Album Review: ScHoolboy Q-Oxymoron

West coast hip-hop artist ScHoolboy Q has spent the past year getting his name out there and hyping up his major-label debut Oxymoron. Whether it was comparing himself to friend and labelmate Kendrick Lamar or guest spots on what seemed like every major hip-hop release released throughout the year, it was difficult to avoid ScHoolboy Q in 2013. Riding that wave of self and industry hype, Oxymoron has finally dropped after a lengthy delay, and Q's longwinded promotion pays off with his most complete album to date.

Prior to release ScHoolboy Q was quoted as saying that Oxymoron "was as good or better" than Kendrick Lamar's 2012 landmark release good kid m.A.A.d city. The comparison is ridiculous not because Q is an inferior rapper to Lamar, but because they don't tread the same ground with their music. good kid m.A.A.d city is a narrative about not succumbing to the temptations of a crime-ridden neighborhood. Q is the street antithesis to Lamar:  He sold Oxycontin, he was in gangs, he lived the life that Lamar avoided before he got into hip-hop. These men may be signed to the same label and hail from similar neighborhoods in southern California, but they are absolutely not the same artist.

Oxymoron is the easily the most wide-ranging release ScHoolboy Q has put out to date. Q spends more time here experimenting with heavier subject matter and incorporating new genres into his music than on his past records.  "Prescription/Oxymoron" is a bold, tempo-shifting seven-minute track that explores Q's addiction to pills and his days as a Oxycontin dealer. Q displays a strong skill for narratives that he hasn't shown before as the song explains with brutal honesty how he went from being an addict and alienating himself from the world then overcoming that addiction and going onto sell pills to make a living. He is able to brilliantly paint the picture of both his struggle as an addict and subsequent guilt for having to turn to selling pills to addicts like himself to support his family. Q is similarly effective with denser material on "Break the Break", which chronicles his joy of finally being successful, but to not take that money for granted because it can disappear at any time. "Studio" managed to completely catch me by surprise with Q doing some singing over funky production from Swiff D with a prominent soulful hook from B.J. the Chicago Kid. Although the rapping sections are still very much in line with his general style, this is about as close as you're going to get to a love song from ScHoolboy Q. It's a bold move for Q to contrast his hard image for even a single song and the risk pays off far better than I would've ever expected.

Oxymoron doesn't spend all its time in Q's previously uncharted musical territory; there's still plenty of odes to his love of weed, women and his street background. Previously released singles "Collard Greens" and "Man of the Year" have subtle yet punchy synth-driven beats and wildly catchy hooks that are perfectly built for any house party or nightclub dance floor. While "Collard Greens" and "Man of the Year" are a whole lot of fun, Q's self-proclaimed "gang banger" anthem "Los Awesome" is easily the most rousing, infectious track of his career thus far. Pharrell lays down a monster of a beat that serves as a powerfully nostalgic ode to the west coast hip-hop of the 90s'. Q and guest artist Jay Rock use this platform to spit venom-filled verses that match the intensity of the beat flawlessly. If Tupac and Eazy-E were still alive today, they would be spitting over shit like this. "Los Awesome" is straight-up gangster rap nirvana that I didn't think could be achieved in 2014.      

However, the biggest triumph of Oxymoron is how it corrects the long-standing consistency problem with Q's music. Q's last record, Habits and Contradictions was one of the most frustratingly erratic hip-hop releases of the past few years. For every quality track, there was a string of filler ones to kill the momentum. Oxymoron is a much more focused and cohesive record overall. While there are a couple of misses in "The Purge" and the absolutely horrendous collaboration with 2 Chainz on "What They Want", there's never a long stretch of the almost hour-long album where it loses a lot of steam. Q has always shown flashes of real talent in his music and finally on Oxymoron, that ability is not lost within a sea of weak tracks that wrongfully mask his potential.

Oxymoron is finally a mostly enjoyable and surprisingly experimental record from ScHoolboy Q. It may lack much of the lyrical complexity of Q's peers on Top Dawg Entertainment, but what he lacks in clever wordplay, he makes up for with perfect production choices and an incredible knack for crafting memorable hooks.  If Kendrick Lamar is the sophisticated leader of the Top Dawg crew, ScHoolboy Q is the hard-partying understudy. Oxymoron isn't a classic, but it plays nicely on the strengths of Q as an artist and shows a whole lot of improvement from his first two albums.

3.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Los Awesome (feat. Jay Rock)
2.Break the Bank
3.Prescription/Oxymoron