Rapsody's Laila's Wisdom released a little while ago and I finally have my review. This is the North Carolina rapper's 7th project following the Crown EP from last year and her last album Beauty and the Beast from 2015. Upon the announcement and seeing the tracklist I thought it had too many features. Only 4 of the tracks are featureless and initially I thought it was going to take away from her especially after getting a bit of mainstream attention from her verse on "Complexion" on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, but after listening I quite enjoyed them and didn't feel that it detracted from the album's artist.
Laila's Wisdom is 14 tracks long with no intro, outro, or interludes. The opening album titled track I find was underwhelming to start off with. "Laila's Wisdom" comes from Rapsody's grandmother. imparts the wisdom that Grandma Laila was known for and acts as an inspirational track. "Power" features the ever popular Kendrick Lamar along with vocalist Lance Skiiwalker. "Power" I found to be just an okay song. Rapsody's verse is decent, but I was disappointed with Kendrick's. I don't find particularly engaging as I would expect from him, but it's not terrible by any means. The production on the track is serviceable as well.
One track I hold to great esteem is "Black & Ugly". "Black & Ugly" speaks on Rapsody's place of being a black woman in America, being comfortable in her own skin and what her blackness means to her. Every line in this track catches your attention and personally, I found this one resonating:
My hair don't look natural so they question my blackness
Rachel got over, Guess that's a fucked up standard
Fuck yall even, Fuck yall odd
How I'm weird cuz ion rap bout dumb shit like yall?
And then, here's my favorite that closes out the verse:
Hope you brush your teeth before you get up and talk shit bout me
Laila's Wisdom was an album I didn't have a bunch of expectations for because Crown was just released last year and I have been too busy recently to be extra hyped for projects, but I did expect it to be good and it's definitely a delight and a contender for my top ten for this year. I look forward to any other albums coming from Rapsody and hopes she will get the mainstream exposure she deserves.
Coming next are CIRCA91 by Ruby Ibarra, and Officially Yours from Demetria McKinney
