A Beautiful Me$$ is an alt hip-hop/R&B project from CEO SONIC that makes me feel like I’m listening to an album that looks like it already knows exactly what it wants to be, while the artist behind it still sounds like he’s still in the process of figuring that part out.
Don’t get me wrong - the packaging of the project is great. The cover art, the rollout, and the entire architecture surrounding the project feel very thought out. And that makes sense because the artist described wanting to turn a creative project into an entire production that could exist as its own separate world while holding himself “to the standard that I would hold my favorite artist to.” And visually, I get that.
Musically, though, I don’t think we’re completely there yet. I hear the confidence & someone telling us they work hard and believe in themselves - I’m just not hearing enough about what happened to make him believe those things in the first place.
Throughout the project, there are sports references, especially the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson, mixed in with smoking blunts & milds and that general confidence of someone who feels like they know where they’re going without really hearing about the actual trials & tribulations that created it.
If you’re telling me you work hard, tell me how. What happened? What did you have to push through? That storytelling is what I think is missing.
I think that’s partially why some of the confidence throughout the album feels premature. Obviously, you arguably need to be overly confident to make it as an artist, and you have to believe you’re the greatest thing ever before anybody else does, but there are moments here where it feels like he’s still politely rapping.
He generally knows what he wants to say and how he wants to present himself, but he’s still in the process of discovering what actually makes his voice his. Right now, the confidence is there before the style has completely caught up with it.
Production-wise, there are actually a lot of beats I like individually. My bigger issue comes when you listen to the album front to back. By around track seven, I started noticing how repetitive some of the chords were becoming. Not necessarily because any individual beat is bad, but because across an entire album, I want the production to keep giving me new environments & stories. Especially when the project's concept is literally about creating an entirely separate world. If we’re building a world, I want different rooms, different emotions, & different ways of someone telling me the overarching story. Instead, some of the chord choices and beats begin to blend together, making the project feel longer and more repetitive than it needs to be.
Which brings me back to the whole idea of pushing the envelope. The album presents itself like it’s doing that. The packaging says it, but I’m not sure if the actual music pushes it quite as far yet.
My favorites ended up being “Ode to da Bro$” and “Pu$h the Envelope,” and I think those are good places to start if you’re checking the project out for yourself.
Overall, there’s a finished project, an aesthetic, a mindset, good beats, and, clearly, an artist who takes what he’s creating seriously - I just want to hear the stories behind the perseverance instead of only being told that he persevered. I want the production to take more chances across the tracklist, and most importantly, I want to hear him get a little less polite where it makes sense.
3 song recs:
Fool For You - BAYNK
You Can Be Happy - IAMX
Samurai - Lupe Fiasco
What I listened to while writing this:
ONE OF ONE - CEO SONIC
BETTER DAY$ - CEO SONIC
Fine Whine - A$AP Rocky
BOY IN RED - Isaiah Rashad
93’Til Infinity - Souls Of Mischief
If you want to hear what I’ve been listening to lately, I make a new playlist every month with songs I’ve been finding & enjoying.
Listen to this month’s playlist: tristonscales.co/playlists
And if you’re an artist & want me to possibly yap about your music next, you can submit your music through my site!! I’m always looking for new stuff to listen to :D
Submit your music: tristonscales.co/submit-music