Trippie Redd sent the rap world into a frenzy this past week with the release of his latest album, titled “Mansion Musik.”
After teasing its release on his Instagram and Twitter accounts, Redd officially dropped the album on all major streaming platforms at 11 p.m. on Jan. 20.
The excitement among the rap community was immense when news got out that the album was dropping, and it heightened even further when the track list was released four days prior to the drop. With features from numerous big-name artists on 22 of the 25 songs, it was public consensus that Redd was going to deliver a banger of an album.
So the question remains… did “Mansion Musik” live up to the hype?
In my humble opinion, absolutely. To pretty much everyone else I talked to about it, not so much.
“While there were definitely some good songs, none of them really stood out to me,” said Logan Ross, a sophomore in the Heider College of Business. “With a 25-song album you’ve got to make each song unique, but they all sounded the same.”
Similar thoughts were echoed across campus in each conversation I had regarding the album. Listeners complimented Redd’s unique combination of distorted 808’s and hardcore guitar samples, but ultimately condemned his work on “Mansion Musik” as having little to no replay value.
“Redd changed his style a little bit to give the album more of an intense, rage-like feel,” said Sam Hingsberger, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “While I did enjoy a few of the songs, I don’t think it’s an album I’ll frequently be revisiting.”
In addition to hearing from Creighton students in person, I also took to Twitter to collect some more opinions.
After scrolling through a sea of tweets under the hashtag “MansionMusik” ranging from high praise for the album to mockery in the form of memes, I was able to come up with the estimation that about a third of listeners loved the album, while the rest felt disappointed.
Obviously, those numbers are not an exact census of opinion regarding the album, but I would consider myself to be a part of the minority.
I’ve been a huge Trippie Redd fan ever since hearing his song “Topanga” back in 2018, so naturally I had high hopes for “Mansion Musik.” Upon first listen, I was head banging for the entire hour and 16 minutes that the album ran for.
Redd sat down to discuss the album’s release on the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast, in which host Gillie Da King said to Redd, “I can tell you really love your music. When its time to express what you do and your art, you not laid back no more.”
The album was certainly anything but laid back. Features from Travis Scott, Future and Lil Baby made songs like “Krzy Train” and “Fully Loaded” permanent favorites of mine.
I will admit that a lot of the songs sound very similar, but Redd’s erratic flow and ear-bursting baselines tickled my brain just right. I think the album is a masterpiece of trap rap, paralleling that of Playboi Carti’s 2020 album “Whole Lotta Red”.
Much like Carti’s work, I think Redd’s album is one that is meant to reach its target audience when performed live. The whole vibe of the production just screams moshpits and chaos, and I can’t wait to hear what people think of the album when it is performed by Redd in concert.