By Alexander Eubanks
Aug. 25 was one of the most eventful days in hip hop this year. Seven albums dropped Friday, all with high hopes and heavy interest and “Too Cozy” is one of the few that failed to live up to the hype.
One of the biggest flaws in Volume 2 is its overabundance of features. While the first “Cozy Tapes” had a solid number of features, it was nowhere near as crowded as this one.
The bulk of the tracks on this album come with over five artists on a single track; one even manages to pack nine artists into a single song.
ScHoolboy Q, Big Sean and the Pro Era collaboration meet expectations and deliver good performances. But the features tend to not live up to expectations with Lil Yachty, Gucci Mane, Jaden Smith and others, each coming in flat and not really leaving their marks.
Huge lowlights are the tracks “Perry Aye” and “Byf” which are extremely underwhelming and poorly done. “Perry Aye” is essentially just an autotuned Jaden Smith talking for a solid minute until Rocky comes in and breaks up the mundane chit-chat with some of the energy that the song desperately needed. “Byf” is just a generic love song which has no place on the album and sticks out.
While the tape has its flaws, it also has several highlights that you’ll be hearing for the rest of the year including “Bahamas,” “What Happens,” “Walk on Water,” “Frat Rules” and “Get the Bag.”
“What Happens” is a wild collaboration with Pro Era that has each group’s top rappers rapping together over a crazy beat that sounds inspired by Run The Jewels. Big Sean and Rocky are hilarious trading bars on Frat Rules and they both really kill the song and flow great over the smooth instrumental. “Bahamas,” “Walk on Water” and “Get the Bag” are all super well-done bangers that could easily have had a place on “Cozy Tapes 1.”
The biggest selling point to the album is the members of A$AP themselves, shining like always.
Rocky and Ferg have always been extremely clever lyricists and their humor resonated throughout the album, especially in their hilarious skits. Hopefully this is a preview for another Rocky solo album, which is desperately needed after his almost two-year break. Ferg manages to keep the momentum he had after his successful “Still Striving” album which is a huge improvement over his last album. Hee still sounds great despite just coming out with an album a week ago.
Ferg and Rocky don’t carry the album on their own; they also get great contributions from A$AP Nast (who needs to drop his own solo album) and Playboi Carti, who comes in clutch with some good hooks and some solid verses.
Despite the issues of the album, it’s still a solid project that’s a mostly enjoyable experience with the expectation of a few tracks. While “Cozy Tapes: Vol 1” still shines in comparison to its sequel, all A$AP fans should listen to the new albums and get some new tracks from one of the most enjoyable groups in modern hip hop.
3/5 Stars
The Crow’s Nest rates shows between one and five stars, with five stars being the highest possible score.
Header photo courtesy of RCA Records
