New Track: In '5200' Schoolboy Q Is Less And More Threatening Than You Think
Tristan Young @talltristan
After pushing it back about half a year, Schoolboy Q’s new album CrasH Talk is Here. While a consensus hasn’t really centered around which tracks are the best just yet, ‘5200’ is surely a contender, and not just because it’s got Kendrick on back up vocals. The track creates an interesting tension by mixing threatening lyrics with hints of ironic parody. Q’s authoritative tone and pace is appropriately intimidating. His chorus is rallying and and effectively applies pressure. Yet his murderous tendencies, “I been counting dead men, putting bodies in the safe”, is probably just an allusion to counting money. In other words he’s showboating. Couple this with production by Sounwave and !IImind that seems oddly focused on chirping wind instruments, and the whole thing starts to sound just a touch comical. Deeper into the song more perilous sound waves make themselves known. Emergent and ghostly sequences with a grim and suffocating weight creeps upon the rhythm and it sounds pretty great. This coincides with his verses focusing on a more consequential sense of finality. Lines like “my block been Iraq, three mil paid my tax”, are several shades darker than what was in the proceeding verses. That the track dabbles in the idea of trolling makes its foreboding demeanour towards the end all the more severe. Whether or not ‘5200’ is the true highlight of CrasH Talk remains to be seen, but for now it’s got our attention.