KAYTRANADA - Bubba ALBUM REVIEW
This review was not influenced by the classic Tom Hanks film Forrest Gump.
The Grammy Awards were this past weekend, and being in the music ‘journalism’ world, I watched the whole 3.75-hour telecast, and it was mildly entertaining. During the pre-show, most of the awards were announced, and Canadian producer KAYTRANADA swept the Dance/Electronic category with this album, Bubba, and one of its singles with Kali Uchis, “10%.” I have to be totally honest, I thought I reviewed this project. So, because of that, I decided to pick this out as one of the albums I reviewed in the written medium this week. Enough chit-chat, let’s talk about it.
Hip-hop and R&B are some of my favorite genres of music, pop and sometimes electronic music coming in as close seconds. I grew up on pop and electronic music, and hip-hop and R&B music really shaped my palette for music and taught me to expand my tastes. When one or more of these genres combine, particularly hip-hop and electronic music, the ones that are great are GREAT. “Never Catch Me” by Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar and “Yeah Right” by Vince Staples and, uh, Kendrick Lamar again, are prime examples of this. KAYTRANADA combines all of the aforementioned genres into one album: Bubba. Artists like SiR, Mick Jenkins, the previously-mentioned Kali Uchis, Masego, GoldLink, and Pharrell Williams, among others, are all featured on this fusion of an album. All of these features deliver on this project, and that’s not an exaggeration. Every. Single. One.
I didn’t realize this when Bubba first released in December 2019, but damn, look at where music has come to in the past decade. Hell, we got Teenage Dream by Katy Perry in 2010. We also got My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, The Suburbs, Plastic Beach, Cosmogramma, Speak Now, and Innerspeak. I’m missing a lot, but hey, those are a lot of great albums that were released at the dawn of the 2010s. The weekend that Bubba released also saw the release of Fine Line from Harry Styles and Heavy is the Head from Stormzy. I know that I’m not talking much about KAYTRANADA, but look at how far music has come in the last decade. Hell, on January 1, 2010, Kesha (or Ke$ha, at the time) released her debut album. Now, on the final big release weekend of 2019, the closing of a revolutionary decade for music, KAYTRANADA dropped one of the most eclectic albums of that year.
KAYTRANADA has always been a creative force in music, Grammy or not. Bubba is a prime example of one of the best producers in the music industry doing what he does best: make music. Each track has an infectious groove that will be with you days after hearing it. The production on here is fantastic, the guest vocalists give it their all, and honestly, if you look back on how music has changed throughout the 2010s, Bubba is a culmination of that. Now, before you look below and see the score, I’ve thought about this for a while. I tend to give out 10s often. Not that that’s a bad thing, but a 10 in my mind is something that really stands out and is a 100% recommended listen.
10/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
The Grammy Awards were this past weekend, and being in the music ‘journalism’ world, I watched the whole 3.75-hour telecast, and it was mildly entertaining. During the pre-show, most of the awards were announced, and Canadian producer KAYTRANADA swept the Dance/Electronic category with this album, Bubba, and one of its singles with Kali Uchis, “10%.” I have to be totally honest, I thought I reviewed this project. So, because of that, I decided to pick this out as one of the albums I reviewed in the written medium this week. Enough chit-chat, let’s talk about it.
Hip-hop and R&B are some of my favorite genres of music, pop and sometimes electronic music coming in as close seconds. I grew up on pop and electronic music, and hip-hop and R&B music really shaped my palette for music and taught me to expand my tastes. When one or more of these genres combine, particularly hip-hop and electronic music, the ones that are great are GREAT. “Never Catch Me” by Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar and “Yeah Right” by Vince Staples and, uh, Kendrick Lamar again, are prime examples of this. KAYTRANADA combines all of the aforementioned genres into one album: Bubba. Artists like SiR, Mick Jenkins, the previously-mentioned Kali Uchis, Masego, GoldLink, and Pharrell Williams, among others, are all featured on this fusion of an album. All of these features deliver on this project, and that’s not an exaggeration. Every. Single. One.
I didn’t realize this when Bubba first released in December 2019, but damn, look at where music has come to in the past decade. Hell, we got Teenage Dream by Katy Perry in 2010. We also got My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, The Suburbs, Plastic Beach, Cosmogramma, Speak Now, and Innerspeak. I’m missing a lot, but hey, those are a lot of great albums that were released at the dawn of the 2010s. The weekend that Bubba released also saw the release of Fine Line from Harry Styles and Heavy is the Head from Stormzy. I know that I’m not talking much about KAYTRANADA, but look at how far music has come in the last decade. Hell, on January 1, 2010, Kesha (or Ke$ha, at the time) released her debut album. Now, on the final big release weekend of 2019, the closing of a revolutionary decade for music, KAYTRANADA dropped one of the most eclectic albums of that year.
KAYTRANADA has always been a creative force in music, Grammy or not. Bubba is a prime example of one of the best producers in the music industry doing what he does best: make music. Each track has an infectious groove that will be with you days after hearing it. The production on here is fantastic, the guest vocalists give it their all, and honestly, if you look back on how music has changed throughout the 2010s, Bubba is a culmination of that. Now, before you look below and see the score, I’ve thought about this for a while. I tend to give out 10s often. Not that that’s a bad thing, but a 10 in my mind is something that really stands out and is a 100% recommended listen.
10/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Note: There's also an instrumental version of this album available on YouTube Music.
Bubba is an RCA Records release.
Bubba is an RCA Records release.
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