughts with his no nonsense delivery and meticulous quality. If you have an album set to drop the same year Push does, you might as well delay it into the next one, because a Pusha T album will only come out when it’s ready to be an album of the year contender.

9/10

Favorite Songs: Brambleton, LTSSTC, Dreamin of the Past, Neck and Wrist, Just So You Remember, Diet Coke, Rock N Roll, Call My Bluff, Scrape It Off The Top, Hear Me Clearly, Open Air, I Pray For You

Least Favorite Songs: N/A