Steve 'Flash' JuonThere is more than one version of “Holy Grails” out there. I’ve seen it on Apple Music and other streaming platforms with a “+++” next to it and five additional tracks. I’m letting you know that for informational purposes, but I’m also letting you know the second result from the top of my Google search was a Reddit thread calling it “greatly disappointing” and “one of the worst mixed albums I’ve heard in a long time.” As such I decided to proceed with caution and not purposefully subject myself to additional tracks if the pain of doing so was unnecessary.
“bye” gives me a hint as to what the complaints were about. I’ve got 40 years of rap albums under my belt as a listener now, so to say this song is an example of the “worst mixed” thing ever would be a lie. The producer definitely needed to run this one through a second time though. The bass hits are blown out in an unpleasing way, and the melodic delivery of Kayo is a bit lost in his instrumental. Not terrible. Could have been better. The opener “rockstar” is more solid. It starts out with an intriguing sound like a wolf howling in the woods, and then Kayo starts spitting like Marshall Mathers just ran a 400 yard dash. Try to un-hear it after you read that. You can’t.
One source that came up in my search described Yung Kayo’s flow as “eccentric.” True. He leans a little more toward drill style bars with pitch correction on tracks like “robin hood,” then goes for rapid fire singing that feels like Georgia or Florida on “All In.” I suppose it’s also eccentric that he switches from titling most of his songs entirely in lowercase to suddenly capitalizing words, but that’s less noticeable than the way he changes up his performances. He’s a chameleonic performer.
TBH I think the Red-heads got me fucked up here. “Holy Grails” may have some faults in terms of production, but what standards are they going by? Talk to me when you cover 200 albums a year and you hear some genuinely SLOPPY SUBPAR production. People who can’t loop beats properly. People who use the same drum track on every song without changing it. Self-produced rappers who don’t even make their own performances audible, and/or they use a headset mic you wouldn’t even play Call of Duty with. There might be some problems here but none of them rise to that level of shitty annoyance. The worst thing I can say about Yung Kayo is he’s okay-oh. Nothing he does here reinvents the wheel. It’s a basic level of competence for 16 tracks that neither exceeds expectations nor lowers them. He’s in a groove even if occasionally some of the audio levels aren’t.