If Yonkers is your benchmark it’s likely you’ll be disappointed with the rest of Goblin, an overly indulgent record, lyrically mediocre, at times sloppy, and sonically cacophonous without the simple funk and supporting visuals that served as redeeming factors in the much gabbed about, several times over, platinum-youtube hit. But hey now, if you’ve been tracking the progress of the kid since Bastard you’ll likely find as much to appreciate here as you did back then. There are moments of outstanding creativity like when Frank Ocean manages to ride the hell out of some electronically awkward sounds and somehow add a sense of cohesiveness and uplift to a point where you almost wanna say, “smooooth, you’s a smooth motherlover Frank”. We also have Tyler’s ability to communicate the new rebellion, that new-new perspective. Yeah he has knowledge gaps (who’s Gza and why should I respond to his email?), yeah he accepts that he’s not a gifted technical rapper (as he admits in the intro), but, and this is a big, significant BUT, who gives a shit? Can I live?

Not to reconjure tired conversations but after listening to this a few times I am more convinced the irreligious trip-6 crew’s online crowdsurf to popularity had as much to do with providing a means for segments of youth to embrace their broken ties with popularized aspects of hip-hop music (aka culture) as it did with a sense of unorthodoxy that is fun to write about. Personality driven, maybe to the point of overshadowing the music, the record functions more as a statement of departure from norms (hip-hop norms especially) than a new sonic movement. What you consume with this record is a youthful, modern sense of rebellion. A rebellion that flips Prodigy’s “I’m only nineteen but my mind is old” to “I never want to grow up“, but if I did, I wouldn’t be a Toys’R Us Kid, and I’ll wait ’til I’m 30 or so. Oh, and this version of Tron is much better than the one that leaked. Stand out tracks: Intro, Yonkers, She.