Sin City - Ski Mask The Slump God

Intro:

Ski Mask The Slump God has returned from his music hiatus with a new mixtape. The Florida native break into the music industry during the prime of the “Soundcloud” rap era in 2017; alongside his late friend/collaborate XXXTentacion. The rapper is known for his unique delivery, clever wordplay & vast amount of pop culture references. I’ve always enjoyed a majority of Ski’s catalogue, and right now seems like the perfect time for some new music from him

Strengths:

The incredible ability he has with flowing is still Ski’s greatest strength, yet it’s a lot more focused & controlled compared to his earlier work. He continues to find great pockets & can truly rap over any kind of instrumental (Ex: Metal Magneto). His delivery is very aggressive throughout the project, but he still gives us a beautiful singing moment on the track “Lost In Time”.

Most of the beats on Sin City feature a dark/brutal aesthetic. The BPM of each beat is usually fast & features trap drums with cool hi-hat rolls. The more acoustic beats sound very trippy & mystical (Ex: Metal Magneto & Lost In Time). Lyrically, he’s rapping excellently most times & putting his talent on display. As usual, there are lots of cool pop culture references & metaphors. On the song “Fire Hazard” he raps:

“And I call my wrist Klaus 'cause it's in a fishbowl” ~ Chorus

“And, like Lava Girl, that firearm what gon' protect us” ~ 2nd Verse

Weaknesses:

Despite the incredible rapping he does deliver on the mixtape, there are a couple of bad/forced lines as well. Before getting into that, I will also add that the vocal quality seems oddly low at times (although it could be intentionally mixed this way). The singing on the song “Ya!” is pretty bad compared to his other work.

Going back to the lyrical lows though, it seems like there are moments where he forces an unnecessary reference. The chorus of the song “Admit It” is pretty annoying & takes away from the track. Lastly, here are some specific lines to paint the picture:

“She thought I was from Houston 'cause everything is bigger in Texas” ~ Dr. Suess

“My dick is her cup of Joe, not talkin' 'bout Biden” ~ The Matrix

Overall:

I believe Ski Mask delivered a solid project to return with. It’s far from his best work, but I love how much more he’s worked on his rapping ability; despite him already being talented. If anything, Sin City is a good preview of what’s coming in the near future from Ski Mask The Slump God. I’m not sure if he has an album planned for release later in the year, but I’ll definitely be tuning in if he does end up dropping a full length album. Thank you all for reading and be sure to listen to the album yourself with the link below.