Breaking: Lil Pump Isn’t That Good

John Orzechowski, Head Writer

I like Lil Pump.

There, I said it. He’s definitely not my favorite rapper, but I’ll listen to him. He’s just fun to listen to, but I can see why people hate him: he’s annoying and his music is immature. And a lot of people that have problems with him say that his music doesn’t have a message, that it’s just pointless repetitive garbage. But he does have a message: he’s rich, he’ll steal your girlfriend, and he loves drugs.

So when he dropped Harverd Dropout (not a spelling error), I got excited. But for all my hype, the album is a disappointing letdown with only a few redeeming qualities.

First, about half the songs on the album aren’t new. Out of the sixteen songs, “I Love It,” “Racks on Racks,” “Butterfly Doors,” “Multimillionaire,” “Be Like Me,” “Drug Addicts,” and “Esskeetit” had all been released prior to the album. With the album being a grand total of forty minutes long, that leaves us with about twenty minutes of new material.

Second, his flexing starts to get old. I get it, that’s his thing. On his debut mixtape, the self- titled Lil Pump, he has a song with Gucci Mane called “Youngest Flexer.” Also he’s 18. But it gets tiring after about five songs. Every song’s theme is money and success, with songs like “Racks on Racks,” “Off White,” “Butterfly Doors,” and “Too Much Ice.” You get the idea: His car doors go up instead of out, he rocks Off White shoes, he’s got diamonds on his neck and his wrist, and he’s spending more cash than you’ve ever seen. He’s richer than you. Did you know that? If you didn’t, listen to any song of his. Then you’d learn.

The album has a ton of A- list features. Two thirds of the Migos are featured, with Quavo on “Too Much Ice” and Offset on “Fasho Fasho,” Kanye West on “I Love It,” and Lil Wayne on “Be Like Me,” along with frequent collaborator Smokepurpp on “ION.” He’s got Ronnie J on the beat on “Vroom Vroom Vroom” (a great rhythm absolutely ruined by his verse), and his common producers Diablo and CB provide solid beats on almost every other song. But most of these features are about thirty seconds long and don’t do anything for the song.

But my biggest problem is that it doesn’t sound like Lil Pump. This isn’t him screaming “D Rose” over and over again into a cheap mic in Smokepurpp’s basement. His old stuff, “Flex Like Ouu” and “Boss” has a punk, violent, rough feel to it. This new stuff, associated with big names, both artists and producers, has a polished feel that might sound better musically, but doesn’t sound right coming from Pump.

But it isn’t all bad. Lil Uzi Vert’s verse on “Multimillionaire,” while only about thirty seconds long, is great. He raps about the same thing as Pump, mainly being rich,  having guns, and having sex with your girlfriend, but it just sounds better coming from Uzi. Hearing Pump and Smokepurpp reunite on “ION” for the first time since July is enjoyable. It isn’t the best song on the album, but hearing them go back and forth is the closest we get to old Pump on the album. And the best verse on the album comes courtesy of Lil Wayne on “Be Like Me.” Wayne was Lil Pump before there was Lil Pump. The face tattoos, the dreads, the “mumble rap.” Pump is a student of Wayne, and this track shows that. Pump still has a lot to learn, but Wayne’s verse is good enough to solidify “Be Like Me” as the best song on the album.

He also tries his hand at actually attempting to spit. His previous releases lacked any real intensity in the lyrics (Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang), instead relying on the raucous beat to draw us in. Many of the songs on this album feature a fast beat, and Pump usually keeps up with it. It’s debatable if this is positive growth or just another example of him losing his sound. I’m going to say that he’s becoming a better rapper.

Harverd Dropout is, on one hand, what everyone expected from Lil Pump. The music is still obnoxious and his subject matter is still the same in every song. On the other hand, it’s a new step in his sound, which could be both good and bad. At the end of the day, it’s a good album if you don’t care about what you’re listening to.