7/10
Favorite Track: "Down Bad" Least Favorite Track: "Sacrifices"
Music is no different than any other piece of art in the sense that we as conscious beings value it more when there is a compelling story behind it. So when J. Cole and his label decided to write, record, and produce an album in the same space in Atlanta Georgia in ten days, and invite hundreds of other rappers, producers, and musicians in the industry to come and be a part of it, they already had the story aspect on lock. There was an obvious mutual respect at Tree Sound Studios among all the players involved in this project but more than anything this album feels free. They all wanted to be there, dreamed of being there, dreamed of working with one another, and that fun, natural, and dreamy aesthetic is so noticeable all over the album. ROTD3 is pretty consistent. These artists hit most of these tracks hard and lyrically, there is certainly trap production involved but in terms of lyrics, bars, and flows this album is purebred, rap and hip hop. So many minds being involved on this project makes for some pretty whacky and off the wall song ideas throughout. For example when Cozz, Reason, and Childish Major plot the robbery of their labels due to lack of support on “LamboTruck”, or the marijuana infused smoke cyphers on “1993” that are constantly interrupted by rapper Buddy who reminds the crew to “Stop rapping, start passing” and to “Stop rapping, we are getting high”. However, at the other end of the spectrum there are some tracks on this thing that are pretty forgettable like the outro “Sacrifices”. These tracks are the ones where you can hear the fact that they were made in ten days. In the way of complaints, this album also sometimes has a few too many cooks in the kitchen. The only place where this really harms it however is when there are so many faces on one song that it makes it hard to grow a strong appreciation for one individual verse like on tracks like “Costa Rica” which is packed with nine different verses in under four minutes. Moments like these on the album are a little hard to follow. However, the good outweighs the bad and I do enjoy this project and I don't expect it to be the last of its kind that we see in the near future.