The 2010s saw a resurgence in West Coast hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar made lofty, ambitious albums that depicted street tales, social unrest, and personal turmoil alike. YG bridged Compton anthems and club staples alike with a record like My Krazy Life. Tyler, The Creator and the rest of Odd Future helped open up the bounds for what creativity could sound like in the West. But another artist that might go unmentioned when reflecting on the best West Coast records of the 2010s is ScHoolboy Q.
His fourth studio album, Blank Face LP, which released ten years ago today, remains his magnum opus amongst hip-hop fans. The crazy part is, we might have never gotten the record at all. Back in 2016, he revealed that he nearly quit his music career after his 2014 album Oxymoron. All the noise around a rap career admittedly started to take a toll on ScHoolboy Q after a while.
“I thought rap was just, you make this album, you do the shows here and there, and then that’s it,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “But it’s a lot of press, it’s a lot of shows, it’s a lot of pressure. When you go out, you gotta have a security guard. You gotta take 1,000 pictures before you even enter the place that you’re trying to enjoy yourself at. My mind was set on leaving rap.”
ScHoolboy Q Drops the Classic ‘Blank Face LP’ On This Day Ten Years Ago
After a lengthy spurt of making “depressed rap”, Q trudged through and completed the album with help from an all-star cast. Kanye West famously joined “THat Part” for an extremely silly verse, where he rapped, “Beggars can’t be choosers, b***h, this ain’t Chipotle!”
Similarly, artists like Swizz Beatz, The Alchemist, Metro Boomin, Southside, and Tyler, The Creator joined the production crew, bringing massive features with them. From legends like E-40, Jadakiss, and Tha Dogg Pound to stars like Miguel, SZA, and Anderson .Paak, Blank Face LP was an extension of the blockbuster Oxymoron just two years prior.
Critics immediately wrote glowing reviews of the ScHoolboy Q record. For instance, Pitchfork declared it Best New Music upon its release, arguing that it extends TDE’s impressive run of strong albums from the label.
“Blank Face turns away from the ambitious fusion of To Pimp a Butterfly,” writer Jonah Bromwich shared. “Instead doubling down on a smoked-out atmosphere that points the listener’s focus toward rapping. That puts the onus on Q to hold attention for the duration of the record’s hour-plus running time, and he does so with a wide array of tricks.”
The post On This Day 10 Years Ago, This West Coast Rap Star Released His Magnum Opus After Almost Quitting Music Altogether appeared first on VICE.
