“Ask God why, I didn’t get a solution/Why I lose my brother to bullets/Why I lose my grandma to most cancers,” Offset harmonizes on “Say My Grace.” Few may have imagined that the Atlanta artist who emerged as one-third of Migos a decade in the past with “Versace,” reintroducing the idea of a rap group to the Zoomer technology, would settle uncomfortably into the position of husband to pop icon Cardi B, and turn out to be a goal of web gossip so pernicious that the phrase “Offset dishonest” elicits hundreds of Google search outcomes courting again years. All of Offset’s controversies — Migos breaking apart, his lawsuit towards former label High quality Management Music, the tragic homicide of Migos “brother” Takeoff final November, a heartbreaking rift with Migos’ Quavo that the 2 publicly squashed at 2023 BET Awards in June — have given the impression that he’s now higher identified for business drama than the thrilling hip-hop that first introduced him renown.
On Set It Off, Offset tries to shift the highlight again to the music. Its opening monitor, “On the River,” which facilities on a stirring pattern of Kirby Lauryean’s retro-soul monitor “Black Leaves,” reveals that this hour-long album shall be a a lot larger and emphatic manufacturing than Offset’s solo debut, 2019’s Father of 4. Launched whereas he was nonetheless with Migos, Father of 4 discovered him awkwardly negotiating movie star intrigue and a serviceable quantity of lure rhymes. The tone appeared unintentionally gloomy as he chafed below the dehumanizing points of viral notoriety. Nonetheless, the handful of songs that crystallized his concepts, significantly on the underrated deep minimize “Crimson Room” the place he criticizes cops and institution figures and painfully recollects his road exploits, made sifting by means of Father of 4’s uneven qualities well worth the effort.
Set It Off is a way more assured solo challenge. The 31-year-old sounds hungry and pushed to show his relevance past Migos and Cardi B, at the same time as she and Offset be part of forces on two tracks. The primary collab, “Freaky,” flails on a careless and middling refrain. However the second, “Jealousy,” sparkles with vitality as Cardi drops her inimitable Bronx cadence over a pattern of Three 6 Mafia’s “Jealous Ass Bitches.” Different stable cameos abound, together with Latto on “Superb as Can Be” — she drills into her verse as she raps, “I’m massive canine, you bitches is runts” — YRN protégé Mango Foo on “Skyami,” Younger Nudy on “Dope Boy,” and Future on “Broad Day.” “Princess Reduce,” a melodic duet with Chlöe Bailey that’s all about “fucking and stroking,” could scandalize some listeners. Nonetheless, there’s a way that everybody is working onerous right here.
One title noticeably absent from Offset’s celebration is Quavo. “Man, I really feel alone however this the way it gotta be,” Offset admits on “Evening Imaginative and prescient,” a key monitor with a powerful refrain (“Evening imaginative and prescient/I can see the opps after they cover”) that reunites him with Atlanta super-producer Metro Boomin. Then, Offset provides, “Man I wouldn’t be mendacity if I say I miss the three/Nights I needed to cry, why them n*gg*s blaming me?” Extra than simply an acknowledgement that the injuries surrounding Migos’ breakup haven’t totally healed, it additionally means that he’s nonetheless attempting to outline himself as a person and never simply one-half of a well-known couple or one-third of an revolutionary group. At occasions, he sounds bitter over the damaging press he’s endured, resulting in tracks like “I’m On,” the place he grumbles about business “rats,” and “FAN” and its nihilist refrain, “Fuck them n*gg*s and them bitches, everyone.”
Desirous to ship a viable comeback, Offset depends on confirmed formulation. The Set It Off album artwork evokes any variety of man-falling-in-the-sky imagery, significantly Metro Boomin’s Not All Heroes Put on Capes. A number of of the tracks contain members of Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack camp, together with rap singer Don Toliver (“Value It”), producer/songwriter Douglas “Dougie F” Ford (seven cuts), and Scott himself (“Say My Grace”). The maximalist sound is fueled by a battery of producers who visitors in fan-friendly rap types, just like the bulbous West Coast-inspired bass of Daoud Anthony and Nick Papz’ “Broad Day,” the Xanned-out vibes of Dez Wright and Offset’s “Dissolve”; and the weepy acoustic strings of Don Mils, Offset, and Ojivolta’s “Wholesome.” In the meantime, save for a quick and intriguing homage to Mission Pat on “FAN,” Offset insists on retaining his patented Migos circulate. “N*gg*s nonetheless bitin’ my type, they will’t be too upset,” he claims on “Blame It on Set.”
All through, Offset appears conflicted about the place his present path could lead. “Thought I’d really feel a lot better after I’m rich,” he harmonizes on “Wholesome,” solely to contradict himself by including, “Cash don’t purchase happiness, however I’ve been completely satisfied ever since.” As a consultant of a contemporary production-by-committee rap album in 2023, Set It Off achieves a modest purpose of being erratic but diverting. It could even set up Offset as a solo star as a substitute of only a former Migo. However does that matter if he is aware of he could by no means expertise artistic transcendence once more?
