"Announced just a few days prior to its release, 21 Savage's new album, What Happened to the Streets, documents the subtle maturation of an unblinking Atlanta rapper whose deadpanned threats are a prickly veneer around a grief-stricken survivor mentality. Tracks like the somber "Big Stepper" delve into the pain under the pomp, detailing struggles animating the put-downs we expect to encounter in this work."
"It's the lesser of the Drake jams using the naming convention, a lankly little brother to Savage Mode II's yearning "Mr. Right Now" and Mary J. Blige's maudlin My Life II "Mr. Wrong." Like their collaborative 2022 album, Her Loss, the latest from the Toronto/Atlanta duo bets the farm on the odd-couple pairing of a guy deeply scarred by gun violence and a guy who once played one on TV."
"A single line of gun talk in Drake's "Recoup" rhymes feels like playing to the room, just passing the mic to someone with much more to say on the subject. There's an emotional canyon separating Drake's "They can't find the shooter, bitch, 'cause it's us" and the Savage verse that picks up after it: "Niggas shot my brother, now I don't know who to trust." One minute, gunplay is a tool in an arsenal of bluster and the next, it's a decision holding mortal consequences."
What Happened to the Streets captures 21 Savage's subtle maturation, where deadpanned threats act as a prickly veneer over a grief-stricken survivor mentality. Somber tracks like "Big Stepper" reveal the pain beneath bravado and the struggles that animate his put-downs. Drake appears on the skeletal "Mr Recoup," continuing an odd-couple pairing that contrasts a man deeply scarred by gun violence with a performer who often adopts swagger. The two rappers share a quirky creative chemistry likened to an anime protagonist and giant robot. Gun talk shifts between bluster and literal mortal consequence, and Savage's jokes about menacing opps tacitly acknowledge real risk.
Read at Vulture
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