Fetty Wap seemingly appeared out of nowhere when massive hit ‘Trap Queen’ exploded. In truth he’d been promoting the track for a year, and spent every given hour in the studio creating hits with a carefully crafted formula. And that’s pretty much what you get with Fetty Wap’s debut album.
The set kicks off with the ubiquitous ‘Trap Queen‘ which was already a global hit before work had officially started on the album; so we’ll say ‘How We Do Things’ is the true start of the album. ‘How We Do Things‘ is a strong start and follows ‘Trap Queen‘ well, leaning harder on rapping with less focus on the singing. This makes for a more immediate track and a slight change of pace for Fetty. The first five tracks follow a similar pattern of glossy pop trap with Fetty sing/rapping over them. ‘I Wonder’ takes a more traditional route, with it’s sinister trap keys. Here Fetty ponders just how long he can make his current hot streak last, which is the main question.
This album proves ‘Trap Queen‘ wasn’t a fluke. The barrage of hits that have dominated the summer, prove none of this was an accident. The September release might seem like a missed opportunity; but as Fetty has controlled the airwaves for months now, the album is less striking while the irons hot and more serving as a compilation. ‘I Wonder‘ serves as an interlude to the pop trap. The hooks return with a vengeance on ‘Again’ and continue in that vein for the album’s duration with brief pit stops for variety.
At 17 tracks it should quickly become tiresome, but Fetty is armed with a range of flows and has a definite talent for giving each pretty similar sounding instrumental it’s own character. ‘RGF Island’ could’ve easily been another ‘Trap Queen‘; but this time the singing is closer to screaming and the subject is his team. The song comes off hard hitting and instantly anthemic.
Drake added a verse to single ‘My Way’ that garnered the track more mainstream attention. The verse doesn’t make the album, a decision that was likely preceded by a heated argument with the label considering Drake’s star power. The track is replaced with a feature from affiliate Monty (who appears on 7 of the albums 17 tracks) and despite the track originally being Monty’s, Fetty’s decision not to carry the feature speaks to the confidence in his own star power. Fetty’s personality is enough to carry you through the lengthy run time and the entire record has the highs and lows of a night out.
Fetty does one thing and he does it well. What the album lacks in variety, it makes up for in great songs. More of the same may not be as welcome on the next album and he may need to diversify to maintain interest; but for now ‘Fetty Wap‘ is the record of the summer.
