Written By: Mike Double G
Grade = 80% or 4 stars
Track List - 1 hour 7 minutes (*=Deluxe)
Long Live 2:39 ️
Bring It On 4:05 ️
No Switch 3:01
Smoke One 3:25
2Hoo 2:47 ️
*DC Marvel 2:57 ️
How You Been 2:05
Expensive Taste 3:53 ️
Cage Feeling 2:31
*Dis & That 2:56
*Gangsta (Feat. Quando Rondo) 4:16
*Know Like I Know 3:52
Bring The Hook 4:25
Fish Scale 2:51 ️
Emo Rockstar 3:12 ️
Emo Love 3:02
*Snow Bunny 3:15
Foolish Figure 2:46
I Got This 6:06
Flossin (Bonus) 2:48 ️
Track Note: Diss Records = “Bring The Hook” & “No Switch” (Lil Durk & King Von), “Know Like I Know”, (NLE Choppa)
NBA YoungBoy gives us his latest project only 4 months after releasing his LP Sincerely, Kentrell and just a month after releasing his mixtape with Birdman titled From the Bayou. His new mixtape Colors (Deluxe) might be his best project since his LP Top. It may also be his most controversial project as he takes shots at rappers like Lil Durk, King Von, and NLE Choppa. Besides the beef we also see some of YB’s best rapping. He also experiments with a few pop sounding records towards the end of the album.
YoungBoy talks about NLE Choppa in the song Know Like I Know. In the first verse YB says:
Wе ѕеnd уоur ѕtuріd аsѕ tо gоd. Fоr mаkіn’ ѕtаtеmеntѕ, сhооѕіng’ ѕіdеѕ about mу bееf wіth thеm lіl’ bоуѕ. І соuld ѕау і ѕaw it. Yоu соuld ѕау I wаѕ уоur fаvоrіtе.
NLE has said many times that his favorite rapper was NBA YoungBoy but NLE sided with Lil Durk when the two started beefing because he was already friends with the late King Von. YoungBoy clearly took this personal. Later in the same verse he goes on to say:
Better stay up in your place, bitch. Fuck around and get your face split any day, nigga. They know I'm a demon, you ain't met the devil until you seen me. Yеah, I get em hit, we gon' kill a bitch insidе of Neiman's for any reason. I don’t give a fuck about how you treat your body, give a fuck about your cleaning.
The last line refers to when NLE had a spiritual awakening in 2020. He went on social media and preached about cleaning his body and eating healthy. NLE pushed back the release of his mixtape. He said it was to pay respect to Young Dolph as PRE released a project titled Long Live Young Dolph but I wouldn’t be surprised if he added a song to his mixtape responding to YoungBoy.
YB also goes at Lil Durk, King Von, and the entire O’Block neighborhood in the songs Bring The Hook and No Switch. In “Bring The Hook” he says:
Nigga, this That squid game. O’Block Pack get rolled up. Murder what they told us. Atlanta boy get fold up.
These lyrics are talking about the murder of King Von which happened at a nightclub in Atlanta. Von had beef with YB’s artist Quando Rondo. In the song “No Switch” YB says:
They know they don’t want to see Lul Tim jump from out that trunk.
Lul Tim was the person who shot and killed King Von. These kind of lyrics led to people from O’Block burning the green bandannas which have been flagged by YB on many occasions. The hook of “No Switch” goes:
All these niggas talkin’ bout them switches, Choppa come automatic. Red flag, you know the business. Pop his ass, wе drop his ass. That be that green flag activity.
The title “No Switch” is also a direct diss to Lil Durk as he is known for talking about “switches” on his glock in many of his songs.
Beef has always been apart of rap culture. YoungBoy NBA and Lil Durk are as big as it gets in 2022. This was a good move by YB when it comes to the numbers. Everyone will be tuning in to follow the beef. Fans love this kind of content but hopefully the beef doesn’t escalate into more people getting murdered. From a musical side of things this is some of YB’s best rapping. I don’t remember the last time I heard this many rhymes on one of his projects. Towards the end of the album we even get some pop sounding songs like Emo Superstar and Emo Love. Both of these records are on guitar based beats. “Emo Love” wasn’t one of my favorites. YoungBoy has plenty of melodies like most of his projects but a song like “Emo Love” is a little too soft and slow for YoungBoy. I prefer when he uses his melodies over his street records. I liked “Emo Rockstar” which had more energy. It sounded like a rock song that included the raw content we like hearing from YoungBoy.
Besides a few records at the end of this project this mixtape is a strong effort from YoungBoy. Being under house arrest may have helped YB from a musical stand point as he can’t do much else but focus on his music. He has always been known to put out music at a rapid fire pace. 2021 was actually a slow year by his standards as he only released two projects. “Sincerely, Kentrell” came out in September and “From The Bayou” (with Birdman) came out in December. This was mainly because he locked up a good part of the year. Now that he is out of prison we could end up getting more music very soon. I think there’s a fine line between keeping the music fresh and over saturating. This project should keep his fans happy for at least a few more months. “Colors” (Deluxe) is his best project since “Top” and was a four star mixtape which had a lot of album quality records.
Best Song = “Fish Scale”
Download: Colors