REVIEW: Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron

Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction , For Hoover Street ex resident  Quincy Hanley AKA Schoolboy Q this term represents all past criminal and gang member activities that occurred in his past in which he was apart of in order to help provide for his four year old daughter where at the beginning may have seen as if he was doing good to support his child but in all reality was just mere excuses and that is the life contradiction Quincy came to perspective with, that is his Oxymoron and it tells you the tales of these contradictions throughout the entire album with an eclectic soundtrack of grooves to keep you attentive to his life stories so you may also leave with a perspective of your own.

                         

West Coast Gangsta Rap has been prominent over the decades in Hip Hop from the likes Of NWA to Snoop Dogg to The Game and many others but for the past few years this very enticing and arrogant nature of LA Hip Hop has been on a back burner in the mainstream where the new generation of Gangster Rap has only been prospering underground but it seems Schoolboy Q has found The recipe and with Oxymoron listens will get a heavy dose of what this generation of Gangsta Rap sounds like as this was Q’s main objective throughout the entire project from the stories of his grandmother showing him his first gun to the well known “Yak Yak!” ab libs he so frequently uses to his whole demeanour on each record, he embodies the Gangsta imagery from his bouncy flow to the wordplay and gun lingo punch lines, you will most definitely be glued to every record on this album.

Oxymoron is very diverse as it relates to Q’s personality traits from him being the having fun party guy so you’ll find tracks like “Collard Greens”, “Hell Of a Night “, ” What They Want” and “Man Of the Year”  to be instant bangers if u like this particular content Schoolboy Q brings to the table and if your more into the insightful, street conscious Q then tracks like “Blind Threats” (Which is a personal favorite of mine)  will more than suit you, another stand out record was “Hoover Street” where Quincy gives you a audio visual of the day by day situations that occurs in his neighbourhood in which the double beat was composed by In house TDE producer sounwave  , also  the record “Prescription” was a very dark and somewhat depressing track in which Q’s reveals to us his life struggles and addiction to the same vices he sells to his cliental.

The features for this album was very different and at the same time very minimal from the likes of Tyler The Creator who produced The Purge, LA OG Kurupt, Sugar Free , TDE members SZA, Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock, 2 Chainz and others.  Now many have debated if this album would put Schoolboy Q as the Top Dawg in TDE and take Kendrick off the throne, now for me personally Oxymoron may not be as conceptually built and in depth as Kendrick’s Good KID Maad City But Both albums were constructed and produced in high quality what I can say is that with the preparation leading to this album Q has risen out the darkest as K dot’s long time Hype man and made his own name, built his own core fan base and now has his own legacy to fulfil as an artist so I hope to see what is in store for him and the rest of the TDE collective as the years go by but hey that’s just my outlook on the project.