In his early movies, the musician Teezo Landing largely appeared in his entrance yard, standing form of mawkishly in a approach that brings to thoughts Edward Scissorhands and sporting the now-signature metallic nails that adorn his hair. There, he would carry out snippets of largely acoustic, minimal-sounding pop-punk ballads that possessed a bleeding earnestness, nearly childlike of their sincerity. Songs just like the treacly however heartfelt “Sturdy Good friend,” which doubled as a sort of PSA for psychological well being consciousness. For a very long time on Instagram, the first distribution mechanism for these video snippets, Teezo’s bio learn: “Don’t fear, you’re early.” And certainly, the 30-year-old artist has succeeded in capturing the sort of fame greatest fostered on the platform. With an adjacency to a seemingly limitless Rolodex of in-demand stars, Teezo Landing has managed to change into the music trade’s influencer du jour, showing on the social feeds of Tyler, the Creator, Drake, and others. He was even featured on “Fashionable Jam,” from Travis Scott’s newest album, Utopia.
In these arenas, Teezo Landing’s offbeat sensibility presents a compelling sufficient foil to the polished norms of latest rap. His vocal acrobatics result in a number of the most fascinating and textured moments on all of Scott’s Utopia and even paired subsequent to rap’s foremost eccentric in Tyler, the Creator, whom Teezo toured alongside final 12 months, his willingness to delve into unconventional vocal thrives and stream-of-consciousness wordplay proffers him a novelty that, by itself, grows tiresome rapidly. Such is the case with Teezo’s debut, Do You Sleep at Night time, launched final week. In contrast to within the small doses he’s teased over the previous few years, right here Teezo makes an attempt to construct a coherent universe round his delicately constructed persona. The result’s a smattering of acquainted sentiments and sounds that struggles to supply something greater than a handful of intelligent concepts executed with big-budget maximalism.
Album opener “OK” has the defiant, anthemic spirit of Jimmy Eat World or Sum 41, although it’s rapidly derailed by songwriting that straddles too near parody. “Life is a film you can’t discover bootlegged on somebody’s Reddit/My life is a film the place everyone’s hand I shake results in the credit,” Teezo sings with a sped-up supply paying homage to System of a Down’s Serj Tankian. Thematically, the album is generally involved with attaining greatness in opposition to the percentages. Many of the songs basically inform the identical story: Don’t hearken to the individuals who doubt you. That’d be all high quality and good had been it not so repetitive. “Uh-Huh, OK/I’m gonna do it anyway,” he sings on the refrain of “OK.”
Even on the R&B leaning “You Thought,” that includes Janelle Monáe, an honest sufficient concept comes simply shy of overstaying its welcome, largely because of Monáe’s vocals breaking apart the monotony of Teezo’s one-dimensional quirky allure. On “UUHH,” he’s pantomiming intercourse with traces like “First I’m gonna, ‘Uh’/Then I’m gonna, ‘Uh-uh, uh-uh’,” which might admittedly sound extra ridiculous had been Teezo not a genuinely gifted singer. However there’s solely a lot that may make up for lyrics like, “And that’s gon’ make you, ‘Uh-uh-uh.’”
Teezo does discover an efficient R&B register on the Fousheé-assisted “Candy,” the place his vocal vary presents a melodic stability with Fousheé’s silky supply. On the album’s brightest moments, Teezo finds a snug pocket in traditional, funk-inspired grooves that enable his daring declarative mantras an applicable sense of levity. Like on the quick however candy “Nu Nay,” the place Teezo’s smart-aleck writing fashion finds its place on the dance ground. Nonetheless, the album feels general uneven, with moments just like the Weapons N’ Roses-sounding “Stranger” or the album’s closing observe, “The Authentic Was Higher,” coming off extra interpretive than generative.
In a current interview, Teezo says he considers himself a brand new style referred to as “Rock & Increase,” an amalgam of rock & roll and boom-bap rap. It’s an fascinating proposition on paper, however one which in follow seems like hole advertising and marketing. The previous 12 months has seen an existential temper overcast the rap world as its industrial dominance seems to be on its final leg. Lil Yachty ruffled feathers by insinuating his want to be seen as greater than only a SoundCloud rapper, and far of Teezo’s hype appears centered round an allegedly sensible “genre-bending” endemic to his music. Besides, Do You Sleep at Night time presents little when it comes to precise ingenuity. As an alternative, it presents a smattering of present tropes thrown on the wall with little when it comes to depth. Being “totally different” doesn’t at all times imply genius.
