Saturday ACL Fest Record Reviews
Schoolboy Q
Blank Face LP (Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope)
Reviewed by Bryan Rolli, Fri., Sept. 30, 2016
Schoolboy Q wants the dark, sprawling, bloated Blank Face LP to be his masterpiece. The Top Dawg Entertainment star raps, growls, and sneers over sultry horns, sparkling piano, and descending basslines on his 17-song, 72-minute opus, taking cues from label mate Kendrick Lamar's genre-bending To Pimp a Butterfly. Anderson Paak's soulful vocals add sinister braggadocio to album opener "Torch," and the incendiary "Ride Out" pits Q against a bloodthirsty Vince Staples. Blank Face stalls near its end with pedestrian raps and an awkward R&B crossover bid, but when Q locks into the streetwise grooves of "Dope Dealer" and the lush psychedelia of "That Part," he hints at the masterpiece he came tantalizingly close to making. (6:30pm, Samsung stage)