Trippie Redd sounds every bit the derivative of his elders, Lil Uzi Vert and the late XXXTentacion, on his debut album Life’s A Trip. Where those two are bursting with personality and star-quality, Redd feels like he’s still desperately clinging to the Soundcloud-rap wave. The creative, interesting production on this LP feels wasted on him as an MC. You’ll just wish it went into other rappers’ hands.

Trippie Redd has had a fairly rapid rise to full-blown stardom and it’s not surprising. He loves working over trap-infused melodramatic beats and he pulls every emo-rap chord.  He’ll constantly break into throat-straining wailing. His big-time hit, ‘Love Scars’, is a genuinely effective emo-banger and his direct, almost comically-blunt lines stick in your brain (“girl you got me real saaaaaad/devil in me got me real maaaaad”). You can see how it would have risen to the top of the steaming Soundcloud heap. It’s a good imitation of Lil Uzi Vert’s superior ‘XO TOUR LIFE’. Unfortunately, nothing on Life’s A Trip can match it.

Album length is not a friend to Trippie Redd. He’s grown up in the Soundcloud world, where he needs a 3-minute hit to keep listeners from hitting the skip button and moving on to the other thousand wannabe sad rappers. But over the course of 45 minutes all his flaws begin bubbling to the surface.

The most obvious one is that he’s not a great lyricist by any measure. There aren’t any quotable lines on this project. He ruminates over the same old topics – women, fame, haters. It’s thoroughly boring, numbing subject matter. It becomes obvious that he has nothing to say. Over the longer tracks, like ‘Bird Shit’, he can hardly keep the listeners attention through his verses.

He replaces that deficiency by constantly shifting his cadences, switching from basic rapping to dramatic singing and raspy moaning at any moment. Just about every track features a combination of the three. It’s really effective on ‘Wish [Trippie Mix]’, following the same melodic tone over the track, where he almost moans the opening verse before bellowing out the hook (“wish you get out my face/my girl M.I.A./my cheese blow my brain/R.I.P Kurt Cobain”). Other times it is less effective. ‘BANG!’ is almost unlistenable because of Redd’s grating-nails scream of “let it BAAAAAaang!” on the hook. Either way, though, it’s his drawcard, and the one feature that you will remember him for.

That type of tendency lends itself much more comfortably to writing a hook than a verse. ‘Taking A Walk” is one of the better tracks on this project, and the chorus is a rare moment that doesn’t sound grating or deliberately overblown – Redd sings it gently (“these people don’t want me alive, ooooh”). He’s able to bury phrases in your brain through repetition. His verses, on the other hand, feel rushed and unformed, and he always seems much more eager to scurry back to the hooks for impact. To put it simply, he is a long way from becoming a complete artist.

Despite all this, he (or his label) has done considerably well to get this selection of beats together. Redd has a good ear for emo-rap and almost all these tracks feature interesting tweaks and flourishes as they unfurl. The aforementioned ‘Taking A Walk’, produced by the legendary Scott Storch, features gorgeous starry pianos and swirling synths. ‘Wish’ is a softer, tropical Diplo creation. ‘How You Feel’ is another standout, featuring a classic emo electric guitar and Redd actually adjusts to it well, turning it into a shimmering emo-punk ballad. Most songs feature interesting guitar riffs sneaking past thumping trap drums. He’s taken advantage of his meteoric rise to work with some creative minds, and in these moments it’s clear where his appeal is – a numbing, wailing rapper who can actually do something with a beat. We’re cooking with gas.

But too often Redd comes across as the worst part of his own songs. The guests on here run rings around him. Young Thug completely hijacks ‘Forever Ever’ with a typically goofy, squealing chorus and Travi$ Scott sounds much more natural over the humid mega-hit ‘Dark Knight Dummo’. On the latter, the beat basically swallows Redd whole. In reality, he probably should have put more guests on this project to detract from his own weaknesses. He often can’t match the production. ‘Shake It Up’ has a fantastically odd, whistling flute through it while trap drums hit behind it, but Redd shits all over the beat with a cringeworthy twerk song (“put that ass in reverse just like UNO/told her I’m a big dog just like Cujo”). Plenty of songs have genuinely intriguing moments, but only a few of them are actually good songs. He isn’t able to sustain the popping-candy surprises that dot tracks like ‘Taking A Walk’ and ‘Wish’ over this project.

Who knows if Trippie Redd will develop into a more rounded rapper. He’s already been incredibly successful. But this album proves something that already appeared obvious – he’ll probably need to keep cranking out big singles to stay relevant. There are some promising signs here, and he’s collected a bevy of instrumental talent, but this is a clunky mess of a debut. Of course, if he keeps racking up views like these, he’ll be perfectly fine either way.

5.1