IDK — F65 — Album Review
Hip-Hop | Rap
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
The London-born, Maryland based rap artist Jason Aaron Mills, known by his stage name of IDK, was someone that I discovered back in 2020 with his mixtape IDK & FRIENDS 2 (Basketball County Soundtrack). And while that mixtape was one that I enjoyed through how well it fit as a good summer project, it was in the summer of the following year where IDK really impressed me.
With the release of his 2021 album USEE4YOURSELF, the rapper absolutely hit his stride, with a truly unique brand of pop-rap, that in my mind, really allowed the artist to stand out from the crowd.
It was fair to say that my excitement towards whatever IDK had up his sleeve following the release of USEE4YOURSELF was incredibly ripe. However, the subsequent releases from IDK were a little more scattered across. Of course we had another smaller album in the form of 2022’s Simple., the other releases from IDK were primarily singles, and felt kind of hit or miss to be completely honest.
There was indeed the sense that IDK was struggling to find a consistent way to top the album he had released in 2021, and with that said, my feelings going into his brand new album, titled F65, were a bit more stale than they would’ve been two years ago.
On my first skim-through of the album (one that seemed incredibly packed in with its many tracks, I should add), I found many of the tracks I listened to unfortunately followed through with that slope down into being far more generic, and almost felt like a loss of the rappers once unique identity.
When I finally got into the album properly though, my feelings towards the F65 changed slightly.
The fact still unfortunately remains, that a fair chunk of what is on F65 is still quite generic at the best of times. However, there was definitely an aesthetic that IDK at least tried to inject into this album, that was clearly inspired by old-school blues and jazz. There were even points in which IDK gives off a bit of a Gil Scott-Heron vibe (although, not to the greatest effect, unfortunately).
I will say, however, that the further I got into this album, the more impressive the tracks became. It’s a crying shame that not all of the album was as enjoyable as F65 was leading up to its end point; but hey, better soe than none, I guess.
I genuinely feel that if this album cut off some of the more generic tunes, as well as the overabundant amount of interludes that are on this 22 track album, then F65 could’ve ended up being a project that was at least nearly as good as USEE4YOURSELF.
In short, this album still doesn’t come quite as close to being as enjoyable as IDK’s best works. However, there is still a fair cluster of both tracks and aesthetic elements that I can at least appreciate. F65 has at least achieved the notion of keeping the embers in the brazier that is my enjoyment for this very talented artist burning a little while longer.
Favourite Tracks: Pit Stop | Télé Couleur | Rabbit Stew | 850 (We On Top)
Least Favourite Tracks: Mr. Police | Georgetown
Clue No Clue LLC | Warner Records
