Don Toliver - The Life of A Don ALBUM REVIEW
This is the Second Studio LP from Houston Singer and Rapper, Caleb AKA Don Toliver.
The Cactus Jack artist is back after his up and down debut last March, ‘Heaven or Hell’, which put him on the map with massive hits such as After Party, No Idea and Had Enough. I wasn’t crazy about No Idea but I love After Party and Had Enough and wondered where he might be able to evolve past that point, which is always a talking point coming into an artists second record. These songs put Don on the map but it was his feature on Lemonade, with Gunna and NAV that set him apart from the rest of the up and comers as a serious force in Hip-Hop.
Don quite clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the man that signed him to Cactus Jack, Travis Scott. Heaven and Hell I said was basically a Travis Scott record with a less psychedelic and less impressive feel to it, and I was scared that this record would be the same. I love Travis’ music so regardless i’m going to take interest in that but for Don’s records to be impressive to me he has to stand out, and in parts on The Life of A Don, he does exactly that.
The first 2 tracks, XSPACE and 5X, had me worried that we were getting Heaven and Hell 2 and even though I enjoyed those tracks, they were bringing up those concerns i’ve previously mentioned due to it essentially being B-Tec Travis Scott but that doesn’t last long, as when Way Bigger comes on you see Don go for a faster flow and more slick flow than he’s ever put on a track, you can also see that he’s trying his best to show his ability on this track more than anything and I think he does that pretty well. The next track is the first of 2 features from Travis Scott on the record, Flocky Flocky, and this one is the worse of the 2 but still a great track although, rather unsurprisingly, Travis carried with a great verse and Don just delivered as he should’ve. I must say before I go on that the production was very basic across the entire record and so i’m not even really thinking about that because when a track feels more trippy than others, it’s usually because of the artists creating the effects themselves. The first dud comes by way of ‘What You Need’ which was released as a single a couple of months ago and i’ve never been a fan of this track because of it’s annoying hook and it having nothing else that stands out for me. The LP gets right back on track though, with arguably the best 2 tracks on the entire thing. Of course i’m talking about Double Standards and Swangin on Westheimer. Double Standards is easily the most trippy song which actually does take some help from the production for once, but Don’s intoxicating and some what relaxing vocal performance takes you to another planet. An all round stunner of a track which is followed by what could potentially be the best instrumental on the record that contains brilliant synths backed up by Don’s brilliant vocals yet again and these tracks really epitomise what I love about Don Toliver’s work.
The second half is a lot more of a mixed bag and it kicks off with 2 of the more boring tracks in Drugs n Hella Melodies and 2AM. Not even going to go into too much detail apart from saying that nothing about these tracks are remotely interesting or even appealing. It’s nothing i’ve never heard before and in DNBM's case, the vocals on the chorus are very run of the mill and boring. Get Throwed has a pretty good piano-centralised Mustard beat and Don does his thing with his usual good singing. Company part 2 is worse than the original company and I didn’t even like that track but that transitions into the stellar OUTERSPACE featuring the on fire Baby Keem and these two are going even more crazy than they did on Keem’s track on The Melodic Blue, and for a change this track sounds more like intergalactic trap than psychedelic trap, like a Pierre Bourne-type beat version of something Kid Cudi would’ve done on MOTM3. Smoke’s hook does absolutely nothing for me and that’s about as far as that track goes for me. The record’s consistency is essentially saved by You and Crossfaded, You because it allows Travis Scott to return to his dark aesthetic that he built on Rodeo and has rarely returned to since then, and Crossfaded because Don’s singing is immaculate and feels like for the first time on the whole record that he is trying at 100%, because this level of performance isn’t anywhere else on this thing at all.
Overall, I think this record has quite a few flaws that Don can fix up and I wish he’d try a different sound more (like OUTERSPACE) because in future projects i’m going to get bored of being reminded that Travis could do this better in nearly every track I listen to in the future from Don. His singing ability gives him so much potential and his ability for him to create an aesthetic using his voice is also very impressive but I'd like to see him stretch a little more. That being said, I still enjoyed this record quite a bit and I think it's leagues better than Heaven or Hell, which is a great thing. When I say I want him to change, it’s more coming from a place that I’d rather see him seperate himself from his pack a little and not live in the shadow of his contemporaries because I think he has the potential to do so. Toliver may want to settle for making pretty good music that is outshined by Travis, or he can get out of his box and show that he’s more than that and become a staple in hip-hop / R&B.
I’m Feeling a Strong 6.