Grade = 71% or 3.5 ️Stars
Track List - 1 hour 3 minutes
Footstep (Bonus) 2:22
Still Waiting (Bonus) 3:09
Bad Morning 3:40 ️
Hold Me Down 2:58 ️
On My Side 2:29 ️
Smoke Strong 2:15
50 Shots 2:41
No Where 2:38
Sincerely 2:55
I Can’t Take It Back 2:58
Rich Shit 2:36
Toxic Punk 2:04
My Killa 2:24
Life Support 3:54 ️
Break Or Make Me 3:12
Forgiato 3:09
Baddest Thing 2:40
Nevada 2:36 ️
Leave I Want To Reach 2:10
Kickstand 1:53
All I Need 2:54 ️
White Teeth 2:55 ️
Panoramic 2:06
In 2020 many artists had to slow down due to quarantine. While many rappers put a pause on music, YoungBoy NBA had his most productive year of his career. Between the months of February and November he released 3 mixtapes, one solo LP, and a joint project with Rich The Kid. Some people might think that he oversaturated the market with too much music but it turned out to be the best thing he could have done. On March 22nd, YoungBoy was arrested by federal agents executing a warrant. YoungBoy (whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden) fled the scene but was soon captured after a search team found him. YoungBoy fans have been stuck on his 2020 music as he couldn’t release a new project this year due to his legal trouble. That was until his team dropped his new project Sincerely, Kentrell on September 24th.
YoungBoy has never been a big fan of collaborating with other artists. He does have a select few who he chooses to work but overall he’d rather work alone. Besides his joint project with Rich The Kid, YoungBoy only had 5 features on his last four projects that had 67 songs in total. There were also rumors that he missed a chance to work with J Cole after missing a recording session. I don’t expect Cole to reach out again and I don’t think YoungBoy cares if he does or doesn’t. This project is no different from his others as Sincerely, Kentrell has 21 songs over 57 minutes with no features. I believe YoungBoy gets his solo approach from fellow Baton Rouge artists Kevin Gates and Boosie Badazz. Boosie usually only has a couple features on an album while Kevin Gates did not have one feature on his last two projects.
Like many of his peers YoungBoy has taken the melodic route when it comes to his style of rapping. Although he is considered a rapper I like to considered YoungBoy a singer who talks about the street life. He isn’t much of a lyricist but he makes up for it with his melodic flow and his catchy melodies. He has found a niche when it comes to making hooks which will allow him to branch out into a more mainstream audience if he chooses to do so. The amazing thing about YoungBoy NBA is he still only 21 years old. As he continues to grow as an artist I think we will be seeing him collaborating more. I think he will still shy away from working with other rappers who he feels are his competitors but he might start working with more pop stars who are not in his genre. Someone like Camilla Cabello would be someone I could see him working with. She has made songs with Quavo, Travis Scott, Young Thug, and DaBaby.
This album is YoungBoy’s most pop sounding album. Besides a select few, most of these records are about relationships. For this reason the album has had some poor reviews. Most of his fans are young men who like his raps about guns, drugs, violence, sex, and murder. Whether this album was purposely meant to be less violent and more radio friendly is unclear. It would make sense due to his legal issues. It could also be some leftover tracks that he never released. Some fans think this is the reason the album feels somewhat watered down. I think the album felt like that because there were several singles dropped before the album was released. Although there was 21 tracks, a good amount of them were either already released or teased through YouTube or social media. If you are going to release several singles then it would be better to save a couple of the better songs for the albums release date.
This review may have seemed like the album was a miss but it was still a solid project. YoungBoy has put himself in a space where the world “solid” is a let down. This is especially true after his last LP Top. While this LP may not be as strong as the last it still has enough quality music to hold us over until YoungBoy is released from prison. YoungBoy has always been the kind of artist who puts out a high quantity of music which allows the music to feel brand new. A lot of rappers today will play a snippet of a song and won’t release it until months later which makes the song feel dated once it is finally released. Many rappers from Louisiana have the same approach when it comes to work ethic. Lil Wayne was constantly releasing new music when he was in his prime. Between his albums he always had mixtapes to remain relevant. Today the most productive artist in the game is Curren$y. He is constantly releasing music and is arguably the hardest working rapper in the industry. He is another rapper from Louisiana.
YoungBoy is expected to do down as only the third person in history to have a number one album while being incarcerated. I don’t think this album met its full potential but I still I give it a final rating of 71% or 3.5 stars. We may never get that Camilla Cabello collaboration I was talking about but I feel like YoungBoy has the potential to become a household name if he wants to be. I’m expecting more songs in the future like his track with Juice WRLD Bandit or the song What That Speed Bout!? which was made with Nicki Minaj and Mike WiLL Made-It.
Best Song: Life Support
Download: Sincerely, Kentrell>
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