With his multiple tattoos and lengthy arrest record, he is your parents worst nightmare.
Kodak Black oozes controversy. He seems to have no filter on his public statements, and they are offensive. He dresses like what most envision a rapper would; big chains, big grills, full Adidas jumpsuits, the whole nine yards. He is an outlier in the rap world because of how much he does not try to be anything else but himself.
In a community that recently has been extremely tight nit, he is not one for friendships, publicly denouncing artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty and rejecting the mentorship of Master P. He is not on for long statements or explanations, as you could hear if you’ve ever heard his interviews. He speaks his mind in his music and it seems like it might be his only outlet.
On his past projects, like Institution and Painting Pictures, Kodak Black airs out his fears, ambitions, and projects his environment in a way that bolstered him into the mainstream. On this LP, Project Baby 2, he does all of that, but in a more developed way. What Kodak Black strips away on this album is the adolescent lyrics that may have scared away the mainstream public. It seems like on this album that he cares more about communicating his life and ideas rather than punchlines.
Kodak Black does not want to go back to prison and is struggling adjusting to a different lifestyle than the one he has always known. This is apparent on my favorite song on the album. “Unexplainable” where he raps “I’m rich but I’m riding through the project, I’m not even supposed to be here I’m on house arrest/ So how you finna say I forgot who raised me/ When I am taking chances known this is a violation.”
This lyric caught my attention because it displays that Kodak Black cannot forget the life he used to live no matter how much it affects his current life. It’s like he can’t escape the conditions and negative aspects of that environment that developed him into the person he is today, no matter what the consequences.
Throughout Kodak Black’s entire career I have felt lost at some of the actions he has taken, like violating his probation, and on this album I felt like I was given a slight insight into his consciousness. I honestly think on this album Kodak Black develops on everything that gained him fame. One aspect that is especially significant on this tape is his lyrics about his love life. For a genre that is always labeled as being insensitive towards the topic of love, Kodak Black exposes his romantic life completely. On songs like First Love and 6th Sense, he goes into detail about how he has loved and lost. In the past he has expressed these emotions but not into the depths that he has on this tape.
I was shocked to hear the lyrics “I don’t wanna live if I can’t be with you/ Shawty I don’t want no air if I ain’t breaking you/ Shawty I don’t wanna dream if I can’t sleep with you” come out of Black’s mouth.
One of the more notable points about this tape is the lack of features, with Offset, XXXTentacion, Jack Boy, and John Wicks being the only ones, it seems like he wanted the attention to be solely on him. The track with XXXTentacion is one of the more standout tracks on the whole project, their chemistry works seamlessly over the production from LondonOnTheTrack.
One of the quotes from that track that caught my ear was “They tried to give me eight/ Got on my knees life Jesus Please/ He don’t even believe in Jesus/ Why you got a Jesus piece?” That is referencing when he violated his probation and was threatened with 8 years in prison. Rather than addressing that situation as other rappers have with comments like “Fuck 12”, he displays a level of honesty about his emotions during the trial that impressed me.

Overall, this tape is more developed than anything else Kodak has put out and for a long time Kodak fan, I felt extremely satisfied.

What I hear on this album is someone who is desperately trying to learn from their mistakes and is making great strides to not repeat them. He speaks consistently about his struggles to leave the life that has gotten him in legal trouble in the past, his motivations for the choices he’s made, and aspirations to better himself.
For an artist and wave of music that is constantly labeled as having no “content”, even rap’s biggest detractors could not deny that Kodak Black divulges deep on this LP. I loved listening to this whole tape and it has been my favorite release from anyone on the 2016 XXL Freshman list since it has come out.

Rating 8.5/10