“BLUE LIPS” – ScHoolboy Q

Album: BLUE LIPS

Artist: ScHoolboy Q

Year: 2024

Genre: West Coast Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop

Grade: B+

With 18 songs over the course of one hour (and with several of those songs featuring beat switch-ups halfway through), ScHoolboy Q’s sixth album (and his first since Crash Talk five years earlier) is a schizophrenic affair. But the mess is part of the minor magic that results: there’s so many sounds, so many words and so many rapid-fire artistic choices throughout Blue Lips that the album never bores despite feeling much longer than it is. From the “Naima” interpolation in “oHio” to the abrasive gangsta braggadocio of “Pop,” the album is an all-encompassing journey into the fractured vision of 37-year-old Quincy Hanley, who is far removed from his Black Hippy days but is now more ambitious and hungrier than ever. Blue Lips is a satisfying return from one of the most hyped underground rappers of the early 2010s, one that will surely satisfy old fans and introduce new ones to a discography worth exploring.

NOTES & CHORDS

• “Yeern 101” is a rapping tour-de-force. Does Q even take a breath during the song? His non-stop delivery is very impressive.

• There are several moments of beauty throughout Blue Lips — “Blueslides” and “Nunu” are R&B-inflected highlights — but Q loves his hardcore hip hop too much to luxuriate in stoned relaxation completely. It’s good for dynamic balance, but it’s a shame since the more melodic songs are the best of the album.

• Regrettable hardcore hip hop chorus: “Marijuana, Hydro, pussy, ho, ass, titties” (Repeat 6x)

• With jazzy West Coast beats interspersed with aggressive ad-libs, Q’s Blue Lips bears sonic similarities to Tyler the Creator’s Call Me if You Get Lost. In the way it’s structured, however, Blue Lips bears some similarities to the nonstop tune-after-tune-after-tune onslaught of Ghostface Killah’s classic albums, in which the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.

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