First things first, if you want deep thoughtful content about life and existence, this isn’t for you. You like dumb, uncomplicated music? You have no choice but to take off your thinking cap and give into the day-glo party that is ILoveMakonnen’s Drink More Water 5.
On this mixtape ILoveMakonnen finally plays his hand. ‘Tuesday‘ was not a fluke. He knows when a song calls for a lucid performance and when to mumble over an instrumental. The imaginatively titled ‘Drink More Water 5 Freestyle‘ has ILoveMakonnen (likely) freestyling over a woozy instrumental, bragging about the usual: smoking, women, money etc; hardly breaking the mould. The secret ingredient to ILoveMakonnen has always been his beat selection. It’s more than solid, its brilliant. He’s aware that his skills maybe aren’t enough to dominate the instrumental, so he focuses on the flow and lets the beat do the majority of the heavy lifting. Essentially: you’ll be nodding your head too hard to pay attention to the (if we’re honest) pretty sloppy lyrical content. The heavy bassline’s are switched up for the light-hearted ‘Super Clean‘. Again, same premise: deliver an inconspicuous performance and let the listener vibe to the fantastic breezy instrumental.
Where the instrumentals aren’t specifically catered to him, ILoveMakonnen makes them his own. Trap music tends to juxtapose light simple melodies with eardrum rupturing bass. ILoveMakonnen takes this a step further by pushing both to the extreme. The melodies sound more at home on a 90’s Disney soundtrack (‘Other Guys‘ being the perfect example of this). And the bass isn’t simply A-to-B, the structures are complex and winding. So naturally one simply cannot listen to ILoveMakonnen without listening to his music at painfully loud levels.
The second half of the tape is where it really becomes something special. ‘Dodging 12‘ shows that when he wants he can give a captivating performance, riding the beat in an authoritative flow, clear, concise and on point. But most importantly ‘No Ma’am‘ proves that ILoveMakonnen isn’t a one hit wonder. There’s a lot on the mixtape that could do well as a catchy single, but ‘No Ma’am‘ is simply put: a monster. The chorus is ridiculously catchy and dare I say inspired?; and will throw the biggest hater off.
The most curious area is ILoveMakonnen’s ballad’s. ‘trUe Thang‘ and ‘Leave U 4 Myself‘ close the tape, naturally the production is strong and ILoveMakonnen’s is in his trademark out of tune style, but it’s heartfelt. Somehow it sells the truth of the song better than a finely tuned performance. Singing about being in love when you clearly can’t sing is about as honest as you can get. ILoveMakonnen really has something here and it’s an area in his skill set that is becoming more impressive with every release.
‘Drink More Water 5‘ is proof ILoveMakonnen knows exactly what he’s’ doing. He’s creating a unique lane that he’s just beginning to get a handle on, but it certainly has exciting places to go.
