“Call me Quavo Ratatouille” — Quavo Ratatouille
If you ever doubt Migos’ intentions, just remember that they “do it for the culture.”
While the Atlanta rap trio has been making increasingly popular trap hits since 2011 — and has landed on mainstream rap radio a number of times since then — the powers that be in the music world decided now, for whatever reason, was Migos’ time to shine. “Bad and Boujee” was no less than the group’s third breakthrough song, but this time, it stuck.
Thank memes and white people, I suppose.
It would be easy to assume that Culture, the album hosting that raindroppin’, droptoppin’ hit single, is likely a ploy for even more mainstream success. But if anything, the album proves that Migos haven’t changed — the general public is just finally ready for them now.
“For all you fuckboys that ever doubted the Migos, you played yourself!” DJ Khaled shouts on the opening title track — and he’s not wrong.
If this album becomes Migos’ most successful — as it most likely will — it won’t be because the group made changes for their new audience. Culture might sound a little more polished than previous DatPiff mixtape releases, but the music is just as unwieldy, fun and hilariously raunchy as before. Offset, Takeoff and Quavo might have the best chemistry in rap, and it shows — every song on the album is filled to the brim with brilliantly idiotic punchlines, remarkably punctual ad-libs and catchy triplet flows. You’ll probably have half the verses on the album memorized in a month without even realizing it.
“Tater tot, fuck n—-s on my radar watch (watchin’) / Crocodile hunter, turn ’em to some gator shots (urr),” Quavo raps on the Gucci-assisted “Slippery,” and that’s just the tip of iceberg.
But as catchy and clever as the whole thing is, Culture is a mammoth of an album — only three of the 13 songs are under four minutes long, and features are few and far between (also, there’s still that Lil Uzi Vert verse on “Bad and Boujee”). When every song has three verses and a pretty long hook, tracks can start to slog, and Migos have never been the group to command attention for extended periods of time.
Sonically, the biggest development in Migos’ sound is the extensive use of smooth Auto-Tune crooning on tracks like “Big On Big,” “Kelly Price” and “Out Yo Way.” It’s always been part of the group’s sound, especially Quavo’s, but most songs here tend to prefer it to their traditional rapid-fire flows. In fact, over half of the tracks sound closer to Travis Scott than to Gucci Mane — and both are featured.
For the most part, it works — and while it’s far from the year’s most interesting record, Culture is the smartest album that Migos could have released. It’s fun, catchy and serves as a bridge between the world Migos inhabits and the bright lights of the mainstream.
“We came from nothin’ to somethin,'” Offset reminded everyone on “Bad and Boujee,” and Culture shows us what “something” looks like.
