Album Review: NLE Choppa - Top Shotta

The 17 Year Old Rising Star from Memphis, NLE Choppa has released his debut album “Top Shotta,” after his quick rise to fame after his popular releases which got him noticed including “Shotta Flow” and “Camelot”.

NLE Choppa has definitely attempted to dive into his more melodic side on his debut album with tracks such as “Gamble With My Heart”. NLE has shown us his more vulnerable side on this track where he says he deals with his issues such as anxiety and depression and how he turns to drugs to fight with his demons. This track has definitely exposed us to a side of NLE that we haven’t seen before and a side that I am glad he has shown us. “Depression” is the closing track of the project but this is another song that NLE shows his vulnerability where he sings over the melodic keyboard-driven track which shows us another side of the 17 Year Old that we hadn’t really seen before.

“Narrow Road” is probably one of the standout tracks on this album with NLE joining forces with one of the hottest artists in the game today Lil Baby. NLE raps about how nobody can stop him and that he's carrying his tool if anyone wants to come for him, Lil Baby does what he does best on this track rapping about his fortunes and that he also won’t be stopped from getting what he wants. This wasn’t a combination of artists that I would have seen coming to a while ago but I am very glad we got to hear these two together. 

Looking at this as a full-length project there aren't that many original tracks that NLE hasn’t released prior to the album release. Looking at this as a full project that hits the hour mark it does come across as repetitive and stale through moments throughout the project. NLE does repeat a very similar formula throughout a lot of his tracks that repeat the themes of drugs and violence and with five “different” versions of the “Shotta Flow” series the album doesn’t really keep you hooked in for the whole hour of the project.

“Top Shotta” is definitely not a bad album despite some dull moments that will also come due to us already hearing a lot of these tracks prior to the album release, but one thing is for certain and with NLE only being 17, it definitely means there is a lot more potential to come from this kid.

Reviewed by: Aidan Treston