By Corey Libow
Released January 15, 2016
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Key Tracks:
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“When I cracked the cookie all it said was
keep dreaming”
L.A.’s hip hop scene is about as explosive as it’s ever been. The creative lines have been blurred as rap bleeds into jazz which merges with funk and plays with R&B. For such a sprawling city, musical lines are constantly blending and collaborating with one another. It makes sense that Anderson .Paak, a half black/half Korean rapper-singer who had been associated with L.A. underground crews Stones Throw Records and Hellfyre Club, would show up on the highest profile album of the year when he was featured all over Dr. Dre’s long awaited comeback album Compton. Seizing his chance in the spotlight, .Paak has released his sophomore album Malibu, an exciting and sometimes messy collage which nonetheless showcases the spark of a young new auteur.
Malibu is an album with several moving parts that .Paak operates with a looseness benefitting the title. Anderson .Paak has a delicate, raspy voice that is as malleable as his music - he doesn’t rap or sing so much as combine the two. The unconventional tone is carried through the rest of the project. His band shifts effortlessly from classic R&B into modern dance pop or to a funky rhythm. L.A. gangsta rappers Schoolboy Q and The Game rap along to a fun disco beat on “Am I Wrong” and a jazzy loop on “Room In Here” respectively, sounding much softer than in their usual contexts. Sometimes .Paak gets carried away with its jam sessions and forgets to focus on the songwriting, as tracks can stay past their welcome.
This looseness can carry over to the subject matter too. Malibu concerns itself with romance and heartbreak that never steps out of puppy love. Any attempts at sex fall flat; at best it’s cute and worst it’s corny. Malibu sounds best when Anderson .Paak reins himself in and works with something concrete. When .Paak goes into his past, the album snaps into focus. His unorthodox flows, languidly flowing out like a rocky creek, carve out individual lines that rise to the forefront. His grandpa’s liquored liver, his sibling rivalries, and his mom’s gambling bug are all emblazoned in the front, justifying the unyielding optimism of the rest of the album.
The best songs on the album are when .Paak gets to work on a strong beat rather than an evaporating groove. “Come Down” has a sparse bass loop from Hi-Tek that .Paak just sizzles over, rapping and chanting and sounding downright cool. It’s a song that could go on for ten minutes and feel shorter than the interludes. “The Waters” finds .Paak diving into his underground roots and going to work on a perfectly dusty Madlib beat. Proclaiming himself the visionary in the vintage chevy, .Paak explores every crevice of the beat, changing speeds, doing everything but moving backwards, finding time to worry about his sister’s taxes, reprimanding his audience for being late to the future, founding the first church of boom baptists, and dropping straight bars: “I was cooking gumbo whipping the voodoo, I was in the jungle running with Zulus.” He certainly has a future as a pure rapper if he wants one.
It’s a shame that this album dropped in the middle of winter when it clearly screams for summer. Malibu should be played with the top down on the way to beach, weed smoke drifting in the air. Despite a run time that feels twice as long as it actually is, Malibu excels where most artists fail. It drips energy and excitement, it beams with positivity and aspiration and feels new. After a debut album called Venice, and now Malibu, hopefully when Anderson .Paak decides to go to a new place in L.A., he’ll take the same wide eyed joy with him.
Malibu is an album with several moving parts that .Paak operates with a looseness benefitting the title. Anderson .Paak has a delicate, raspy voice that is as malleable as his music - he doesn’t rap or sing so much as combine the two. The unconventional tone is carried through the rest of the project. His band shifts effortlessly from classic R&B into modern dance pop or to a funky rhythm. L.A. gangsta rappers Schoolboy Q and The Game rap along to a fun disco beat on “Am I Wrong” and a jazzy loop on “Room In Here” respectively, sounding much softer than in their usual contexts. Sometimes .Paak gets carried away with its jam sessions and forgets to focus on the songwriting, as tracks can stay past their welcome.
This looseness can carry over to the subject matter too. Malibu concerns itself with romance and heartbreak that never steps out of puppy love. Any attempts at sex fall flat; at best it’s cute and worst it’s corny. Malibu sounds best when Anderson .Paak reins himself in and works with something concrete. When .Paak goes into his past, the album snaps into focus. His unorthodox flows, languidly flowing out like a rocky creek, carve out individual lines that rise to the forefront. His grandpa’s liquored liver, his sibling rivalries, and his mom’s gambling bug are all emblazoned in the front, justifying the unyielding optimism of the rest of the album.
The best songs on the album are when .Paak gets to work on a strong beat rather than an evaporating groove. “Come Down” has a sparse bass loop from Hi-Tek that .Paak just sizzles over, rapping and chanting and sounding downright cool. It’s a song that could go on for ten minutes and feel shorter than the interludes. “The Waters” finds .Paak diving into his underground roots and going to work on a perfectly dusty Madlib beat. Proclaiming himself the visionary in the vintage chevy, .Paak explores every crevice of the beat, changing speeds, doing everything but moving backwards, finding time to worry about his sister’s taxes, reprimanding his audience for being late to the future, founding the first church of boom baptists, and dropping straight bars: “I was cooking gumbo whipping the voodoo, I was in the jungle running with Zulus.” He certainly has a future as a pure rapper if he wants one.
It’s a shame that this album dropped in the middle of winter when it clearly screams for summer. Malibu should be played with the top down on the way to beach, weed smoke drifting in the air. Despite a run time that feels twice as long as it actually is, Malibu excels where most artists fail. It drips energy and excitement, it beams with positivity and aspiration and feels new. After a debut album called Venice, and now Malibu, hopefully when Anderson .Paak decides to go to a new place in L.A., he’ll take the same wide eyed joy with him.
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