Starting the album with the bold, dark lyricism and beats that A Boogie Wit da Hoodie found success with on his first album was a recipe for success. Starting the album with “All she ever wanted was for my heart to hurt” immediately set the tone for the next 19 tracks. Offset and Tyga),’ and ‘Look Back at It’ exemplify where the production and lyricism work together masterfully. Yet, songs like ‘Voices in My Head,’ ‘Startender (feat. As a whole, Hoodie SZN would immediately improve if the production was consistently better than it was on the aforementioned tracks and, unfortunately, the uninspired, uninventive beats and controversial feature drag A Boogie down on this LP.
‘The Reaper’ would’ve been better as a B-side and doesn’t deserve inclusion on this work. Queen Naija)’ is an attempt to change up the predominately bass driven beats from the first nine songs, but the guitar-led song falls flat on its own and in comparison to the rest of the piece. While a discussion about the rap industry’s promotion of such a problematic figure as 6ix9ine deserves its own op-ed, all I’ll say about it in reference to Hoodie SZN is that this track is unnecessary and, without the controversial feature, it would barely justify a mention in this review. 6ix9ine)’ just isn’t good enough to justify the inclusion of controversial rapper and human clickbait, 6ix9ine, as a featured artist. The 20-song tracklisting leads to an album that’s dominated by filler and forgettable tracks.
The themes of love and pain are wholly pervasive, but the album’s length and uncreative beats hurt the overall work. And while Hoodie SZN has its moments, the album was hampered by its long length and inconsistent production choices. A melancholic, pensive theme is evident throughout, but doesn’t progress lyrically or stylistically, causing the album to lose momentum near the tail end.