Mansion Musik Album Review: It’s Time for Trippie Redd to Go Back to His Old Ways

 

Music 

Mansion Musik Album Review: It’s Time for Trippie Redd to Go Back to His Old Ways

By Dylan Barbee

Release Date: 1/20/2023

Trippie Redd has long been looked at as one of the most profound emo-rap soundcloud pioneers of the late 2010s. A young teenager who once filled his music with an aesthetically bright production scheme and his impressive vocal range singing about love, heartbreak, and addiction now seems to be in some sort of phase; throwing together experimental albums. From his work on the ongoing A Love Letter to You series and LIFE’S A TRIP, Trippie Redd was able to gain a lot of attention from the rap industry, placing himself high on a pedestal compared to other young artists at the time. However, since 2020 Trippie Redd has released multiple projects trying to showcase his versatility. Trippie Redd attempted to create a half rock and half RnB album on Neon Shark vs Pegasus as well as tagging along artists like Kashdami on a predominately new and suddenly popular sound of hyper rap on Trip at Knight (which wasn’t that bad). Then we have this new chaotic and confusing attempt at gangster rap on Mansion Musik with loud unearthly and at times rock-based beats which was released this past weekend on Jan. 20, 2023. Usually, I would be one to applaud this type of versatility but when it comes to an artist like Trippie Redd who flourished at making the perfect emo-rap tracks at such a young age, one can’t help to question; when will Trippie Redd return to his origins?

The reason I pose this question is because who really asked for this project? Sure, it caused some waves of excitement due to Trippie Redd's name being on the album and the fact that this project was executively produced by Chicago icon Chief Keef. However, no one really wanted or expected a gangster rap project from Trippie Redd. Trippie Redd has long been teasing A Love Letter To You 5 since September of 2022 when he dropped 2 singles called “Save Me, Please” and “1st Degree Murder” which are both slow, emotional songs with Trippie Redd singing over acoustic instrumentals while talking about love, similar to his past work.

Mansion Musik has a completely opposite tone than these 2 singles. Mansion Musik is a pure trap album and the track list is filled with features with very notable names in the rap scene today. Features come from artists like Nardo Wick, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, Kodak Black, and even Travis Scott. Going into this album I remained optimistic based on the features even though I was still skeptical on what flows and cadence Trippie would demonstrate on a gangster rap album.

When it comes to the music and artistry on this album there are few particularly good and catchy songs, but more songs serve as nothing but disasters. For instance, the intro track is great as the beat successfully opens the gates to this new world that Trippie has created for himself with hypnotic synths and loud hi-hats and trap drums. Trippie’s rapping on this song is great too with some smirk worthy lines like “whip her hair back and forth not no Willow” or “I might buy a yacht, feel like Jack Sparrow.” Then the next track plays and the beat almost sounds identical to the first track which is one of many problems with this album, the production is so repetitive that by the second track listeners are already annoyed and asking for another style. 

Another issue with Mansion Musik is the performance from the features. The loud and unearthly production sometimes makes it seem like the voices of the features are drowning beneath it. There seems to be a lot of mixing issues when it comes to implementing the features on each track, unfortunately causing each guest artist to sound unnatural and offbeat. This kind of mixing problem can be heard on songs like “KRZY TRAIN” with Travis Scott’s feature and with Lil Baby’s shockingly lack lustered verse on the song “FULLY LOADED.” 

Not every song is terrible on Mansion Musik though. As I mentioned before the intro track “MANSION MUSIK” is a great track along with songs like “TOILET WATER” which has an entertaining verse from Ski Mask the Slump God and “PSYCHO” with Future has a beat that makes one's head bop up and down. The best song on this track list was clearly “KNIGHT CRAWLER” with Juice Wrld where both Trippie and Juice both rap with impressive flows over a unique hardcore punk-rap type beat. 

Overall, there are only a few songs I think listeners will go back to on this track list. I respect Trippie Redd’s effort to explore other styles within his discography throughout these past few years, but I do not think it’s worth tarnishing the legacy he has already built as one of the most prominent voices of the late 2010s. On Mansion Musik Trippie Redd tries to create his own Whole Lotta Red but it just ends up being an embarrassing knock-off. Hopefully, the next album Trippie Redd drops is a polished and well thought out A Love Letter To You 5 where he goes back to his roots as an artist. 

Rating: 3/10