★★☆☆☆
Mansion Musik feels like an excuse to throw 20-odd features at the wall and see if some stick. Whilst an extended feature list on a Trippie Redd record isn’t unexpected (especially when the project is 25 tracks long), 19 different collaborators across 22 tracks is overboard.
The result is a project that never really feels like it knows where it stands, as it jumps from feature to feature and ultimately isn’t worth the 80 minutes of time it takes to listen to.
Some moments are simply embarrassing. Trippie Redd isn’t a renowned lyricist, but lyrics such as “we keep it litty like a titty” and cringe-worthy, almost unspeakable ad-libs on ‘GOODFELLAS’ show the lack of effort put into sections of the album.
Similarly, certain features are tasteless. Kodak Black has had his fair share of accusations brought against him, whilst DaBaby should really be left in 2022. A Juice WRLD feature in 2023 is unnecessary; it feels as if we are past the point of hearing any credible unreleased material from him. As close as he and Trippie were, at this point any posthumous verses we hear from him are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
‘KRZY TRAIN,’ a would-be highlight, is ruined by abysmal mixing of Travis Scott’s verse, in which he sounds less distorted, and more just muffled. Chief Keef faces a similar issue on ‘ATLANTIS’, and that’s before you consider the fact he’s featured with a criminal amount of autotune that takes away the appeal of his hard-hitting, booming delivery.
Future’s back-to-back appearances at the start of the record mark a step up from the majority of the project, with ‘PSYCHO’ standing out in particular. ‘MUSCLES’, alongside Lil Durk, demonstrates once again that when Trippie sticks to what he’s good at, he can put together decent, albeit not classic, trap records and club hits.
The problem is that Trippie Redd tries to follow too many trends. Even when looking past the fact that only three of the twenty-five songs are featureless, the rapper fails to produce anything that sounds original. Too often he sounds as if he’s trying to replicate Playboi Carti, and constant droning 808s and non-stop hi-hats make an already lengthy record become a chore to listen to.
The project’s length is tiring, and the feature list is overwhelming. When Trippie Redd focuses on what he’s known for being good at and releases projects with a tighter tracklist than Mansion Musik, efforts such as Life’s a Trip come to fruition. Unfortunately, his newest project feels like an extension to 2020’s Pegasus – and that’s never a good thing.
