Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

On a flight to London last summer, I got bored and checked out my flight's poor selection of entertainment options, and the one I ended up enjoying the most was a one-hour mockumentary special called Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life. Alan Partridge is a character played by English comedian Steve Coogan, whom after some Wikipedia-ing I realized I knew from the movie Night At The Museum. The special was so funny, I watched it again on my flight back (honestly, I was hoping there were more episodes and also, wtf Virgin, how are there the exact same movie options on flights going both directions?). Obviously he's English, and most Americans' familiarity with modern British comedies are Ricky Gervais and the Simon Pegg Cornetto trilogy. But forget subgenres for a second, this man is blatantly funny and very talented at what he does. That's not to say every Partridge project is a 10 – fuck if I know, I've only seen two – but you get what I'm saying.

Partridge is a (kinda) old, (kinda) clueless radio personality, and Coogan has had several different TV specials involving the character. Alpha Papa was the first project in this Partridge family to be released worldwide theatrically. Oddly enough, I went to the movies while in London (because I got bored, no really) and this movie was playing. Crazy thing is movies there literally cost 18 pounds. That's fucking 30 US dollars! For one ticket! Granted it was a Saturday night and it was easily the nicest movie theater I've ever been in, featuring leather recliners as the seats (literally) and coffee tables in between every two seats to hold the food you can order from the restaurant/snack bar outside. I ended up seeing Kick-Ass 2. Because I loved the original and wanted to, but I also saw a ton of ads for it while traveling in Europe. So much for all that ad money spent though because I was the only person in that giant theater except for this mom and her two teenage kids. It was uncomfortable for all of us and that was even before the movie started – if you've seen the movie, you know what I mean.

Anyway, Alpha Papa is cool. There's definitely some funny parts and it's generally ridiculous in an enjoyable way. It's about a crazy guy taking the radio station hostage, but it's also about corporations coming down on the little man/local radio station. I feel like it could have been funnier if it wasn't targeted at a worldwide audience and it included jokes about Wales and shit (lots of cracks at Irishmen though that I pretended to "that's so true" at), but that's probably slightly insensitive for me to suggest. I also technically wasn't paying so much attention as I just had it on in the background while I finished Byron Crawford's XXL anthology Writin' Dirty: An Anthology. But still, check it out if you get a chance. And if you fly Virgin Atlantic within the next 10 years, that same hour special will probably available as well.

Trey Songz – Trigga

Trey Songz has come a long way from being budget T-Pain for rappers signed to Koch to the place he currently holds in R&B today. He's had moments during that ascension to stardom in which he broke into the mainstream world – "Can't Help But Wait," "Say Aah," "Bottoms Up" – and he had some very special moments musically on Ready and Passion, Pain and Pleasure, but it's as if he's just settled into existing within the contemporary R&B realm since since 2011.

Chapter V wasn't all that. It was good enough for the mediocre state of R&B radio at the time, but there was nothing touching the likes of "Say Aah" or "Unfortunate" on the project. He was regressing creatively and maintaining the success and fame he attained previously. So, if things are working out well and he didn't have to work as hard, I guess you can't blame the guy?

He's a talented singer – something The-Dream isn't. And he's committed to R&B – something Usher isn't. There's room for some incredible music to be made. We've seen glimpses of it in the past. If he didn't want to be the superstar people imagined when he joined Jay-Z on The Blueprint 3 tour, that's fine. He can still roll out solid material.

Trigga isn't the most solid project possible, but it's a step in the right direction from the lull he's been at. "Cake," my favorite song on the album is absolutely ridiculous thematically – forget how the saying goes, I made this cake and I'll do whatever the fuck I want to it. Melodically, however, it's one of the most impressive R&B records I've heard in recent memory, so I was surprised to learn he wrote it entirely on his own. "Foreign" is also very impressive. "Na Na" is still garbage. There are plenty of the lazy moments here like the ones on the previous album. Some of them are slightly saved by appearances from Nicki Minaj and Ty Doll $ign. The Justin Bieber feature proves that R&B Bieber is actually boring Bieber.

He's maybe having trouble marrying creative excellence and commercial success (probably the audience's fault... hence "Na Na"), but at the very least we have our first above average R&B album this year.

Majid Jordan – "A Place Like This"

"A Place Like This" is the first real song we've heard from OVO Sound artists Majid Jordan aside from "Hold On We're Going Home." The thing about "Hold On" is that it was musically very different from anything Drake had done* and pretty unexpected for rap or pop radio. The song is pretty percussion-heavy, and the synths are the loudest element in the mix. They drown out even Drake's vocals (probably not the worst idea) with the song instead featuring floating vocals by a singer that could actually hit the high notes Drake wouldn't even pretend to try.

Most artists linked to Drake and OVO have kept a very low profile, but we literally knew nothing about Majid Jordan. It turns out it's two guys: a singer (Majid) and a producer (Jordan). I respect them staying quiet and developing their sound for the last year and change, but I'm a little perplexed that this is how they introduce themselves to the world. The beat to "A Place Like This" is this Shlohmo/Flying Lotus/SBTRKT variant. Yes, there's a fan base for this sound, but I just figured the playing field for it was already pretty crowded.

Now the song is pretty enjoyable. But there's part of me that can't help but think it's only significant because it's somehow related to Drake. Like, what makes this different from any other minimal dance track with reverbed vocals. You could have replaced the lead vocal with an Aaliyah acapella, and this would be no different from the thousands of remixes on Soundcloud. I like "Latch" but Disclosure was basically a Pitchfork post away from being elevator music. But, again, this song is definitely enjoyable and you can't take that away from them. I hope the rest of their EP demonstrates more of their musical abilities and Majid's vocal ones.

*Yes, "Find Your Love" was all singing. And, in retrospect, the song is actually great (minus that awful hook) and, I imagine, would sound incredible on a dance floor. But there's something a little bit more accessible both thematically and musically about "Hold On, We're Going Home".

G-Eazy – These Things Happen

Rappers have had the strange habit especially over the last five years or so to, after years of releasing music and cultivating a fan base, make unbelievably generic debut albums. You establish a reason for people to enjoy your material then release a project that's part J. Cole, part Drake and part Rick Ross. At this point, there really isn't much to G-Eazy. He rhymes words so by definition is a rapper, and this has gotten him by since 2009, earning him a loyal fan base that even established major label artists would yearn for. But These Things Happen doesn't reveal much to those wondering who G-Eazy is.

G-Eazy is a white 25-year-old from Oakland, but this album could have very well been by a Big Sean. You have your origin story – okay, that's fine. Then there's the "is this what fame is really like?" song. Sprinkle in some vague painful relationship stories about some girl that don't really describe anything specific. Add a Drake-y I-forgot-to-call-my-mom song. And if that's not enough, here's an A$AP Ferg feature.

In a sense, he pulls off the generic thing pretty well. There's no clear hit single (how "I Mean It" was sent to radio, I'll never guess), but people will obviously eat up "Downtown Love" and "Let's Get Lost" if they get a chance to, and with those, he experiments with some real genre-bending musicality. It's as if he tried to recreate Thank Me Later track for track.

Now let's get to it. G-Eazy is white, and he is good looking. So much good in his life has probably happened because he is white and he's good looking. His rap career is where it's at right now because he's white and good looking. Non-rap fans feel comfortable giving his music a chance because he's white and good looking. He's from Oakland, and he's had maybe not the most ideal upbringing, so sure, that earns him credibility or whatever, but ultimately he is in the conversation because he is white and he's good looking. So the fact that he's gotten more media attention and as a result, membership in that cultural conversation, for putting together this mediocre ass album than IamSu and Sage the Gemini have gotten combined in the last two years might be the saddest thing to happen to Bay Area rap in quite some time.

Ab-Soul – These Days

Ab-Soul represents nothing that even the most forward thinking, Internet-bred modern rappers represent. He raps about hallucinogens and government conspiracies then turns around and raps about spending all his show money on a lady friend. He gets pinned as this smart rapper based on the role he fills within the TDE dynamic, but it's not right to judge him based on the careers and accomplishments of his label mates.

2012's Control System established his unique persona, but the time after Control System was a weird one. His few guest spots were lackluster to say the least. He'd gain fame (in a sense) and respect only to have mainstream rap media acknowledge him simply as the third guy in line behind Kendrick. If that album gave him a platform to grow his talent and influence, he seemed stuck in the same position in the time since.

If this all still left room for a fantastic follow up to Control System, that definitely doesn't end up happening. These Days finds Ab-Soul coasting. The second song opens, "I just wanna live like the trees/Shoot the breeze, stay around some leaves," and things get even more embarrassing from there. There are all sorts basic lines throughout the project, including but not limited to, "you still weak, you last week" and "got these backwoods like summer camp." It's hard to tell if he just stopped trying or if this is one big troll. Most of the beats here sound like bottom of the discount bin TDE submissions, including a fake DJ Mustard beat. Then there's the garbage ass Lupe song (which could describe any song with Lupe on it, really).

Soul is so much more than a rapper with metaphors and a political reference. The second half of "Dub Sac" for instance demonstrates what was so enjoyable about songs on Control System, but it's like he's living up to an image of rappers that 15-year-old Joey Badass fans find appealing. TDE fans support regardless, and it's not like he'll ever be Kendrick or Q anyway, so who cares how good the product is, right?