As Iceberg “Riff Raff” Simpson slowly grew in popularity through the Internet as MTV’s Riff Raff he wasn’t take seriously but he pushed himself to get into the forefront. He even went on to teach his followers that you should only fuck with hoes that rock Dolce & Gabbana.
Riff Raff has never been taken seriously because of the way he began to market himself, but goddamn does he know how to rap. I’ve been following Riff Raff since his collaboration with Andy Milonakis and Simon Rex on an EP for their collective Three Loco. And after that he began to establish himself seriously by doing tracks with Action Bronson and Chief Keef, His followers have been waiting for his anticipated major label debut, Neon Icon.
The album begins with a generic intro, but a bit more cartoonish. After this exchange of dialogue between two random schmucks, Riff Raff delivers this braggadocios rap as an establishment of his persona. The verse is witty and Riff Raff has a knack for word play and his flow is spot on. The instrumental has an abundance of hi-hats and bass. The song then transitions into a rap-rock type of track. The transition doesn’t go over smoothly via instrumental but he maintains that braggadocios form. The second song only has an extremely catchy hook to back it, as his verses are short and go nowhere. His album is barely hip-hop, it is a mix of rap-rock and trip-hop and southern hip-hop.
Bird on A Wire is a good intro to his lyrical skill; take a listen:
Riff Raff’s album is full of long hooks or hooks being repeated too much in contention and that’s where the album loses me. This is very apparent in the closing track VIP Pass to my Heart where it’s just hook, bridge, and hook for 3 minutes straight. I guess if Riff Raff could craft his tracks with more verses like in the song Lava Glaciers featuring Childish Gambino or his opening track, it would deliver more goodness. And it still continues Riff Raff’s typical style as before, but at the same time the album is tonally all over the place. Riff Raff plays with some dark undertones in his hooks and verses as well; that’s where the transitions fail but the tracks take me by surprise by how good they are.
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Time and Versace Python take Riff Raff down this dark path lyrically. Time is a generic nostalgia track where we are given a look at Riff Raff’s past, while Versace Python plays with this message of luxury and depression in one. Riff Raff talks about how popular he is and how he has access to luxurious brand names and drugs, but he isn’t content with having all of this cause it feels like an image. This is rather weird for Riff Raff but he delivers it in a way where it feels natural. Versace Python’s structure is similar to the track Wonderbread by Danny Brown where he talks about something bad that happened but in a way where the listener would be used to hearing that sound.
Riff Raff is capable of pulling out good verses but this album has felt too commercial, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer rawness as well in an album, sort of like The Blueprint by Jay-Z. It is all over the place and some tracks standout more then others. If he was more cohesive like Jay-Z, but still retaining that Riff Raff style we all know and love, I think he could make bangers with future follow ups. In the end I can only say one thing, he taught me one thing that Jay-Z has yet to teach me, and that’s how to be a man.
5/10
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