Trinidad James has burst into the hip hop scene with his smash hit “All Gold Everything” and the very interesting viral music video. The track is packaged in his debut mixtape, Don’t Be S.A.F.E, released in mid October. Since then, James has continued to capture headlines after signing to the record label powerhouse, Def Jam Records. Trinidad James’ mantra is to live life care free and to not take things too seriously. This is reinforced by the acronym in the mixtape title, which stands for “Sensitive as Fuck Everyday.” Ironically, listening to the mixtape can have quite the opposite effect on the listener as it is likely to cause stress, anxiety and frustration for hip hop fans.
Trinidad James literally uses the same exact rhyme scheme for close to the entire 10 tracks on his mixtape. This is combined with lyrics that are as about as shallow as a blonde, blue-eyed girl born and raised in Beverly Hills. I understand that you should never listen to Trinidad James for his lyrics, but for the overall “feeling” of his music, however, this is also completely lacking. The production sounds like it was thrown together by one of his boys who just discovered FL Studio a month or two ago. The beats are generally a collection of monotonous drum kit rhythms combined with a cheap, head splitting synth loop. On top of it all, Trinidad James has revealed in an interview on Hot 97 with Peter Rosenburg that he has not even been rapping for over one full year.
If there is anything positive to comment about the project, it would be that Trinidad James is definitely capable of creating a catchy hook like on “Tonk for the Money.” Listeners might also appreciate the tape’s short length as it fails to breach the 30 minute mark. Lastly, James can be credited for his playful references to the gamer culture as he points out the similarity of the instrumental for “All Gold Everything: to the soundtrack of Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, and naming another track “Madden on GameCube.”
It is a complete travesty that a rapper like Trinidad James can drop a horrendous collection of work on the internet and immediately receive so much attention, while there are artists out there that have dedicated years of their lives to master the craft. He has immediately inked a deal with a major record label in combination with a hefty signing bonus, and this is all because Def Jam knows there is lots of money to be made from Trinidad James. Call me a hater, I could not care less, but all I know is we need to demand more from artists.
Lou-C-Ferr: stop being a dick and shitting all over everybody’s good time
Just because the review wasn’t exactly to your liking doesn’t make it any less of a legitimate review. it’s his personal (be it professional, or developing-professional) opinion. It was done critically and went beyond the music and analyzed the social context in which it came from. I’d prefer a review that considers those things, rather than ignoring them as if they have no effect on the listener. The fact that you immediately tear somebody down because they thought of a concept outside of your very narrow scope of what constitutes a review is arguably more disturbing than Trinidad James’ mixtape.
All reviews are going to be written with bias. Take a second to look at your own “review” of Shane’s work. It is littered with bias, unprofessionalism and contradictions. You challenge the legitimacy of Shane’s piece ( a personal review, btw) because of the bias it holds and yet you relentlessly back up your argument with comments epitomizing the very incompetence you accuse Shane of.
If you’re going to call somebody out for being littered with bias and nonsense, silly, childish, incompetent, bitter, lacking in decency and professionalism, and without control, eloquence and integrity, don’t include criticisms like “Jesus Christ, sir. You need a book on criticism thrown at your face before you ever touch a keyboard ever again”… you sir, are the figurative tick on the nut sack of society
Shane — Incredible review; i agree that rappers like Trinidad James distract from truly talented artists and it’s a damn shame
Lou’s problem, and I as well, with this review was that it focused SOLELY on the cultural aspect of the review from a VERY narrow spectrum, i.e. the author’s bias, preconceived notions about the one-hit wonder phenomenon in Hip-Hop. Many people who opted for intellectual laziness, and who haven’t actually listened to this album in the first place, may well agree with the author’s style of reviewing and his views but that doesn’t mean the review is a balanced, carefully-crafted critique that serves as anything more than another shallow potshot at guys like Trinidad James.
If the author backed up his opinions with evidence from the music itself and critical analysis than just saying the music sucked then Lou, and anyone else who values well-written reviews, would be less likely to be deprecating towards this article. Otherwise, like I’ve already said, this review is lacking and the author’s knee-jerk reaction to anyone who legitimately finds fault in his reviews is even more discouraging.
Lou C. Ferr Shane, you are absolutely correct. This album/mixtape review is abysmal. The critic does not actually critique the body of work of the artist but instead attacks the artist. lol.
Ignore Lou C. Ferr Shane. Don’t listen to him.
This was a very abysmal project. I’m pretty sure that if I was intoxicated, in the arctic tundra, being chased by ravenous east Africans, and loosing all feeling in my right hand I could have made a better mixtape.
“Pop a molly I’m sweating – woo!!”
Genius! lol
hey if you think you can make a better mixtape you should just go and do it instead of talking shit on someone more famous than you. I’m not saying Trinidad James is a great lyricist but its not gonna help anyone to complain about how bad he is
Lou C. Ferr, review the album then, please sir. As far as I’m concerned, everything I’ve heard, was summed up in the above review. He may not have covered the ALBUM, as much as to your liking, but if one is perceptive enough: reading the review that tackled the artist more so, seeing just that one photo, possibly hearing ONE song, and seeing the ONE video; the thoughts gathered from folks familiar with James and the folks who see/hear him for the first time, would PROBABLY be similar. It just reassured me, that Trinidad James, is straight garbage.
Probably the worst album i have heard all year.
This is a horrible interview, littered with bias and complete nonsense. Jesus Christ, sir. You need a book on criticism thrown at your face before you ever touch a keyboard ever again. Seriously, You had nothing to actually say about the body of work. You wrote four paragraphs not about the music but more about the artist rather than the subject at hand, the music. It’s silly,childish and shows your incompetence as a critic. You even took a moment to vent about how you don’t like the recent success and exposure Trinidad James has garnered compared to other rappers, sounding very I hate to say it *Gulp* bitter. Have some decency and professionalism, damn! Write with Control, Eloquence,and Integrity! Remember it’s about THE MUSIC. Maybe you can write a BETTER review next time.
Honestly, I am interested in knowing your critique on this piece of what…Honestly
…..No, no I think he was pretty much spot on. This review couldn’t have been written any better than what is here.
You are absolutely correct. This review is littered with bias and baseless assumptions and comes off as someone who already had their mind set on labeling this album garbage even before he listened to it.
Anyone who defends the review on this basis and says you are wrong are taking it too personally and not taking into account the objective reasoning behind a review as well as the subjective.
Lou C. Ferr … Lou-C-Ferr … Lucifer? Gotta love internet trolls!
You definitely spoke the truth Shane!