Flawless Like Me

In a genre as homogenous as trap, artists like Lucki prove a complete anomaly. Since debuting with 2013s Alternative Trap, the cult MC has crafted and expanded his own bubble within the genre, moving from spaced-out trendsetter to numb-voiced nihilist as he pushes his intoxicating takes in the genres underground. His hedonistic boasts cohabit with spats of addiction and emotional neglect, sound out over frosty instrumentals and hypnotic loops, and wrestle with the fragments of a reckless drive on the edge. Simply put, there is nobody else like him. This is why the rappers latest LP, Flawless Like Me, is so surprising. Tunneling into the more mainstream-leaning ideas he experimented with on 2021s Wake Up Lucki, the project trades his brooding, hollow sound for a more polished approach, embracing bright, simplistic, and cyclical instrumentals. Much like the shift from Days B4 III to Almost There before it, this is a clear demarcation of a new era for the MC. The best moments see Lucki break the mold entirely -- in "White House" the rapper whips out a whole new, head-nodding flow, and on bonus track "Y Not?" he delivers verses with a breakneck, slurring, and utterly chaotic energy. As the basis for a new, more mainstream-driven sound, these ideas hold promise -- a promise likely to resonate with the rappers die-hard fans and attract a swathe of mainstream fans alike. ~ David Crone