In February of this year, the rapper released a collaborative album with Wiz Khalifa, dubbed Stoner’s Night. Juicy J dropped his most recent solo album, The Hustle Continues, in November 2020, and later released an extended version of the record in June 2021, titled The Hustle Still Continues. The latter record features a Juicy J collab, titled “Bubble Gum.” “Try me and I’ll have them Glocks outside your house, staked out, bussin’ like the greyhound.”įollowing the release of his solo record The Life of Pi’erre in June of last year, Bourne has been busy churning out a multitude of joint full-length projects, including 47 Meters Down with Sharc, Chavo’s World 2 with Chavo, Yo!88 with TM88 and Wolf of Peachtree 2 with Jelly.
“Ruth Chris steakhouse, I just ordered me a stoved chicken ’cause I’m staked out,” Juicy raps. The sound alone says more than the forgettable clichés of Bourne’s lyrics, demonstrating that the producer, for now, does his best work behind the boards.The track, which recalls Lex Luger synths that powered the early 2010s, sees Bourne’s production mastery meet Juicy’s classic flow. Nowhere is that more obvious than on standout track “Guillotine.” The beat sounds like Bourne looped a creaking screen door a warped sample breathes with the beat, groaning ruefully every four bars. There are some catchy hooks as well-on “Racer,” Bourne croons nimbly alongside some late-’90s R&B keyboards-but for the most part, the beats on Pi’erre 4 speak the loudest. On “How High,” he dives into his formative years in Queens (where he split time between South Carolina): “Just a college nigga, honor roll/I dropped out of college, lost my home.” On “Try Again,” he speaks of the loneliness that comes with his sudden rise in fame: “It’s just me, and I’m alone again/Spending all my money on my own again.” All the obvious tropes are here-money-chasing anthems (“Doublemint”), odes to jealous exes (“Feds”)-but he hints at a more interesting story in between. Which is a shame, because Bourne puts effort into his lyrics. Add this to the fact that none of the songs evolve much over their runtimes -put Pi’erre 4 in waveform, and it’d look like a bread loaf, a hunk of sound with no peaks or valleys-and you start to tune out. His voice often drowns in the mix as a result. Unlike the MCs who buy his beats, none of which are featured here, he fully saturates his voice in Auto-Tune, more akin to T-Pain or Fetty Wap than Uzi.
Once you get past the initial dopamine rush, Bourne starts to run into trouble. Most of the tracks are accentuated by over-the-top sound effects-a lion roar, or a reworked vintage DJ drop (“ Damn Pi’erre, where’d you find this?”)-that give the project the momentum of a street-bought mixtape. The fuzzy synth notes on “Be Mine” sound like they were played on an electrified toy piano, while “Romeo Must Die” turns on a distorted refrain that sounds recorded 500 feet below the ocean surface. Bourne’s beats hum with the same off-kilter melodies that made “Magnolia” so thrilling, and the edges are filled with interesting noises. The answer is not quite-his heavily Auto-Tuned vocals have a tendency to get washed out by his hazy backdrops, and Pi’erre 4 is one-note as a result, more vibe than statement.Īt least the vibe is enticing. Which brings us to The Life of Pi’erre 4, his major-label debut and the first real test of whether he can carry a project. Rather than continue to feed hits to stars like Carti, Lil Uzi Vert and 21 Savage, Bourne has put all his attention into his solo career as a rapper.
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