Musical Monday – Swinging With a Limp Fist

Sometimes I find it’s better to not know that something ‘big’ is coming. That way, my anticipation is kept in check and I don’t get all worked up about what it might sound like…a bad release by someone I’ve been waiting for can set me in a tailspin. I start to question everything I know about the world and it can get kind of…messy.

I’m not saying that folks should avoid telling me about things in advance…particularly when they’re excited or think that I will be, they just have to understand that if it doesn’t live up to my expectations, I’ll be very sad for a hot minute. That consequence isn’t so great since my mood swings like playground equipment. I’ll likely be anticipating something else within seconds. Fortunately, I didn’t know a lot about the new YG rapper One until I looked up details to write this post. Unfortunately, I did hear all about how YG was putting out some hot new rapper that was highly anticipated because he was super attractive and way full of talent.

One had all sorts of reputation preceding him. He originally debuted in 2015 as part of a hiphop duo, 1Punch,  on Brave Sound with Samuel Kim…when  Samuel Kim was only like 13 years old. You can imagine how that went over. Let’s just say I listened to them once and moved on. One did well enough on Show Me the Money seasons 4 and 5, again, he didn’t blip for me, but I know that a lot of people were eager for him to do more. YG scouted him and 1Punch disbanded the same year it debuted so he could change labels. I’m sure that didn’t hurt his feelings.

As per usual, YG kept One in the basement for a couple of years before letting him put out music. The basement at YG must be HUGE with all of those artists packed down there just waiting to be let free to actually put release something. The messages we got about One were that if you were familiar with his style, you would be shocked to hear his firsts songs. As I wasn’t familiar with anything, I didn’t know what to even knock off the potential sounds list. So when the two videos came out a few days ago, I curled up on my couch at five in the morning to watch them. I did not get up at five TO watch them, mind, I was up to work out and using them as a tool for procrastination.

They are……meh. He is beautiful, that much is very true. The songs are produced by Cha Cha Malone of AOMG fame and Groovy Room…both amazing talents. You’ll know which is which even if you don’t know the producers. One has a ‘Cha Cha beat’ and the other is ‘Groovy Everywhere.’ Neither song is bad…actually, quite good. But as far as debuts go, it was like coming out in a fist fight with your hands wide open. They are just kind of boring. It’s hard to tell if he was relying too heavily on the producers to make the songs good or if they just weren’t the right songs to begin with. I don’t want to disparage them entirely, I will likely listen to them and anticipate the next round of songs from him, but they just felt like a sophomore album…like he was comfortable enough in his own talent and fame to hit it just a little bit less hard. I’m sorry, but he’s not there yet. I wanted more from someone getting so much hype.

But you be the judge. Take a listen and let me know what you think. It is entirely possible that I’m missing something.

One, Gettin’ By

One, Heyahe