21 Savage Paints hi Life in Red, White and Blue
The Grammy winning artist drops new album about his 'American Dream.'
By Atreyu Weber
The Grammy winning artist drops new album about his 'American Dream.'
By Atreyu Weber
For over eight years, rapper 21 Savage has been dropping massive projects on a consistent basis, including 2017’s critically acclaimed “Without Warning.” The London-born artist has finally dropped his first solo album since 2018’s “I am > I was.” In the time between 2018 and now, 21 Savage has released collaborative projects with the likes of Metro Boomin in 2020 and Drake in 2022.
Now he has finally released his latest work, “American Dream.” The title is referencing how Savage was born overseas. The album starts off with an interlude, Savage’s mother poetically speaks on how she tried to “make his position as a winner more secure.” This shows how his mother taught him what hard work really was, a role model to the artist. Hearing his mother’s words in this track shows how it all paid off, the success of her sacrifices.
The first song on the project is titled “all of me.” The song goes into detail of events that shaped 21 Savage into the man he is today, as he grew up losing people to gun violence, violence that he participated in himself, but that was the life he had to adapt to in order to live. One of the lines that stuck out to me on this track was “came from rats and roaches, I saw plenty of homicides and still kept my focus.” This showcases Savage’s mental fortitude, how desensitized his mind came to witnessing senseless killing because of the dangerous area he grew up in. The track “redrum” backs this up when it explains how his home only knows “redrum” which is “murder” backwards.
More common themes throughout the album include trust issues, breakups and loss. This subject matter is in songs like “letter to my brudda,” “prove it,” “just like me” and “should’ve worn a bonnet.” There’s a lot of powerful messages on these tracks that show the reality behind a gangster lifestyle and the dangers of it. Even though 21 Savage has made it big, it wasn’t an easy journey because his life hasn’t had a glamorous buildup.
His pristine confidence is prominent in many of these songs. This theme is clear in tracks such as “sneaky,” “née-nah,” “see the real,” “red sky” and “dark days.” These songs are a satisfying victory lap for the accomplished artist. 21 Savage has scratched and clawed his way to the top, he went from having to fend for himself as a young man in the slums to making it big doing what he loves. His success story is truly how the album puts it, an American dream.
“American Dream” is a project showcasing the change of coming from a dangerous home to making a successful career out of passion. The project has many impressive instrumentals that compliment Savage’s delivery to a tee. The album also contains much of that usual 21 Savage flow and pattern, but it is disappointing that he doesn’t try to experiment more. However, he knows what he wants to make and there’s no sense in fixing what's not broken. Overall, this album is a very solid listen all the way through and makes a decent addition to anyone’s rotation, another success for the already much accomplished rapper.
“American Dream” is streaming on all music platforms.
Now he has finally released his latest work, “American Dream.” The title is referencing how Savage was born overseas. The album starts off with an interlude, Savage’s mother poetically speaks on how she tried to “make his position as a winner more secure.” This shows how his mother taught him what hard work really was, a role model to the artist. Hearing his mother’s words in this track shows how it all paid off, the success of her sacrifices.
The first song on the project is titled “all of me.” The song goes into detail of events that shaped 21 Savage into the man he is today, as he grew up losing people to gun violence, violence that he participated in himself, but that was the life he had to adapt to in order to live. One of the lines that stuck out to me on this track was “came from rats and roaches, I saw plenty of homicides and still kept my focus.” This showcases Savage’s mental fortitude, how desensitized his mind came to witnessing senseless killing because of the dangerous area he grew up in. The track “redrum” backs this up when it explains how his home only knows “redrum” which is “murder” backwards.
More common themes throughout the album include trust issues, breakups and loss. This subject matter is in songs like “letter to my brudda,” “prove it,” “just like me” and “should’ve worn a bonnet.” There’s a lot of powerful messages on these tracks that show the reality behind a gangster lifestyle and the dangers of it. Even though 21 Savage has made it big, it wasn’t an easy journey because his life hasn’t had a glamorous buildup.
His pristine confidence is prominent in many of these songs. This theme is clear in tracks such as “sneaky,” “née-nah,” “see the real,” “red sky” and “dark days.” These songs are a satisfying victory lap for the accomplished artist. 21 Savage has scratched and clawed his way to the top, he went from having to fend for himself as a young man in the slums to making it big doing what he loves. His success story is truly how the album puts it, an American dream.
“American Dream” is a project showcasing the change of coming from a dangerous home to making a successful career out of passion. The project has many impressive instrumentals that compliment Savage’s delivery to a tee. The album also contains much of that usual 21 Savage flow and pattern, but it is disappointing that he doesn’t try to experiment more. However, he knows what he wants to make and there’s no sense in fixing what's not broken. Overall, this album is a very solid listen all the way through and makes a decent addition to anyone’s rotation, another success for the already much accomplished rapper.
“American Dream” is streaming on all music platforms.