DJ Khaled has been promoting Khaled Khaled since his last album dropped in 2019. No one really knows why and how Khaled is able to have more guest appearances than an Obama All Black White House party. But he keeps getting them.
Khaled Khaled is a 14 track effort by We The Best/ Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. A legacy project, Khaled kneels in the Garden of Holy Mountain on the cover in prayer surrounded by his two sons Asahd and Aalam who along with Allah are executive producers.
The album soberingly starts off with the Ain’t No Love sample and the haunting but resurrecting sound of negro spirituals. A grateful Lil Wayne and a recovering Jeremih croon survival at all cost as the choir’s melody sets the tone for a wild ride.
The irony and artistry of a song named Thankful, sampling Bobby Bland’s Ain’t No Love track, released in 1974 and famously sampled by Jay-Z in 2001 for his Blueprint Album cut of the same name, affirms Khaled’s ability to resurrect familiar sounds and make them new.
“And I know that somebody been praying for me..I could have been six feet deep,” Jeremih sings.
If anyone wants to understand how rap music and the artists evolved since the 1990s, Lil Wayne in his classic form serves as a reminder to us why he is one of the greatest artists, only now with mature rhymes. “Sit down be thankful…big smile although it’s painful… be now be ancient.”
It was only on the second song that we heard DJ Khaled’s voice over the track with his signature “We The Best Music…Another One …DJ Khaled”.
Every Chance I Get by Lil Baby and Lil Dirk is a track for generation Z, drill music-loving Chicago natives. Vein and misogynistic references make for a commercially appealing song.
Big Paper by Khaled’s admission was a late entry on the album by Cardi B. It is one of the better songs as she embodies 50 cent’s aggression from the “Wanksta” era and the Lox, Lil Kim and DMX in the 90s. On this track, Cardi B proves her status as a lyrical MC. The song itself needed a collaborator to make it over the hill and become a hit. It helps the album but its placement makes it a filler. It would have had a bigger impact at the end or as a hidden track.
“Super valid every-time I link Khaled…I got Hollywood waiting when this rapping shit done,” Cardi asserts her future ambitions.
The reggae-infused track We Going Crazyfeaturing H.E.R. and The Migos is perhaps a symptom of the pandemic. To survive many artists are moving out of their comfort zone and this is the only track on the album with any shock value. Khaled could have achieved the same value on at least one other track if he paired Justin Bieber with Buju Banton.
Lil Baby appears on the album more than once. Khaled reserved the anthems for him and DaBaby. The album moves from soul to pop to reggae to hardcore rapping to pop then R&B, back to pop, and ends with reggae-dancehall.Body in Motion seems like a leftover track from Khaled’s earlier albums.
Pop Star by Drake still sounds fresh but This Is My Year by A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Big Sean, Rick Ross and Diddy is one of three songs on the album worth playing twice. Diddy shamelessly laments his deserving success “I put this thing together” in sonic cinematic form.
Sorry Not Sorry is the luxury rap we all never knew we needed. In a year when both Jay Z and Nas made hundred million dollar deals with Coinbase and Tidal, both men justified their fame, wealth and maturation.
Humble bragging about accomplishments with upper-echelon talent.Still the King, Jay Z says, “I like who I become, intermittent fasting but them meals i’m not missing none” in his usual unapologetic demeanor. Leaving little room to hear DJ Khaled scream “We the Best”.
The track most Jamaicans are waiting to hear, because of the hype created around Khaled’s visit to Jamaica to shoot the video and work with the legendary artists, Where You Come From by Buju Banton, Barrington Levy, Capleton, and Bounty Killer goes over as a Bad Boy Dub session.
Its intention to be retro takes away from the modernity of reggae music and places it as a genre of the past. If you asked me last year, I would not have predicted that The Migos would do more for reggae music’s advancement on an album with other Reggae stars.
Only Capleton’s stand-out verse made Where You Come From worth listening to.Banton’s hook sounds more like something from the 1990s and doesn’t compute in 2021.Overall the album gets a 3.5 Out of 5.
Where it shines is with the lyrical world plays by Cardi B, Rick Ross, Jay Z, Nas, and Big Sean. The choice of samples and smooth beats make the album easy to digest. Khaled is a marketer’s dream. The labels have to love him. He guides the artists into their hits.
