Yelawolf - Radioactive (Official Review)

Yelawolf  Radioactive Review
By: Kev Katz

Upon embarking on the journey into the darkest corners of Yelawolf’s imagination, it’s made obvious that at once he’s capable of melding slow, primal rhythms with a grinding and never-ending barrage of vivid and aggressive lyrics. He demonstrates his technical proficiency throughout the album. Radioactive is imbued with complex rhyme schemes, coupled with simple (and sometimes cheesy) hooks. The lack of any strong chorus is somewhat offset by the sheer number of pleasant features on most of the tracks. In fact, other than the Intro and Outro, only three songs lack a featured artist; two of which, “Everything I Love The Most” and “Radio” are the weakest songs the album has to offer. However, the issues with album aren’t issues with Yelawolf at all. He holds his own when it comes to dark, twisted, and often-funny rap – his subject matter combined with his technical prowess even challenges the likes of Tyler and Earl. Though as a whole, it falls into the same problem that much of contemporary popular hip-hop does: it tries to cater to too large of an audience. Don’t get me wrong, of course I have faith in Em’s ability to produce a hot album, but I have a growing suspicion that they spread themselves too thin with this one. By trying to bridge the gap between a concept album and a bumpable “pop-hop” album, they’ve compromised the quality of the bars with the same overused-feeling hooks we’ve been hearing for years.

The album starts off strong. We are introduced to the record by the collective buzz of white-noise and a distorted military announcement, ushering us into a dystopian world. “Get Away,” describes a hard reality of trailer parks, guns, drinking and smoking. Possibly the best hook on the album, Yelawolf finishes it, “Cause if I don’t get away, you’ll see my trailer park getaway, fear you’re gon’ have to get away from me.” Backed up by verses from Shawty Fatt and Mystikal, Yelawolf’s first actual song on the album is expectedly strong. There’s no doubt that he goes hard on this track and others that follow. Both “Let’s Roll,” which features Kid Rock and “Hard White,” which features Lil’ John however, begin to exemplify the problem with the album overall. Both feature good verses from Yelawolf and strong support from celebrity features, but it seems as if this is as far as they went. Though maybe catchy, and at times thoroughly bumpable, the songs lack something; they lack the cohesion present in truly great songs. When it comes down to it, many of the songs just seem to be Yelawolf verses strung together by what they thought people wanted to hear.
However, of the rest of the songs, three more stand out. “Made In The USA” and “The Hardest Love Song In The World” are great examples of songs on this album that lack certain elements. “Made in the USA” makes a great point about American patriotism and Yelawolf’s verses are great, but the chorus is just annoying. Similarly, the beat used for “The Greatest Love Song…” is amazing, but the hook simply draws away from the verses and instrumentation because it tries too hard. Lastly, “Throw It Up” may be the best song on the album. Featuring Gangsta Boo and Eminem, this song really shows how well they can produce and execute a song that has both a catchy hook and complex lyrics. In addition, Eminem puts only one verse in the entire album, despite his behind-the-scenes influence, but he puts all of his effort into it. He abandons the constant yelling of his new style, but still remains angry, reminiscent of “Despicable” or any song on Hell The Sequel EP. However, it’s a great verse and I’d like to see more verses of this caliber from Shady in the future.
Overall, the album is a good attempt for a first label record. Though as I mention repeatedly above, many songs try too hard to appeal to as many audiences as possible. For the next album, he should pick his niche and stick with it. Otherwise, he might make the same mistake again by wasting his verses with sappy hooks.

By: Kev Katz

Verses: 8/10
Beats: 7/10
Hooks: 5/10
Bumpability: 7.5/10
Overall: 7/10

Baz's Notes: Yelawolf delivers real hip-hop, and has some real dope beats on his first studio LP. Some weak hooks, but the overall lyrics and verses are dope, leaving us with a very good start to the Shady 2.0 artist's career. 

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Artist Label: Yelawolf