Roddy Ricch is at an interesting spot in his young career. After bumbling in Compton, CA dropping two extremely impactful mixtapes full of hits in Feed Tha Streets I & II, he put out what many already feel is a classic debut album which contains a diamond single in “The Box”. 2020 was the year of Roddy Ricch, you couldn’t go anywhere or watch anything without hearing his music. He won a Grammy, had a number one album and number one song at the same time, and was featured on numerous hits that year. In 2021 he fell back, as he said himself he wanted to “experience life” in order to come back with more content musically. He didn’t want to rush and put out more solo music. He stayed busy though, appearing on other artists’ songs such as his collaboration with 42 Dugg on “4 Da Gang”. The anticipation only grew. As time went on and the appreciation for his debut album grew, the spotlight grew greater. The consensus amongst fans was that Roddy couldn’t miss, and up until that point he hadn’t.
Finally, late fall 2021 Roddy announced that his sophomore album was coming. The anticipation was extremely high, and when the album Live Life Fast finally released on streaming the criticism was present on social media within an hour of it dropping. The critiques was in unison, “mid” was being typed all over twitter timelines. Personally, I enjoyed the project, Roddy does the little things such as making his transitions from song to song very cinematic. Records such as “thailand”, “hibachi”,”paid my dues”, “man made” and a bunch more were really good songs in my opinion. I do think that the disconnect between this album and listeners is the picture that was painted. For better or for worse, listeners will hold Roddy to the bar he set with his debut album (not sure if that’s fair or not, PEMFBAS is a modern day classic album). The overall story he told about his upbringing in Compton, the gospel choir in “War Baby”, the dark lyrics on songs such as “Roll Dice” and “Prayers to the Trap God” are far removed on this album, but shouldn’t they? The fans want Roddy to continue to make pain music while being a 23 year old multi-millionaire superstar artist… it’s a tough ask. Not saying it can’t be done, but if life for him right now is getting money and hitting IG models in Miami then so be it. If that’s how he’s living then it is an accurate representation of his life, just as PEMFBAS was years ago.
The public is “giving up” on Roddy way too early, he’s got plenty of time to figure it out. I just believe that music consumers are already trying to pigeonhole him in a box because of his debut, similar to what they appear to be doing with Rod Wave (seriously, at this point I don’t know if the fans would accept happy music from him). Fans are quick to crown an artist and are the first to snatch it right back, before they give it to another artist to hold for the next 12-18 months. Maybe this album isn’t the best step forward for Roddy but let Twitter tell it this is the worst album of the past 5 years. If I were Roddy, staying off the internet would and locking back in the studio with Mustard and Keefa would be the move. Music fans are fickle, and when Roddy comes back with another hit the fans will revere him as if they haven’t slandered him nonstop since Live Life Fast dropped. The game is the game.
wyexpect.com 
