The evolution of cloud rap and its many innovators is one that continues to fascinate me with how it impacts music culture in both the mainstream and in obscurity.
Bladee was the first cloud rapper that I became familiar with, and he has been consistently intriguing in the sounds he dabbles with and the aesthetics he and his fellow Drain Gang members exude. Producer Whitearmor and rappers Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital and Yung Lean have helped Bladee co-foster this unique take on modern trap beats with production that’s as sleek and chilling as their Swedish homeland accompanied with emotional vulnerability and braggadocio of traditional hip-hop.
It’s a unique enough aesthetic to have caught the attention of artists as influential as Travis Scott and Skrillex, resulting in a sound with both contemporary trap and dubstep electronica that sounds akin to hyperpop production. Bladee’s 2022 “Spiderr” and “Crest” – the latter being a collaboration album with Ecco2K – saw the cloud rap innovator taking advantage of these comparisons and indulging in dreamier production and ethereal vocals to create a lush, vibrant and energetic take on the sounds they initially became so popular with. After the surprise collaboration album with Yung Lean “Psykos” earlier this year, I was curious as to whether or not Bladee would be continuing on with the more dreamy aesthetics of his 2022 projects. And in typical fashion, those expectations were quickly subverted upon the new change in sound for his new surprise album “Cold Visions”.
The mixtape clocks in at an hour and three minutes, making it the longest project to come from Bladee in quite some time with a staggering 30-track listing. Handling the production along with Bladee, Yung Lean and Whitearmor is iconic trap producer F1lthy, known for ushering in the microgenre of rage music by rappers such as Playboi Carti, Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely and Yeat. Rage is a microgenre characterized by repetitive beats and melodies, autotuned and nonchalant vocals, and intense bass. Accompanying this main roster are a handful of production and performance features from Skrillex, Thaiboy Digital, Yung Sherman, Ecco2K and James Ferraro, who is known for his innovative works in the genres of vaporwave and hypnagogic pop. Despite how at odds these styles of music are with Drain Gang’s frosty and futuristic take on trap, this collective of collaborators has managed to create a sound that’s an unexpected match made in heaven.
That being said, the album is not without its filler tracks or tracks that pale in comparison with the album’s better moments. The first half, however, is filled with fusions of rage music and Drain Gang cloud rap that work so seamlessly from track to track and are so filled with production tags and sample after sample that they make 30 minutes fly by quickly. Over these tracks, Bladee either gives some of his most charged performances or provides humorous and cheeky quotables while also engaging in continued lyrical themes of drug addiction, depression, social isolation and anger typically present in previous Bladee projects. The album is wrathful, enraged, confused and irritated at others while also being introspective, depressive, and icy; a perfect demonstration of F1lthy and Drain Gang’s respective production talents.
Once the second half of the album kicks in, the pacing begins to falter as a handful of tracks lose the attention-grabbing qualities of the better tracks. Some tracks feel like a throwback to the classic Drain Gang sound before Crest and Ecco2K’s project “e”, which sometimes doesn’t clash well with the brief rage music tracks, some of which lack the punch of those in the first half. The sound starts to lose its luster as time goes on and some tracks go in one ear and out the other. Regardless, it’s impressive that the album is as engaging as it is despite being an hour long with repetitive beats.
The album starts off with “PARANOIA INTRO”, the F1lthy prod tag instantly indicates to the audience the new direction that Bladee has decided to embrace for the project. The production on the track is littered with various creative samples of gunshots, producer tags, and in an odd choice, the sample of the maniacal laugh at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” that reappears multiple times throughout the album.
The track does a good job of introducing the album along with the following track “WODRAINER” (A mix of “W.O.D., which stands for Working on Dying, and the Drain Gang fan name of Drainer). This track delves into themes familiar with Bladee that will be explored on the rest of the project regarding substance abuse, depression, paranoia and confusion towards others, and rejection of mainstream means of gaining clout as well as his loyalty to his brand and the other members of DG.
Following this track, “YUNG SHERMAN” features a performance from the DG artist of the same name that stands out as one of the most charged and memorable moments on the record. Lyrically, the song details more struggles with panic attacks and nightmares that haunt Bladee with “cold visions” that further isolate him.
The fourth track “FLATLINE” details the feelings of regret and sadness from the dissolution of a relationship, with Bladee acknowledging his faults and contemplating death in an emotional highlight for the album “I never want to see you cry (Trust,cold)/I’d rather die, I flatline (Cold)/I wake up every day in hate/Awake to hate (Hate)/And bad vibes (Cold). The next track “ONE SECOND” featuring Yung Lean is one of the briefer moments on the tracklist, yet serves as a serviceable way to bring back the hype and rage energy after the display of emotion from the last track.
Things pick up on the sixth track “SAD MEAL”, where the rage music production courtesy of F1lthy comes back in full swing while Bladee matches the energy perfectly and writes bars that are humorously self-aware and reflective of the depressive mental state that the album portrays. “At McDonald’s, get the Sad Meal” might be one of the simplest yet funniest bars this year, showing that even in such an emotionally dark and chaotic album Bladee retains a good level of self-awareness. After this track, the song “ONLY GOD IS MADE PERFECT” continues the rage music intensity even if it isn’t as lyrically memorable as the rest of the tracks, though there are still one or two bars that stand out “Girl, you’re beautiful but only God is made perfect”.
The tenth song “DONT WANNA HANG OUT” sees Bladee rejecting the company of others not involved with DG and continues to describe his drug-fueled feelings of anxiety and social isolation “I got permafried for tonight/They’re gonna love me when I die/Not crying, I got something in my eye/I got anxiety and I’m high/I’m the type to spiral out of control/I kinda like chaos unfold”.
The next third of the album begins with a short interlude produced by Whitearmor that leads into the track “I DONT LIKE PEOPLE”. This track sees Bladee and Yung Lean on the aggressive and blood-lustful, throwing bars about their continued dislike for others that gets more wrathful as the album goes along “I’m drunk on NyQuil, wanting to kill (Kill)/Even if it’s God’s will, I just can’t chill (I just can’t chill)/I try to be normal, I’m just too ill (Sick)/It hurts to stay in my skin, real spill (It’s true, bro)”.
The next track “END OF THE ROAD BOYZ” is another emotional low of the record as Bladee calls into question his mental health as anxiety and paranoia continue to wreak damage upon it “Mental health awareness, man, I’m anxious and I’m paranoid/You know this shit go round and round and round like a ferris wheel/And you know what goes around comes around like a carousel (It’s cold)/When the shield goes up, man, it’s never coming down”. The thirteenth track, “D.O.A.” features production from Skrillex and a guest appearance from Thaiboy Digital to create a sound reminiscent of early Bladee projects while still making it feel refreshing and exciting.
The track after, “DONT DO DRUGZ”, is Bladee’s most blunt and straightforward discouragement from substance abuse on the album, and it sees him talking to friends and others he cares for to not fall into the same traps of drug abuse as he did. Despite the emotional core of the track, the lyrics aren’t particularly standout and the instrumental feels weaker than what came before. The same can be said about the next track “LOWS PARTLYY” instrumentally and lyrically, though the small reference to The Smiths adds a helping of campiness to the song “Burn down the disco (I’m having cold visions)/Hang the f*cking DJ”.
Marking the halfway point, the interlude “SO COLD” gives a much-needed moment of reprieve for listeners while also serving as another moment where we see Bladee in a more emotionally vulnerable state, stripped of the tongue-in-cheek humor or veneer of sleekness that would be present otherwise. This interlude then makes way for the next track “MESSAGE TO MYSELF”, one of the shortest tracks on the record that doesn’t leave much impact musically or lyrically beyond it serving as a moment of restored confidence after a grim and depressing interlude. The next track “TERRIBLE EXCELLENCE”, however, has one of the hardest-hitting rage beats on the entire album accompanied by fitting vocal performances from Bladee and Yung Lean that spit out more aggressive and violent lyrics, making this track one of the highlights of the record.
Much of the same energy carries on to the next track “RED CROSS”, a track loaded with various references to past songs (the name of the track itself having been used as part of the title of a track off of Crest). Bladee’s flow makes for a track as addicting as it is riddled with paranoia from Bladee’s vocal delivery. After this track, the twentieth track “LUCKY LUKE” features both Thaiboy Digital & Yung Lean in another early DG throwback for fans. The track unfortunately lasts far too short for the star power to truly shine through, especially after the last two tracks of intense rage music beats.
Starting the last third of the album, the track “RIVER FLOWS IN YOU” is where the previously engaging and exciting production from F1lthy starts to falter. The track feels too short and has a beat too uneventful and by the books for rage music to be very memorable. However, the next track, “KING NOTHINGG” picks up the energy again and has the most unhinged energy out of every track thanks to the intense bass, the increasingly irritated and angered vocals and the lyrical display of aggression and self-proclaimed kingship that goes harder than anything up until this point “I’ve been going back to cussing/Mentally in hell, I’m doing well, I’ve been adjusting (Kill)/I’ve been enforcing the policy, no touching/Winter’s coming, blood is rushing/Hail King Nothing, only king that kills for nothing, hail”.
Following this, the track “BAD 4 BUSINESS” features one of the more lowkey beats and lyrically sparse bars for the project, making it a suitable transition from the previous track to the next even if it yet again feels too short to make any impact beyond a transitional one.
The twenty-fourth track “OTHERSIDE” does its best to return to those intense highs of the other rage music tracks, yet it doesn’t quite make it besides a few moments vocally from Bladee and a feature from Sickboyrari. “NORMAL” stands at a minute and seventeen seconds, making it the shortest track and, as a result, one of the least memorable. The lyrics, while admirable in their attempt to show more of a wrathful personality to Bladee mixed in with his emotional angst, don’t describe much of anything that the lyrics from other tracks prior haven’t already described. After this, the track “FLEXING AND FINESSING”, standing at a longer runtime of three minutes, shows Bladee meditating on his waning relevance and his attempt at the acceptance of this with self-confidence despite still struggling with substance issues. The track’s length and more sincere tone set the stage for the last four songs of the album to make an emotional closing impact, focusing less on rage music beats and more so on Bladee’s current mental state in his life and his career.
The track “PM2” features one of the more icy and prettier openings on the album that gives way to a beat that coasts along in a production style that is yet again reminiscent of the wintery feel of early Bladee. The more emotionally serious tone of this track compared to the rest of the album doesn’t make as much of an impact as intended due to the lyrics still being rather simplistic and almost humorous in the way they’re written: “Sometimes these death thoughts takes my thoughts away from living/And I forget where I was and must go back to the start”. “FALSE” has Bladee questioning the reality of his own existence as well as his disintegrating beliefs in what or who to follow while at a club, an existential club banger that may have worked better with a longer and more memorable beat.
The penultimate track titled “CANT END ON A LOSS (OUTRO)” is one of two outro tracks. Standing at three and a half minutes, Bladee gives retrospective lyrics that look back on his childhood and early coming up as a cloud rap icon “Grew up in a middle class environment, you wilding/I was bored as a kid, I had to think/I had to go and make some things/Even when I was being good I think of violence and fires/Evil things in my mind spin and spin/I can’t stop it”. The vocal layering creates a level of confusion and disorientation that accurately reflects the same confusion Bladee feels at the point in his life he describes, repeating the mantra of “It is what it is” as a means of getting through his life struggles. The track feels very much resolute, so much so that several DG fans have theorized that he is perhaps alluding to retiring his musical career.
The last track “COLD VISIONS (OUTRO 2) makes for a more emotionally touching closing track, with a piano instrumental mixed with synths and lyrics that are some of the most emotionally raw Blade has penned “I have always felt a few steps outside of myself/A few seconds too late/Knowing but unable to formulate/Too vain, too lame/To aim, to chase/Having but unable to have/Collecting the sand/To try and restore the stone/The vision is clear/But I’m nowhere near”. Despite the confusing nature of these two tracks being labeled as outros, it’s evident that the second of these provides the more conclusive and satisfying ending to the album.
Despite a lengthy runtime that could be trimmed down, Cold Visions is a welcome addition to the Drain Gang catalog, especially coming this late in Bladee’s career. Fans of the sound he presented on Crest and Spiderr may be in for a disappointment to see the dreamier production replaced with more familiar DG production and combined with rage music beats that are dominating the mainstream. Regardless, Bladee has assembled a formidable group of collaborators, producers, and performers to make an album that is at once a throwback to the sounds that popularized him and an embrace of new trap production trends without feeling lazy or cynical. Bladee hasn’t sounded this angry and jaded in years, yet he manages to breathe new life into his cloud rap style while giving listeners both new and old a unique vision of trap and rage music. And while the future may seem bleak for him if the lyrics are anything to be concerned about, the music will continue to uplift and excite audiences who await whatever soundscapes he explores next.
