American rapper Hoodie Allen released his new album “The Hype,” in late September, but  it ultimately fell short of his musical potential.

Hoodie Allen has been rapping since 2009, and he created a series of EP’s leading up to his big debut album, “People Keep Talking”  in 2014. After multiple successful releases such as “People Keep Talking” and “Happy Camper” in 2016, “The Hype” felt underwhelming and lackluster — the opposite of what the title suggested.

The album came across very generic. For example, one of Hoodie Allen’s new songs “Fakin,” sounded like a typical rap song with its reliance on bass and overused rap beats. 

It also used auto-tune to make noticeable changes and shifts in the singer’s voice, which is a highly overused method of creating vocals in modern music. Overall, it was just another bland, bread and butter rap song. 

The song “Sushi” was also fairly generic with its constant, yet enthusiastic tuba and trumpet hybrid sound effects. While this song did stand out slightly more than “Fakin,” it still failed to separate itself from the rest of the genre.

There were also some songs in the album that were just outright terrible. “Play the Field” was just awful — not only lyrically, but in general. Every time the dreadful chorus came up all listeners could hear is “Play the field… Play the field… Play the field…”  

There was no substance in the song whatsoever. The only thing that changed in the chorus if what Hoodie Allen created is even substantial enough to be a chorus — was the auto-tune that altered the tone of the words “play the field.” 

By the end of the song, irritation was likley present for those who toughed out the song’s constant repetition. “Play the Field” on its own was definitely not a highlight of Hoodie Allen’s true talent. Instead, it was a failed and incomplete song that could have been something great, but was not.

Despite the album’s many negative aspects, not everything on it was terrible. 

The album started out with the song “Believe,” which was reminiscent of Hoodie Allen’s older and more enjoyable style of music. “Believe” has the Hoodie Allen style of monotone sounding raps mixed with his rhythmic singing voice. His vocals mixed with the piano and beat of the song complimented eachother extremely well.

“Believe” and “All My Friends” are quite possibly the only saving graces that this album has going for it. “All My Friends” was like a breath of fresh air, as it added a taste of rock music to the chorus — courtesy of State Champs, a pop-punk band from Albany, New York. 

State Champs and Hoodie Allen worked in unison to create a song that flowed fairly well. The lyrics of “All My Friends” talked about friendship and fake friends, which is a topic that many can relate to

While “The Hype” surely was not a highlight for Hoodie Allen’s since it had an outnubering amount of negative aspects, not every album is as successful as the last. Despite its failure, it still helped pave the way of his career by giving him the opportunity to work on his craft and create better content in the future.

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