The Disappointment of 'Radioactive'

[EminemBase]

Being a big fan of Yelawolf and constantly going on about his potential from hearing all his mixtapes, I was pretty let down by Radioactive.

The first six tracks all complement each other very well, and they're all great. But then comes "Good Girl", and I could tell from the instance I heard it that it was forced... which was then confirmed with Yela's recent account of making the song. He got convinced to make it.

He knew it was too simplistic and a bad song, yet did it anyway, just because other people told him that it was good (including Em). I think Em is really losing touch now. The album has some more highlights after this but basically falls apart at "Good Girl" and begins to feel a bit contrived.

This is what I would of preferred...

1. Radioactive Introduction
2. Get Away (featuring Shawty Fatt and Mystikal)
3. Let's Roll (feat. Kid Rock)
4. Hard White (Up in the Club) (feat. Lil Jon)
5. Growin' Up in the Gutter (feat. Rittz)
6. Throw It Up (feat. Gangsta Boo and Eminem)
7. Radio
8. No Hands
9. Animal (feat. Fefe Dobson)
10. Made in the U.S.A.
11. Everything I Love the Most
12. Slumerican Shitizen (feat. Killer Mike)
13. In This World (feat. Em - with a verse from Em too)
14. The Last Song

<< I think with that track listing the album would be much better.

They barely promoted the album, picked terrible singles ("Radio" would of been the perfect 1st single) and had way too many features (again). Yela is a great singer and has such a range, he should have made way more songs his own. Sick of cunts on the hooks of every rap song now.

And I know these kinds of threads are repetitive and commonplace (the 'what if' and 'improvement of album' threads), but still, disappointing.

[BumShiv]

Totally agree with you bro. This album has some highlights but after listening i went back to Trunk Muzik and 0-60 and realized how much better he could be. Those albums seem AMAZING compared to this

[mdemaz]

Stopped bumping a while ago.

[Blu]

Honestly, the only song I find myself listening to off this album is "The Last Song".

[flyingmonkey10]

agreed.

radioactive was a good listen, not a great listen. was expecting more

maybe next album

[Manly Moose]

Eh, I like Good Girl the beat is what I call RnB done right and the lyrics seem like theres more effort going into them than the average love song. The only thing I would change is replacing Hardest Love Song in The World with No Hands, maybe get a more Trunk Muzikish song to replace Write Your Name.

[Man1x]

I wouldn't say it's a disappointment at all, I think it's fucking classic but there is no doubt in my mind that Yela can make a better record. Also, you got to remember this is his major debut so I was kind of expecting Eminem to do what he did with how this album ended out (female hooks and all, which aren't even bad hooks in the least). Maybe if he gets big he wont have to do this next album around, but I loved the shit and I'm still bumpin' it

Edit: Though, Good Girl is my least favorite track and I can feel it being forced. I agree there but the rest I love, even write your name cause that shit is deep even if its soft. The second verse is about his mother if I remember correctly.

[OMEGA]

I don't get the aversion for female hooks. I get the impression that some people (not pinpointing anyone specifically) think that because a girl is singing your chorus you are automatically a sellout, gone soft, pop, or some other ridiculous excuse. Far from the truth. A rapper doesn't become less of a "badass" because of something like that.

That being said, while I like all the Radioactive guest hooks because they are catchy and memorable, I would definitely prefer to see Yelawolf doing his own choruses. The guy murders 'em, better demonstrated in songs like Get Away or The Last Song.

As for Radioactive, it's a great album. It has a lot of variety, it has great content and lyrics, it shows maturity from his last work, and awesome production.

[BigBoss]

Ive been bumping it nonstop since it leaked.

[EminemBase]

I don't get the aversion for female hooks. I get the impression that some people (not pinpointing anyone specifically) think that because a girl is singing your chorus you are automatically a sellout, gone soft, pop, or some other ridiculous excuse. Far from the truth. A rapper doesn't become less of a "badass" because of something like that.

It's nothing to do with females and nothing to do with being a 'sell-out'.

My problem with GUEST HOOKS (regardless of gender) with rap albums now is that it's lazy. A hook used to be a creative element in rap tracks and part of the fun of a rap album for me was hearing how the hook encapsulated a track and how the rapper used initiative to combine it.

But just slapping a singer to belt out a broad melody, vaguely related with the concept? it's lazy as fuck and also unambitious in the sense of... if I was Yelawolf, or ANY artist, having that many features on my album would be horrible to me. I'd want to make it my own.

The hook is a vital part of the track. To allow yourself to be comfortable with somebody else often writing and then owning such a vital part of so many of 'your' songs is artistically lazy, and poor. I expect more of artists of Yelawolf's calibre.

I'm sick to fucking death of seeing new albums from rappers I've been watching or am looking forward to hearing and seeing quite literally like 15 other people on the album. When you have a guest rapper on every other song and basically somebody else on every damn hook.

Solo albums are now collaborative albums. And they always have been to a degree of course. But when you look at Em's early albums, he owned every song, thought of every concept and... his name truly deserved to be at the forefront of the material.

But when you look at even Radioactive now... you have a singer on nearly every hook, who probably wrote the hook and was vital in laying down the concept or idea of the track to begin with, then you have a producer or a slew of producers who came up with all the music which is the entire undertone of the album, and then you have guest rappers contributing heavily to a lot of tracks.

So in reality, Yelawolf and most rappers now beside the odd exception such as Kanye, are just one in a team of people involved in a collaboration album. All they truly do is write a handful of verses and think of an album title. So lazy and unambitious. Annoying.

[momentsgolden]

But when you look at even Radioactive now... you have a singer on nearly every hook, who probably wrote the hook and was vital in laying down the concept or idea of the track to begin with, then you have a producer or a slew of producers who came up with all the music which is the entire undertone of the album, and then you have guest rappers contributing heavily to a lot of tracks.

So in reality, Yelawolf and most rappers now beside the odd exception such as Kanye, are just one in a team of people involved in a collaboration album. All they truly do is write a handful of verses and think of an album title. So lazy and unambitious. Annoying.

Couldnt agree more. The hook is so critical to the flow of the song too so its absolutely necessary that the intensity / mood not be lost and 3/4 of the times those things are lost now. Unlike All of the Lights by Kanye though - 18 voices or whatever but he still OWNED the track and you could tell it was a Mr West track throughout.

That said, Radioactive was Yelawolf trying to make Radio songs. While i agree that he should do so and that there is no shame in being mainstream... this is an example when a rappers "out of the box" "experimentation" doesnt necessarily translate to a different sound compared to OTHER offerings by artists past and present. Come to think of it, he isnt even a "rapper" per se as evidenced by his top 25 albums, his style of production, his insistence on songs rather than verses, stories rather than lyrics. All of those individually could be part of rap but arent "hip-hop" when combined. #confused

I guess maybe thats the problem now. People approach music with the expectation of rap and weigh it on rap standards when its just not that. Yes, it is the artists fault that that is the perception (Ludacris and his pop, Chris brown and his "rap", Drake and his R&B and Yelawolf and his "alternative rock-pop-rap) but the music could be much more enjoyable when approached and evaluated without the "rap" category weighing it down.

Radioactive was a fucked up project. Deserved to flop.

[EminemBase]

^ The eye with which you examine the music with doesn't make a difference to me. If it's good, it's good. Doesn't matter what genres or elements it mashes.

Kanye has mashed everything from electro to classical and I've loved almost all of it.

Problem with a lot of the material on Radioactive isn't that you're going in with a 'hip-hop mindset', getting something different and concluding it's bad, it's just that a lot of the material, is bad, is not Yelawolf and is contrived. No artist should ever compromise.

[momentsgolden]

^ The eye with which you examine the music with doesn't make a difference to me. If it's good, it's good. Doesn't matter what genres or elements it mashes.

Kanye has mashed everything from electro to classical and I've loved almost all of it.

Problem with a lot of the material on Radioactive isn't that you're going in with a 'hip-hop mindset', getting something different and concluding it's bad, it's just that a lot of the material, is bad, is not Yelawolf and is contrived. No artist should ever compromise.

Maybe if you view it as a radio record you would expect and embrace female hooks. Thats what Radio does.

[dshady89]

I See You is dope also.

[Fiftys_Advocate]

I am definitely NOT disappointed. To be honest, I absolutely love Good Girl, because it is a good song.