DJ Khaled's Father of Asahd isn't Great
The summer of 2018 felt awkward and empty. The world had gotten used to playing powerful summer music orchestrated by DJ Khaled due to carefully calculated promotions, snapchat takeovers and amazing singles. 2016's Major Key was a highlight of the year in terms of Hip-Hop albums, supported by tracks such as 'For Free', 'I Got the Keys' and 'Holy Key', everything was great for Khaled. The following year was the boisterous Grateful, which, while not as great an entity as the previous effort, the success of "I'm the One" with Quavo, Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne and Chance the Rapper was enough to propel the album high into the stratosphere. Then he vanished for a year, tirelessly working towards something big. Father of Asahd... but was it great?
As I listened to the album, I felt a jarring feeling in my bones. The beginning of the album was the extremely long intro 'Holy Mountain', set then simmer tune with the reggae. However, it switches gears into hardcore Hip-Hop with Cardi B's and 21 Savage's 'Wish Wish' and then pop with 'Jealous'. While I could continue with every track and how they never seem consistant in either subject matteer or genre, the tracks are individually impressive. However, how they came together in one album is surprising; it feels like the album was made for too many people, by too many people and for that sole reason isn't cohesive.
I truly do sit and wonder why this album exists. Is it for the hype? Does the booming voice of DJ Khaled screaming "We the Best" truly something worth it? Is it because the world likes to see superteams? While I can't answer the first two questions, the last one remains answerable. There are no real super teams or collaborations we wanted to see on this project. The best collaborations were 'Higher' with the late Nipsey Hussle and John Legend as well as "Won't Take My Soul", featuring vocals from both Cee-Lo Green and Nas. Their gospel messages and instrumentation gave cohesiveness that was otherwise lacking in the project. It seems like they stuck to the supposed plan.
I cannot hate on the album musically - it is nearly impeccable with only three songs being egregious enough to not deserve to be on the project. However, the concept is muddled and difficult to find. It doesn't help that the energy is so focused on the instrumentals, but no attention paid to the artists. A platform like a DJ Khaled album should be used to present the best of what's to come, but the features were lackluster at best. Only four artists - Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle, SZA and Big Sean - made me want to listen to any new music. The last one had the best track on the album, 'Thank You' which was the fourteenth track on the docket. SZA shined like no other on "Just Us", giving a nice modern R&B twist to Outkast's "Sorry Ms Jackson". Lil Wayne gave the best line on the project with "you got me singing, she said 'you not Drake'", but his two appearances were weak. Most of the guests were weak.
In conclusion, do I believe that it was a great album? No. It wasn't a great album. It was a great collection of individual songs that were held together with flimsy strings. The entire endeavor is bad for DJ Khaled due to his previous successes, but is still an amazing project for any other artist in the game today, and that is said regardless of the genre. I hope that next year - or whenever he decides to release another full-length project - that it is well thought out and is something consistent.