REVIEW: Pusha T - Daytona
Produced entirely by Kanye West, DAYTONA is the album we all wanted from Pusha T.
With a short tracklist, the album's length could either be an excellent decision or an underwhelming collection of singles. It was clearly an excellent decision from the G.O.O.D Music President.
He doesn't hold back with his first track. The bars he spits in "If You Know You Know," is a clear indication of what to expect from the rest of the album. The track starts with Pusha rapping over the tap of the hi-hat; and then the beat drops. “A rapper turned trapper can’t morph into us, but a trapper turned rapper can morph into Puff.” The production is simple, yet futuristic.
Giving a nod to Meek Mill, then the Pac homage on "What Would Meek Do?", Push raps "“Angel on my shoulder, what should we do? Devil on the other, what would Meek do? Pop a wheelie, tell the judge to Akinyele, Middle fingers out the ghost, screaming ’Makaveli’." Kanye joins in with "Too complex for ComplexCon." A play on words with Complex and their music festival. In 2016, Kanye was scheduled to headline ComplexCon, however, he was eventually removed from the bill for undisclosed reasons.
Kanye, once again, goes in-depth into the severity of his self-admitted opioid addiction by restating the fact that the doctor told him to take 7 opioid pills when he left the hospital after his “breakthrough” at the end of 2016. "Seven pill nights, who know what that feel like?"
In "Infrared," Pusha thanks Rick Ross - who appears earlier on Daytona, for holding Birdman’s feet to the fire for his exploitation of Cash Money artists: “Salute Ross ’cause the message was pure, He see what I see when you see Wayne on tour, Flash without the fire, another multi-platinum rapper trapped and can’t retire.” And it doesn't stop there. Pusha reignites his beef with Drake, rapping, "It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin, At the mercy of a game where the codes is missing."
With a direct response to Drake’s “Two Birds One Stone,” Pusha raps "Let's cram numbers, easily, the only rapper sold more dope than me was Eazy-E."
Pusha ends "Infrared," with a strong statement, implying that people would rather listen to a real rapper who writes his own music, than listen to someone with a ghostwriter. "How could you ever right these wrongs, when you don't even write your songs? But let us all play along, we all know what ni**as for real been waitin' on, Push."
It took a year and a half for this masterpiece to be created, and it was well worth the wait. Kanye's samples and gritty production have allowed Pusha to deliver a meaningful and cohesive seven-track album. This is how you start a G.O.O.D. summer.
https://open.spotify.com/album/07bIdDDe3I3hhWpxU6tuBp?si=1AAv57wPS5mdmi1mMp_k5A