Steve 'Flash' JuonI don’t necessarily feel the need to point this out in every one of the thousands of reviews I’ve done, but in the case of Maz G I’m going to make an exception off rip. Criticism is meant to serve two different purposes at the same time. The readers come here to be informed and entertained, and the RR team tries their hardest to deliver for them. It’s also meant to help artists grow and improve though. If you release music into a vacuum with no feedback, how do you know if you’re reaching your audience or growing artistically? Friends and colleagues can listen to your music and rate it but it’s possible they are gassing you up. Can you tell someone you are friends with “that’s not it chief” or would you lie to not hurt their feelings? It’s harder to be honest with people close to you than you think.
In this spirit I’d like to offer Maz G some honesty about “Because the fetti B!tch (Deluxe),” but I must start by telling the readers there are two completely different versions of this album. The “Deluxe” here isn’t really a revision of the first with extra tracks, it’s all new with different songs and a different cover. Happily for me the version I’m reviewing here doesn’t have any song titles referencing Mr. Tate, so if you’re not sure which one you selected, that’s a good way to tell. “Deluxe” doesn’t imply this version is longer as you can breeze through both versions in one sitting in under a half hour. Once you’re “Locked In” the time flies by incredibly fast.
Now for the service part. I want to give back to hip hop because the music and culture have given so much to me for my entire life. I want aspiring artists to achieve their goals whether they are rapping, dancing, tagging, beatboxing, producing or deejaying — maybe all of the above if they’re that versatile. As Maz G is young and not with a major label we can safely surmise two things: he’s writing and producing his own shit. While the bass of “Locked In” hits, the keys he randomly chose to form the melody do not, and his vocals are mumbled in a way that’s sub-audible over his heavy beats. “Snowflake” has a different but equally prominent problem. This time the vocals are brought way up, but they are pitch corrected and sing-sung over the loop, distorting his words heavily.
I am not criticizing Maz G’s desire to present himself as a success on songs like “Plenty Bandz.” For all I know his side hustle outside of rapping affords him a lavish lifestyle, and I applaud it. What I’d like him to know is that when the vocals start out crispy before they’re even pitch corrected, it sounds like he needs to spend those bands on better recording equipment. This is meant to be helpful. I’ve gotten feedback from readers who genuinely enjoy me being savage, but even when I go hard it’s still meant to help everyone. We can all try harder in life to produce better results. Even if Maz G is working with a minimal budget, having some objective people around him to tell him the vocal track wasn’t laid down properly would help a lot, and you could always borrow or use better gear from a friend for a lil’ bit.
What I’m ultimately saying here is that “Because the fetti B!tch (Deluxe)” needs work in almost all areas, because the “Deluxe” part of the presentation is getting lost in the mix. I’d like to think that if Maz G came across this he’d take it in the constructive way that it’s meant and grow from it. If five years from now his music hasn’t grown and improved it may not even be that he ignored the good advice. It’s possible that Maz G is just fucking around making songs for fun, and the fact they got released on major platforms is an algorithmic accident. If he’s serious though it’s time to step up to the next level with better equipment, longer songs, fresh topics and improved production.