Steve 'Flash' JuonI’m somewhat reliably informed that LazyGod is close with SpaceGhostPurrp, which seems credible enough given they are both from Florida. There are no guest appearances from SGP on “Hell 4” so that’s why I say somewhat reliably. I’ll take the statement at face value even though nobody has reviewed a SGP project on RapReviews in over a decade, so I don’t know if LazyGod has appeared on any of them, and given it’s my first exposure to LG I don’t know if SGP is on any of his other releases. He has close to two dozen albums and I think we both know I wasn’t going to listen to every single one of them to find out before this review.
It’s probably intentional irony for someone to call themselves “Lazy” and be that prolific as an artist. In fact “Tricks Up My Sleeve” clocks in at over five minutes long, which is about as far from lazy as you could get. Then again it sounds like the same song played back to back at two different tempos with a little bridge stitching them together, and the second half being the “Chopped & Screwed” treatment. I’m still not going to call LG lazy though. Perhaps you would given none of the rest of the songs on “Hell 4” are longer than 140 seconds and two of them are labeled “bonus” tracks. That’s your call.
Unintentionally this had the effect of making me enjoy the slower sounding version of LazyGod. In his normal speaking voice on songs like “Adderall & Lean” he sounds prepubescent — to the point I began to suspect that “Tricks Up My Sleeve” was actually his normal voice and for whatever reason he and his producer are speeding up his vocals the rest of the time. I mean you might think he was underage given he censored the tits and ass on the cover of “Hell 4,” but if he’s been around as long as SGP and has over 20 albums it’s almost impossible he would be a minor at this point. Almost.
“On My Nerves” muddies the waters even further by trying out two more speed changes for LG’s raps. I think all of this would matter more if songs like “Out the Atmosphere” weren’t as pedestrian in their content as they are. LazyGod’s has no problems rapping to the beat or being clearly understood, but he’s not saying anything new that all of his contemporaries in and outside of Florida haven’t said. Even his homophobia (repeatedly calling folks “queer” and “gay”) is par for the course.
“Pussy tried to send some shots
We send some back he thinks I’m scared (pew pew pew pew)
Yeah niggaz bitch, all these niggaz weird
Twenty twenty two, my money gettin long just like my hair”
That might actually be the “lazy” part of LazyGod. “Hell 4” shows some ability as a rapper but I’m not convinced LG is applying his full potential to the craft. In the process of being prolific he may have committed the very BasedGod sin of doing too much. Less is more when you can focus on delivering a quality product instead of mass producing quantities of it. I’d like to see LG really get sharp with his swords. There’s probably one album out of the dozens where that’s true — this isn’t the one though.