Chance The Rapper & Jeremih – Merry Christmas Lil Mama: The Gift That Keeps Giving (Album Review)
Chance The Rapper and Jeremih release an updated version of their “Merry Christmas Lil Mama” project.
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TOP 5
5. THE RETURN
Have you ever heard of Christmas raps? Well, on “The Return,” that is what you get. Throughout the song, Chance The Rapper spits bars about being a smile-bringer, a gift-giver, and an Amazon-abuser.
Chance The Rapper does no experimenting on “The Return;” instead, he hits us with a simple flow and simple punchlines.
4. HELD IT DOWN
Chance The Rapper gifts us with humorous lyrics, wacky flows, and a hook that is somewhat heartwarming on “Held It Down.”
Jeremih isn’t on “Held It Down” (That’s a good thing because I don’t think that he would’ve fit the song).
3. SNOWED IN
“Snowed In” is a very cozy song. In it, Jeremih and Chance The Rapper sing and rap gently about looking forward to being snowed in with big booty chicks.
“Snowed In” makes me want to drink cocoa and watch infomercials.
2. ALL THE WAY
Jeremih and Chance sound like big kids on “All The Way.” While the former hits us with petty Christmas-inspired lyrics, the latter mainly hits us with entertaining adlibs.
Eventually, “All The Way” gets a little serious, as, Jeremih hits us with pretty decent vocals towards the middle of the song. The production also gets a little more serious, as, the emergence of a dramatic violin gives the song more of a spiritual feel. Things do get goofy again towards the end, as, Hannibal Burress closes the song out with a hilarious skit. (What a f**kin rollercoaster ride this song is)
1. I SHOULDA LEFT
Chance The Rapper is as free as he’s ever been on “I Shoulda Left.” Matter of fact, he sounds like a dude that is jumping on his mother’s bed because he found out that his ex caught mono on the song.
Lud Foe puts up a very good verse on “I Shoulda Left.” I will say this, though: he needs to watch mixing lyrics about the LORD with lyrics about some reckless s**t.
“I Shoulda Left” is definitely Chance’s song; he just kicks it out to Jeremih for corner three-pointers every once in a while.
I’m all for leaving useless people in 2016 (Including Soulja boy)!
SONG BY SONG BREAKDOWN
11. ARE U LIVE (5/5)
12. WHO’S TO SAY (4/5)
OVERALL RATING
(B)
I was pretty skeptical about how quality this project would be. Much to my surprise, it sounds like a well-structured body-of-work!
I like the songs on this project that sound original more than the ones that try to flip old school Christmas tunes. (Folks, no one today is going to sing your favorite Christmas songs better than the folks that made them)
While I think that this project is split pretty evenly, Chance stands out the most on it, to me. His lighthearted approach to the project embodies what Christmas is all about. Jeremih is not bad on the project, he just sounds a little generic on it.
If you don’t f**k with this project, you are evil!
Quincy is the creator of Ratings Game Music. He loves writing about music, taking long walks on beaches, and spaghetti that fights him back.