Thursday 11 April 2019

Review of 'Harverd Dropout' by Lil Pump


Despite evidently not being able to spell (or rap for that matter), Lil Pump is a self-made millionaire at 18 - and he’s decided to spend his new album telling everyone that school is for losers.

That’s about as deep as the lyrical content goes on Harverd Dropout. The SoundCloud rapper spends the rest of his bars boasting about taking Xanax and driving Lamborghinis. The line ‘Like a lighter, bitch, we ignant’ on ‘I Love It’ is about as witty as the wordplay gets (because ‘ignite’ kind of sounds like ‘ignorant’, I guess).

But of course, judging Pump for his poor level of poetry is kind of pointless considering that no sane human being listens to him for his lyrics. It’s the fact he’s so ‘ignant’ that makes him so rebellious and therefore loved by young people. He also has some ridiculously fun beats behind him – ‘Drop Out’ and ‘ION’ are undeniable bangers – and his flow is actually pretty tight.

That said, this album is still largely a pile of wank. Even if you overlook the mind-numbingly soul-crushingly banal lyrics, there’s still the issue of Lil Pump’s energy. For someone showing off about being a millionaire, he has the enthusiasm of a homeless person. Maybe, that’s the point – he’s too cool to care – but this lack of conviction ends up making tracks like ‘Vroom Vroom Vroom’ sound like he’s having a stroke. If you’re going to start making car noises like a fucking toddler, at least put some passion and spit into it.

I’d argue the beats are better than on his debut album, but otherwise his lyrics and energy have just gotten worse. Once people grow tired of trap beats and Lil Pump is too old to rap about school, he’ll have absolutely nothing going for him and everyone will abandon him for the next teen rebel icon.  

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