When James Blake and Lil Yachty debuted as divisive wunderkinds, they earned feverish acclaim—and controversy—for the way in which they blurred the traces etched by their predecessors. Blake stormed dubstep’s dancefloor and rendered it a dusty confessional sales space; Yachty seemed on the hip-hop panorama he inherited, cursed its gods, and spent the start of his profession at battle with a era. Not every thing has modified: They’re nonetheless divisive, and so they’re nonetheless doggedly making an attempt new issues. However they aren’t upstarts anymore; nor are their disruptive concepts breaking boundaries a lot as reinforcing them. (So lengthy, saxophones, and so lengthy, rap.) A pair that after embodied youthful iconoclasm now usually appear to see solely so far as their subsequent grievance. Increasingly, they sound just like the gatekeepers who didn’t imagine in them years in the past.
Thus the defensive crossover spectacle of Unhealthy Cameo, their new joint album. Few issues announce themselves louder than a tag-team LP by a polarizing producer and an equally polarizing rapper-turned-rocker. However as an alternative of frightening, this report largely takes the low-key highway, like a terse postscript to a extra transgressive previous. It’s dreamy and infrequently danceable, steely electronica rubbing shoulders with a pointy, stadium-ready tackle Yachty’s sing-rap sensibilities. The shoulder-rubbing is promising, however at a sure level, when the friction hasn’t progressed any additional, the get together begins to really feel like a company lunch: Hey Publish-Dubstep, have you ever met Publish-Entice? I’ll go away you two alone to hit it off! Generally, they do. Extra usually, Blake and Yachty are cozy of their respective corners, taking turns within the highlight quite than sharing it. You get the sense that they’re making an attempt to rekindle outdated magic—the wonders Blake labored together with his glitchy soul-searching, the weightlessness Yachty proffered together with his pitch-shifted lilts. These components sound good subsequent to at least one one other. They’d sound even higher in the event that they did extra than simply coexist.
When Yachty launched “Poland,” his unlikely 2022 hit single, a part of the draw was his quivering, liquid supply: “It’s a actually fucking bizarre track,” Blake informed him in a latest sit-down, revealing that it introduced him to tears. He’s proper to determine the weirdness as jolting—no less than sufficient to channel uncooked emotion, or encourage it in others. However after they attempt to accomplish this on Unhealthy Cameo, they sound maddeningly riskless. The title monitor registers like an try to run “Poland” by way of Blake’s chilly alt-pop processing and produce one thing equally apt for dorm rooms and sound baths. There’s a repeatable mantra, minimal frills that foreground the vocals, and an air of confession—solely now, as an alternative of spiking each other’s worlds, the crossover dilutes their respective strengths. “Did you ever love me?” Yachty begs, in full “Poland” voice, with Blake echoing his prayer within the background. You may recall the same plea on the 2022 track (“Hope you like me, child, I hope you imply it”). The place “Poland” producer F1lthy equipped Yachty with a jumpy, trap-infused hotbed, Blake’s canvas is restrictive, limiting the singer to a cramped crying closet each have outgrown. Solemn because it sounds, it’s onerous to take very critically.
