Joyner Lucas’ New Single Shows My Exact Issue With The Rapper
By: The Red Being Shot
Tags: Music, Joyner Lucas, Hip Hop, Rap

Joyner Lucas’ New Single Shows My Exact Issue With The Rapper

When he isn’t meddling in the same waters as other fast paced & wordy rappity rappers, “Devil’s Work” shows that if he’s not sounding like Hopsin or Eminem, he’s…Meek Mill? The Red Being Shot May 9, 2019·5 min read

Joyner Lucas is a puzzling musical persona and an even more trashy lyricist. His most popular raps feel like attempts to prove everyone that he’s a great rapper as opposed to him actually being great, and his personality ranges from obnoxious to legitimately problematic. His Grammy nominated I’m Not Racist was one of his most successful endeavors yet – a conceptual undertaking attempting to tackle the two sides of the highly contrasting racial divide in America. Much like I’m Not Racist, Lucas’ inability to make this an intelligent, fleshed out, and completely realized piece gives him and others a sort of platform for weak questions and arguments. If I’m Not Racist coated over contemporary issues too quickly by means of misrepresentation and underexplaining the two sides’ lament for one another, Devil’s Work experiences a similar underhandedness, even if it is to a lesser degree.

Issue #1- Filler Bars

Joyner Lucas has made it far in the game off of his flow alone. He isn’t the greatest lyricist or even a competent one most of the time, and that’s because he can’t help but waste it (in part) on filler content. Nearly all of Lucas’ verses are seeped in silly, strange, directionless, inexactly related and oddly conjoined filler rhymes. This is most notable when he attempts chopping like Busta Rhymes, Twista, Tech N9ne, or even Eminem. Lyrically nothing is there and the verse is weak. His poetry then begins to starve from a lack of quotables or memorable lines. The flows are dazzling, but underneath the speedy demeanor, there’s not much to impress the listener in a technical sense.

Here, Lucas slows it down a bit. There’s no chopping; so it instead feels like a hollow Meek Mill impersonation. The beat drops in like something straight off of 2018’s Championships and his verse structuring is oddly familiar. The filler lines here aren’t nearly as bad as his Mask Off remix, yet they still stick out like a thorn in the tracks side. Meek Mill excels in this same vein of Hip-Hop so well because there’s an air of intensity, rawness, self awareness, and most importantly of all context that’s nearly unmatched, and Joyner lacks these exact things. He has no convincing backstory, no one of a kind condition or circumstance, nothing at risk, nothing to gain, and fans nothing to anticipate. It’s hard to find make a genuine investment in both his music and personality because none of it feels tangible — it’s all just so….. plastic. Often times, he’ll will even repeat some of his lines or words 2 or 3 times to fill up space and/or construct a rickety bridge to another topic, name, or theme. It’s one of the most lazy, rushed, and uncreative crutches to lean on as a writer, because it shows a lack of lexical diversity or even creative wording. Was there really a need for him to ask for an answer 3 times before actually getting to the real meat of the track after another series of filler lines? If there’s one thing Lucas could benefit from most, it’s an editor.

Issue #2- His Arguments Rely Too Heavily On A Fan Perspective

In art — whether it be musical or something more physical — we tend to overstate or become overly nostalgic on how much we actually love or loved an artist. Lucas falls into one of the most avoidable traps here — in a fit of trying to get questions out of a power higher than him, his obsession for other fallen artists shows a bit too much. He even goes as far as to offer up sacrifices to get some of his most loved musicians back. And although he names evil, chaotic figures to put up for exchange like Dylann Roof & R. Kelly (both of who I wouldn’t mind kicking the can), he blatantly ignores the controversial histories behind people like Micheal Jackson — and most recently — XXXTENTACION that he so desperately wants back. In his fit of studio rage, Lucas has propped up people more flawed than himself to a near deity-like status. His questions of “why are all the good people dying?” aren’t new by any means necessary. The topic of morality and why do those we all love seem to go so quickly has been debated for centuries, but rarely is the questioning this weak. The biggest issue with this song isn’t the trite concept, subpar lyricism, celebrity worshipping, constant name dropping, or even the flow. It’s biggest weakness is that it feels like a wasted opportunity to say something more than what was presented. The song isn’t compelling, complex, or even well written. It’s all so surface level and lacking of any further digging into oneself that the entire song feels like a wasted opportunity. The song may not be trash, but it definitely could’ve been much, much better.