BLUE LIPS
Blue Lips released March 1, 2024
Blue Lips was released Friday, March 1, 2024. Now a year later, it still serves as ScHoolboy Q’s best album to date.
This album introduces a new side of Q that focuses on lyricism and musicality which is something a little foreign to himself. You can tell that Q is at a point in his career where he cares less about the masses and wants to make the music he enjoys as well as trying new things. This is something artists don’t tap into until they are more tenured into their careers. One would think it’s time - Blue Lips is Q’s sixth studio album and he’s been in the music business for 17 years.
Funny Guy starts the album off and it feels good. You get lost in the repetition of the song and this is how it became one of my favorite intros ever made. Repetition is a part of music that a lot of artists either stay away from or will embrace. Repetition is also used in Gospel music and it’s meant to place emphasis on what is being said or what isn’t being said. If you know what you’re doing, this is a great way to just let the track breathe and next thing you know you’re hitting the replay button.
Pop comes in hard and loud featuring rapper Rico Nasty. I was thoroughly pleased to see her being featured on this album and she fits so well on the track.
THank god 4 me at ScHoolboy Q’s Blue Lips tour - Atlanta stop.
THank god 4 me… oh my God. I think the consensus is, this is everyone’s favorite song off this album. You think you’re getting the song one way then the beat switches. Also, the song is an affirmation. Thank God for ME. I’m that guy basically and who doesn’t want to feel this way? The beat switch is respectable - nothing outrageous or harsh on the ear. It is a simple back-track allowing you to appreciate Q’s ad-libs in time to switch back to the intro beat.
“If I go out right now, I’m fine. If I die right now, I’m fine. Where the mirror at hoe? I’m fine.”
“Blueslides, I been sliding through ya whole shit. Presidential Rollies I took big risks. We split the profit with the people we be all lit. Top ten, not ten, bitch, we all in.” Another track from Q that he allows to let me music breathe a bit which allows the listener to focus on his lyricism. Listening to this track you’d think it was a sample but it’s not. Singer Lauren Santi recorded her vocals and stated Q wanted “classy jazz over keys”.
Yeern 101 was ScHoolboy’s single from this album and I remember being so excited to hear this. One, because it was his first album in about 5 years and two, the snippets sounded so GOOD. Once again, keeping the track simple with a beat switch making the content easy to digest. Now that I think back on it, it was a perfect intro to what the album could sound like.
Q walking to Movie. Q is a 52 Hoover Crip.
Love Birds is a smooth over track and it sets the tone for the next half of the album. Bringing us to the feel good track Movie with Az Chike (who is having an incredible year after being featured on Kendrick Lamar’s hit song Peekabook from his GNX album). And the realization track Cooties.
oHio features one of the best rappers alive, Freddie Gibbs. It boasts a feel good jazz segment at the beginning of the track with three beat switches with the third beat switch giving way to make room for Freddie Gibbs. This instrumental is much more Freddie’s groove and you can tell because he fits so well over the music. “Turn me up then bitch. Ran it up then bitch. Hella hoes like Rick… James. Niggas coming for the crown, crown, crown. Time to shut shit down.”
Foux gives Ab-Soul his shine and you start to miss hearing all of the guys on the same songs and just making music together. It was nice to hear Soul on this album and it was a great way to warm up to his album that released later that year (album of the year contender).
First, Nunu, and Back n Love are all ego-driven tracks with odes to his old and new music. Being the first to have a specific sound, boasting about his new music all while falling back in love with the process.
“I feel blessed, had the bread stash. I woke up feelin saucy, blew the whole bag. Get your hood maxed. Two kids, same baby mama, all Black.” Lost Times is just Q celebrating his wins. Surviving a life full of drugs and alcohol, Q takes a moment to talk about all the things that he has endured before and during his rap career (“The first Hoover that flied, I”) and how some people tend to want handouts instead of working hard.
Germany ‘86 is a tribute to Q’s mom who was in the military. She became a single mother and took care of them the best she could. Also, Q was born in 1986 in Germany where his father was stationed. It seems Q does hold something against the government because he states they gave his mother no help even though she was a veteran and served this country highlighting this could be the beginning of his distrust for the government.
Time killers is a personal fave because once again it is highlighting Q’s lyricism in 2 minutes and 36 seconds. “Raised by all women and still I never caved took it three times, extended from greatness, I display. Home of the brave, ran by the slaves. Stole everybody name so white Jesus on the chain. I feel proud when it hangs.”
ScHoolboy Q performs CrasH from the CrasH Talk album.
Pig feet reminds me of a classic ScHoolboy Q track. Reminiscent of his sound on the CrasH Talk album, it’s a full bodied, banging song. It made me smile the first time hearing it because I thought of where I was when I heard CrasH Talk (2019 if you need a reminder).
Smile is this album’s closer and it is just that, a closer. I didn’t think too much of this song and would have been fine with Pig feet ending the album. But I do believe Smile brings you back to the musicality of this album which I believe was the goal for this body of work.
Spend some time listening to this 56 minute album - it will go by quicker than you think!
And check out two amazing interviews ScHoolboy Q did for this album, one with Apple Music’s Nadeska and the other ScHoolboy Q x Elsie: A Conversation. This is a rare occurrence so enjoy hearing his perspective on this album.
