Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "21 SAVAGE - AMERICAN DREAM ALBUM REVIEW"

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticDive Deep into 21 Savage's "American Dream": Sales, Sounds, and Significance (Notorious Mass Effect Segment)Atlanta rapper 21 Savage returned in January 2024 with his highly anticipated solo album, "American Dream." This segment of Notorious Mass Effect takes a comprehensive look at the project, analyzing its first-week sales performance, dissecting its sonic landscape, and exploring its deeper themes and cultural impact.Join host Analytic Dreamz as they:Unpack the numbers: Delve into the first-week sales figures, comparing them to 21 Savage's past projects and analyzing their significance in the current music landscape.Deconstruct the sounds: Dive into the album's musicality, exploring production choices, lyrical flows, and thematic threads that bind the tracks together.Go beyond the beats: Unpack the album's lyrical content, examining its personal reflections, social commentary, and potential interpretations of the "American Dream" title.Consider the impact: Discuss the album's potential influence on hip-hop and broader cultural conversations, analyzing its place in 21 Savage's career trajectory.Whether you're a die-hard 21 Savage fan, a casual listener, or simply interested in contemporary hip-hop analysis, this segment offers valuable insights and engaging discussion.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dia Ben Abraham Joseph has earned a number one album on the Billboard 200. Now, the biggest thing with that is, and by the way, Abraham, aka. is 21 Savage. So American Dream by 21 Savage is interesting to the fact that it sold 133,000 first week sales, marking his highest first week sales as a solo artist. but when you think about that you try to bring in other albums because you need to see progression for first week sales even though some people say you don't but you know first week sales is an indication on the amount of anticipation and support that you can get in a short amount of time from releasing an album and it's really a good litmus scale when it comes to your peers that's besides a point so I Am I was, which was the last album from 21 Savage. I forget how much it sold first week, but I do know that her loss with Drake was his

most successful first week sales project, which she was a co-artist with. I think that did around like 300,000 first week. Basically, I Am I Was was the first time that 21 Savage really put together like a great body of work. And now with this album, American Dream, I would say personally, that he's made a similar and quality album as his 15 tracks, not too long, not too short, has a lot of prominent features like Doge Cat, Travis Scott, and uses certain features in ways to where when he's making experimental quote-unquote music, where he's like getting into his R&B bag he has actual artists to help him out in that element whether it's a summer

walker brent fires maria the scientists so you kind of get where i'm going with 21 savage usually my critique for him is that he sounds the same on every single song and every single beat but when you start to incorporate other musicians who have drastically different sonics than you and then you combine that with the fact that this whole rollout with you was using photos of each artist like baby pictures of each artist to promote them on the upcoming album and then you combine that with the fact that there's a film produced by donald glover starring other actors like caleb mclaughan i don't say that druski and how it's basically chronicling is that word chronically anyways it's the chronicles of 21 savages journey from london to you you realize that it's not only the fact that he sounds the same by each and every beat but is what he's saying and it's how he's packaging it to make you give him a little bit more leeway than you then you rather would another artist because you see he's putting forth the effort some musicians

that sound the same on every single track day and day out they don't put forth the effort when it comes to promoting when it comes to getting certain um marketing budgets not even marketing budget when it comes to putting forth money towards marketing budgets because getting a tv show made about yourself isn't normal getting um all of these different musicians on your album that's not cheap you know i mean if 21 savage is not paying for it himself somebody on his label is because if you didn't know this is pretty uh interesting let me see if you didn't know 21 Savage is actually under exclusive license to Epic Records, meaning that he is sort of not independent, but he basically owns majority of his royalties and masters, if not all of them, because it's an exclusive

license, a division of Sony Music. And obviously, to go into the details, I'll have to see the contract, and that's never going to happen. But if you look at Slaughter Gang LLC, under exclusive license to Epic Records. that's way different from mostly a majority of artists. Let's just go to a prominent artist like, let's say gunna, right? Gunna, there's a reason why he's under exclusive license to young stoner life records slash 300 entertainment because who's that?

That's young thug, right? They're not going to let him go because they still need to make money off him because, you know, I mean, technically he snitched to get into the free world, so why not make some money off of him, you know, even though as a law-abiding statement, citizen i would just say he just told the truth you know it's nothing wrong with telling the truth sometimes you know and you know i never advocate for black man to get locked up only criminals you know know i believe every criminal should go to jail but anyways that's what i was that's the point so abraham joseph put out this project um put out this project american dream that sold

what it did which was a 133,000 basically getting him another number one album to the point where i had to figure out um where is this at okay so yeah let me figure out how much he sold with i am i was because i think that would be a pretty good litmus test because they said it barely outsold it i'm trying to see how close was it i am let's just put first week who uses a great a symbol in the album title whatever um okay i am i was sold 131,000 first week And then, oh, okay, so this is interesting. So I put in perspective all the time how streams doesn't equal or isn't the same as an album purchase, right? 21 Savage streamed 188 million with his I Am, I Was album, but it only came into 131,000 album sales.

So put that in perspective. 188 times somebody click play on your product. and a 131 sale 131,000 album units are moved because of that 188 million to 131,000 that is the discrepancy when it comes to streaming and how it equals to album purchases

so I'll let y'all do the math on that but so he barely outsold I AM I was but still in fact he did outsell it which means he technically did his job as far as the artist putting out a body of work and improving on what he did beforehand statistically. Maybe not, I can't even say quality-wise, because if you look at the top 10, right, I think he has two tracks currently in the top 10 because 21 Savage is that type of artist

where he just sales. Like his fan base is going to support him in a way that most is majority of his peers don't really support them like that. I'm trying to find the charts. Why don't have the chart so low? Anyways. Red Rum is number three on the top five of the billboard charts. And then you have Nina, which is number five.

And the cross references, because I, so technically I was looking at the billboards chart. But I got to look at the, I got to look at the overall charts. And the reason why I'm looking at the numbers is because, you know, I call myself analytic dreams. So you know we got to analyze these numbers. You know what I'm saying? And yeah, so three with Red Rum on the overall streaming charts. And he has Nina with Travis Scott at number five. So then he has all of me at number seven.

Another track in number eight. I think that's the one with Doja Cat. and another track in number 16 what do we at four i can't count a two four we have five and we have another track sneaky at number 20 at six seven 21 dangerous so he has an actual track charting at 21 which is just so ironic and then basically you get what i'm saying like the album is successful from a statistical standpoint and also quality-wise it seems like people really enjoy the album and And that's basically what I wanted to touch on because it's not going to be no drawn-out review of 21. Because obviously, I'm not the biggest 21 Savage fan.

Like, I always think that 21 Savage is very formulaic in the way he puts out his music. But as far as, we're not even put out the music. The way he sounds sonically is very formulaic. But his lyrics, his packaging of his rollout and. whether it's a movie or TV show with the Donald Glover thing, American Dream. I think that's what made me realize that this is a quality project. Because not a lot of musicians are going to put this much, not a lot of musicians are going to put forth this much effort

when it comes to getting people to recognize their music. Because most artists will try to go the whole mysterious route, not compete in any stretch of imagination on DSPs and then act like they're still the biggest thing smoking or the biggest discovery since the light spread and I'm talking directly to play play bricardy and his fans out there I mean that man to this day still ain't put a track on DSPs to compete with the big dogs in the music industry so with 21 Savage he put out music on DSPs, not YouTube, Dizer, basically he didn't put out music on non-D-SPs, right? And basically, the things that I want to talk about is why that is.

And I think it's simply because 21 Savage is more influential in the hip-hop space than people give him credit for it. When it comes to the Uzi's, the Cardys, the Destroy Lonely or Kent Carson's, the Yeats, I think 21 Savage is up there as far, not even other. there he surpassed no and it's really only comparable to i would say maybe a uzi and a kodak even though kodak sometimes doesn't sell like he should but that's what's the point so anyways um 21 savage definitely put out a high quality body of work and i just think the biggest thing with him and the way that he uh sells is just the authenticity in the way he actually packages his music because i mean the album before that

with i am i was i think he had morgan freeman correct me if i'm wrong but i think he literally had morgan freeman narrating like throughout the entire album and if that's not packaging i don't know what is so to to counteract the monotone the the formulaic sonics that he's always given us whether the bars are good or not i think the packaging is by far in the way the best thing about 21 savages music i mean i think i saw his music in a more to combat being one time. I think it was more to Combat X or some type of launch trailer. And I don't know if it was a launch trailer. It was like a reveal trailer. And they had 21 Savage music playing in the background. I was like, how did this happen?

So anyways, I always like to see the packaging with business minds like a 21 Savage. And I think he did. He did the same thing with this one. Like he really, as far as the quality of marketing promotion, it was really high with American Dream. So anyways, let's get into the actual album. review it's not going to be too long basically i'm not going to go track from track because you know if you're not drake nicky Travis like you know you really ain't going to get that type of uh review from me and i do think that 21 savage is um his album currently is in my top five of the year but i mean if you look at when this came out it's not they're hard you know what i'm saying

so anyways um american dream just give him an overview of it because i'm not going track for track I probably give my least favorites and my favorites, right? As a body of work, it's pretty solid. I would say it's solid, especially for a person like 21 who has a certain tone to where he doesn't really, it's not able to switch it up, I don't think, like at all. So even when he gets into his singing bag, like the one with Brent Fias, I would say it was the only track. What was that at?

What was the track with Brent Fires? Summer Walker. Did he not list Brent Fias as a credit? Or can I not read? I probably can't read. That's probably what it is. Oh, here it is. Should have wore a bonnet.

So that track is, and first I thought the track was pretty trash because the whole run it from it and how he was repeating it, I was like, that's just trash. But after listening to it, I was like, it's serviceable. Like, it went from trash to serviceable for me.

And that was the only, that was one of two tracks I skipped on this album to let you know how much I enjoyed it. Right? So the track with Yunt Thug, that should have just not been on an album. The only reason, and that's the one with the poop bar, I didn't even realize that when it first came out. Like, everybody on the internet, they was like, hey, that man said, uh, some, some, something,

something like it poop. I was like, I must have missed that one because I just wasn't, I don't really focus on 21 for the bars, but we're going to get to some in a second about him and his bars. But basically the poop bar, I did not notice it at all when I listened to it. because i heard it i was like this seems very low effort from 21 savage and young thug and so i skipped so that's probably by far in the way my my least favorite track off of this album and i don't know if he just put this on here to like support young thug because 21 savage comes across obviously we don't know him personally but from a public from a bird's eye view he comes across as a guy who will literally

put young thug in his album to make all the proceeds from this particular track go to whatever um um what's the what's a what's a whatever whatever the fees are for his uh lawsuit if that makes sense i don't know why i'm probably reaching but i just feel like he's that type of guy to put a young thug feature on his album solely to give him all the proceeds from that track to feed um whatever lawsuit he's going through or uh through or with his uh family so that's the only reason i think that that track is on this but honestly i think it's i think it's trash so uh with that being my favorite tracks is by far in the way dark days i like when artists get into the uh introspective bag and you're gonna if you're a follower of the podcast you already know i love artists that

give their life experiences through the music and give real dense messages with just information and dense i say that because i mean obviously a track can't be no longer than three to four minutes or they're going to say you're overdoing it so it has to be dense with information but not in the way that it just sounds preaching and And for Dark Days, I think 21 Savage nailed the balance of giving a certain message, but then also letting people know that it's still a replayable track. Like sometimes you give a pre-cheat type message, and now it's just lost all replayability because you can't really bump that in a whip when you're trying to turn up.

You know what I mean? So Dark Days was pretty fire, have a nice beat to go with it. I like how he used Mariah, the scientist, and the Jay-Z type of way. Like he was just giving the bars. And then for the chorus, he let Mariah take care of that, which, made it an even more phenomenal track. So that was the standout for me. That was my favorite track off of the album.

Number two, I'll probably say the track with Doja Cat simply for Doja. I know I'm kind of cheating with that one, but hey, Doja Cat went crazy. It's the reason why I had her on my top five rappers of 2023 list and she was top three because she's just one of the more talented rappers I've heard in the past probably two to three years. and I would say her vocal inflection is why because it's almost Little Wayne Kendrick-esque I say Nikki too they're probably the best at changing your vocal inflection

in a way that she's just leaps and bounds above everybody else because you know your voice is what you're born with but as far as vocal inflection in the way they change it I think obviously you can work on it but you know what your voice is in the way you're born with it only certain people could have that type of instrument

just come naturally from them i think doja cat's one of those where she's rapping in one tone rapping in another and then obviously drastically changing her vocal inflection to either emphasize a point or just uh whisper some like she had a whole like running ad lib throughout her verse basically saying ad lib and that type of stuff is like i'm not going to say it's mind-blowing but that type of stuff to pull that off i think it's uh attributes towards the vocal inflection because even if you say something whack is the way you say it that makes people resonate with it if that makes sense especially in hip-hop because it's so subjective that you just have to make people believe that what you say in this fire and for doja

cat she does a great job at rapping and giving double triple entendres and making it sound in a way uh that she's just a lyrical masterclass to where when she gets on this track and starts to literally do ad libs by saying asses. live we let it fly because we know what she's capable of as this same year she put out i think it was jesus a jesus i don't know it was a track with codec black off of um i don't forgot the movie already the book of clarence that movie basically she had a track of codec black and that till this honestly that's probably my favorite track of this year that i've heard um she went crazy on it codec went crazy but it's just another prime example of two artists who are lyrically gifted

it just given their um the all in the track and i think that was another great showing by dojicats so i had to um highlight that on this album as well and as far as my third favorite track off this album i mean i don't have to go a red rum i mean red rum um it's just straight fire i mean honestly i felt kind of slow i ain't on let's just i ain't gonna lie y'all let me tell you something when people was like when people were saying the phone fact on Twitter how red rum spell backwards was murder and everybody was in the comment section like man oh we're next you're gonna tell me the sky is blue or the grass is green and you know that was just so obvious right you know everybody was just in the comment section

talking about oh wow thank you for pointing at all i would have never figured it out and here I am I'm sitting down looking at my phone and I was flabbergast I was like wow that's that's what it oh that's huh that's crazy you know the whole time I'm thinking like red rum type of special drink where he's from you know a whole time i'm not putting in my mind that that it spells murder backwards right it's just it's uh as a as a law-abiding citizen i just don't think of things how to creatively rap about murder like that so when i heard it i was like dang red rum must be the fire drinking town that's crazy he's really tapped in whole time i was just out of the loop And it was one of my, I would say not so special, but if you really think about it, technically it was special because the way that I was just unaware of how it was murder spelled backwards.

So yeah, do with that what you will. But anyways, it's not going to be a deep dive into 21 Savage's album because at the end of the day, there's really nothing to deep dive into. I mean, if you heard it once, you've probably heard all the bars. like not to disrespect 21 savage but you know he's not really an interest like introspective rapper in that sense i mean that's why dark days is my favorite because i think that's where he got the closest to actually giving us like a lyrical uh performance um what else yeah that's that's probably it there was something else i wanted to touch on trying to find it oh the film okay so the film is coming out sometime this year i think

I don't know when it's actually coming out. I do know he's going on tour. Let me see if there's anything else. He's going on tour, and currently he has two tracks in the top 10 on Billboard. And, yeah, man, that's basically it. I guess 20th Savage lives to see another day when it comes to not putting out mediocrity.

So, unfortunately, because I was really ready to, you know, talk about how Drake's the only reason. But, you know, I can't really do that right now. now so got to be fair when it calls for it I guess even though hip hop is subjective so I could have still you know I mean but I didn't do it so anyways that's really all I have for the for the American Dream album not really too much of an in-depth review just overall coverage of sales and then my personal insight into the album and I mean insight just my personal review of the album so with that

being said click my link through my bio let me know one of my social media's What do you think about 21 Savage's album, American Dream, and what was your favorite track off of that album?