Randell “Kydd” Jones’ third full-length leads with his airplane ticket back to Austin on the cover. After stays in Atlanta and Brooklyn, both etched into his R&B-infused rhymes, the hometown hero returns triumphant. Opener “Day 1 Freestyle,” produced by ATX’s own OVO rep Eric Dingus, twists Drake’s signature “Run around town with my woes” into “Run around town with my ex,” a nod to Jones first gaining notoriety at North by Northeast in Toronto. Like Dingus, the rapper is an Austin native, and the 31-year-old spitter odes his childhood ride-or-dies in a spacey drone. Highly versatile, his Texas drawl delivers a Rubik’s Cube flow, assembling and disassembling cadences and consonants, but at times slipping into Migos-style ad libs. The 13 tracks glide on trancelike, hypnotic production, veering away from previous jazzier efforts. Eerie electronica sends you to space, then drops into minimalist snare riffs and insanely catchy Auto-Tuned hooks. Closing with “Top 20 Freestyle,” Jones abstracts in two different voices on hitting the big time: “How high is enough?”
This article appears in September 7 • 2018.