Don Tolliver turns the hip-hop game upside down with his debut album “Heaven Or Hell.”

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TOP 5

5. EUPHORIA

“Euphoria” is clearly one of the standouts from Heaven or Hell. With the track featuring cloudy production, over it, you get nothing but fearless crooning by Don Tolliver and featured guests Travis Scott & Kaash Paige. As for lyrically, each person does their best to hypnotize you quicker than an old white man with a watch that moves from left to right with their words.

4. CARDIGAN

“Cardigan” is going to get some serious club burn. With the track featuring an instrumental that is smooth but also hard-hitting, over it, Don Tolliver hits us with a vocal performance that is infectious, catchy, and extremely soulful. He also hits us with lyrics that are on both some Captain-Save-A-Girl and braggadocios s**t.

Hey, I’m the dude that made cardigans popular, Tolliver! Give me my props when you mention that s**t in your music!

3. AFTER PARTY

“After Party” is definitely the toughest track on Heaven Or Hell (And it ain’t even all that tough of a song).

With “After Party” featuring an instrumental that straddles the line between foggy and trill, Don Tolliver lets loose, singing bluntly about pulling up to after parties and sipping on liquor with bad b*tches. What I love most about the track is that Don leaves his soulful singing by the wayside on it, opting to take more of a grittier approach throughout.

At the age I’m at right now, for me, the after-party is where my bed is at. (And the only people invited to my after-party is bread crumbs and television remotes that have their asses out)

2. NO IDEA

I love “No Idea,” despite the fact that, at times, it sounds like Don Tolliver is being touched in the ass while he’s singing on it. Nonetheless, I like the song’s wily lyrics (Throughout the song, Don talks about getting nastier than a Taylor Gourmet sandwich with women), its infectious hook, and its reliance on springiness.

1. HAD ENOUGH

“Had Enough” is a standout track on JACKBOYS, and it is also a standout track on Heaven or Hell.

I f**k with the sly-ass trap beat that powers “Had Enough.” I also f**k with the soulful contributions you get from Don Toliver, the tongue-twisting verse you get from Offset, and the intoxicating vocals you get from Quavo in the song. What I don’t f**k with is how everyone involved in the song thinks they are the greatest thing to happen to women since the 19th amendment.

If you weren’t tired of Migos, can you imagine how dope this song would sound to you?

SONG BY SONG BREAKDOWN

1. HEAVEN OR HELL INTRO (4/5)

2. EUPHORIA (4.5/5)

3. CARDIGAN (4.5/5)

4. AFTER PARTY (4/5)

5. WASTED (3.5/5)

6. CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS (4/5)

7. CANDY (3/5)

8. COMPANY (3.5/5)

9. HAD ENOUGH (4.5/5)

10. SPACESHIP (3.5/5)

11. NO PHOTOS (3.5/5)

12. NO IDEA (4/5)

OVERALL RATING

(B-)

I’m not going to lie, I thought too many people crowned Don Tolliver as the next great thing way too soon. Yes, he is different from the artists you are used to listening to, but to me, I didn’t think he was quite better than what you were used to listening to. I have changed my tune on Don after the release of Heaven Or Hell.

You know what I find very interesting about Don Tolliver? He sounds like a rapper that legitimately thinks he can sing. Throughout Heaven Or Hell, he hits listeners with vocal performances that are daring, melodious, harmonious, The Weeknd-Esque, and wide-ranging. At the end of the day, does Don come across like the second coming of Mariah Carey on the album? Not quite, but he does show the world what being in a serious singing zone can sound like.

Speaking of being in a zone, lyrically, I feel like Don Tolliver is beyond zoney in Heaven Or Hell (Yes, Zoney is actually a term hood rats use). Throughout the album, the 25-year-old talks about the same s**t that every other rapper in the game talks about, but he does it in a way that is a lot less straightforward and a lot more eerie, ghostly, Dateline-Esque, molesty, spine-chilling, unconventional. Matter of fact, it almost sounds like he’s trying to invent ways to be meticulously reckless on the album.

When it’s all said and done, Heaven Or Hell is a body-of-work that is peculiar, but also a lot of fun to listen to. You can hear Travis Scott’s influence on the album quite a bit, but you can also hear how Don tried to find brand new ways to push hip-hop’s melodic world to measures we’ve never seen before.

Quincy

Quincy is the creator of Ratings Game Music. He loves writing about music, taking long walks on beaches, and spaghetti that fights him back.