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  • Writer's pictureCharles Luberisse

Album Review: Trippie Redd - "NEON SHARK Vs Pegasus" (Deluxe: Presented By Travis Barker)

Written By: Mike Double G

 

Trippie Redd - NEON SHARK vs Pegasus (Deluxe: Presented By Travis Barker)

Grade = 65% or 3 ⭐️


Track List

NEON SHARK (50%)

  1. PILL BREAKER (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly & Blackbear ) ⭐️

  2. WITHOUT YOU ⭐️

  3. SWIMMING ✅

  4. FEMALE SHARK ❌

  5. GERONIMO (Feat. Chino Moreno) ❌

  6. SEA WORLD ❌

  7. RED SKY (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly) ⭐️

  8. MEGLADON ❌

  9. SAVE YOURSELF ✅

  10. *DREAMER ❌

  11. IT’S COMING ❌

  12. LEADERS ✅

  13. FROZEN OCEAN ✅

  14. DEAD DESERT (Feat. Scarlxrd & ZillaKami) ❌

Pegasus (73%)

  1. Let It Out (Feat. Myiah Lynnae) ❌

  2. Moonlight ✅

  3. Love Scars 4 ✅

  4. The Nether ❌

  5. So Stressed (Feat. Yung Lb) ✅

  6. Excitement (Trippie Redd & PARTYNEXTDOOR) ⭐️

  7. Mood (Feat. Chris Brown) ✅

  8. Pegasus ⭐️

  9. Weeeeee ✅

  10. Personal Favorite (Feat. Rich The Kid) ✅

  11. V-12 ❌

  12. Spaceships (Feat. Young Thug) ⭐️

  13. Never Change (Feat. Future) ⭐️

  14. Good Morning

  15. No Honorable Mention (Feat. Quavo & Lil Mosey) ⭐️

  16. I Got You (Trippie Redd & Busta Rhymes) ✅

  17. Too Fly ❌

  18. Red Beam (Feat. Young Thug) ✅

  19. Oomps Revenge, Pt. 2 ⭐️

  20. Take One ❌

  21. Sleepy Hallow ⭐️

  22. Kid That Didd (Feat. Future & Doe Boy) ✅

  23. Don ❌

  24. Hell Rain (Feat. Lil Wayne & Hoodybaby) ⭐️

  25. TR666 (Feat. Swae Lee) ⭐️

  26. Sun God (Feat. Myiah Lynnae) ❌

Pegasus

On October 30th Trippie Redd dropped his third LP titled “Pegasus”. It came 14 months after his sophomore LP “!”. It was second on the charts and had a running time of 1 hour and 14 minutes. This is more than double the time of “!”. In between these two projects Trippie Redd had a mixtape titled “A Love Letter To You 4” which dropped just a couple months after “!”. Although just a mixtape the deluxe version of that project had 28 tracks. It was number one on the charts while “!” was third at its highest ranking. After seeing the success of “ALLTU4” it’s clear Trippie approached his third LP “Pegasus” with the same approach.

Pegasus has 26 tracks and it actually did feel more like an album than “ALLTU4” because the whole album had a similar sound and production. “ALLTU4” was really all over the place. While they both had a lot of star features it seems like on the mixtape Trippie just took his favorite tracks and threw them on a tape. With Pegasus it seems like he took some time on working on the theme of the album.

Best “Pegasus” song = “Never Change” (Feat. Future)

The “Pegasus” part of this album had a real “Pop” feel to it especially with the people he chose to work on it with. Some of those features include, Future, Young Thug, Lil Wayne, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Swae Lee, Chris Brown, Lil Mosey, and Quavo. All of those guys are more than just rappers. They are all artists that are both versatile and multi-talented. With those just being a few of the features you can see that “Pegasus” had a lot of star power. There are a lot of great songs with features but Trippie also has a lot of good songs where he stands alone. A few of those are the title track “Pegasus”, “Oomps Revenge, Pt. 2”, and “Sleepy Hallow”.

Trippie also dropped an expanded version of this album adding a few tracks that were just him playing with his voice trying to make spooky sounds. A few sounds he put on there were a “Woooo”, and a “growl” which both sounded like a wolf. It’s clear Trippie had fun making this album and he dropped it at the perfect time. A day before Halloween. Overall, I would give “Pegasus” a 73% and a 3.5 ⭐️ rating which means good or solid.

NEON SHARK


The regular version of “Pegasus” had great success as it was Trippie’s highest ranking LP reaching as high as second on the chart. “ALLTY4” did reach number one at one point but not until he added 8 tracks to the deluxe version. This album also has a deluxe version which gives Trippie Redd the chance to have his first number one LP. When Trippie announced there was going to be a deluxe version to this album a lot of his fans were excited to get more of the same kind of music. That was not the case.


“NEON SHARK” is not a rap album but a rock album produced by Travis Barker. All the deluxe tracks except “DREAMER” are credited to both Trippie Redd and Travis Barker. Trippie also has a couple features on “NEON SHARK”. Machine Gun Kelly was featured on two songs which was no surprise as MGK also released his first rock album alongside Travis Barker back in September. This wasn’t the first time Trippie and MGK have collaborated as they are tied together by their Ohio routes. Trippie was featured on the song “Candy” which was on MGK’s rap album “Hotel Diablo”


It should be no surprise that Travis Barker was exceptional on the drums. He is one of the best drummers of all time and he’s proving that might be able to make anyone into a rock star. For Trippie and his fans a lot of them are going to be disappointed. Most of them would have preferred more tracks similar to what appeared on the original version of “Pegasus”. The die hard fans will give the music a chance and will tell you this isn’t as big of a surprise as you might think.


Trippie does have a unique voice and has sung and screamed on tracks before. Trippie sings on a lot of his hooks and relies more on melody for his verses rather than straight bars. One urban song where Trippie screams like a death metal lead singer would be “OTF KNIGHTMARE” which appeared on “ALLTY4”. Another song that had a rock sound to it was one “Under Enemy Arms” which appeared on his second LP “!”. Although Trippie never fully committed to the rock genre there have been plenty of clues that suggested he might move towards a rock/pop direction.


Best “NEON SHARK” song = “PILL BREAKER” (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly & Blackbear)

This is not the first time we are seeing this. Many artists have experimented with different genres. Some have had success while others have clearly struggled. One of the first ones to do it was Kid Rock. He started as a rapper, moved to rock music, and finished as more of a country singer. Someone more relevant is Post Malone. He is always on top of the charts and has been successful with pretty much everything. Even Lil Wayne made a couple rock projects. However, Wayne didn’t start experimenting with the rock genre until he established himself as a superstar. Once you reach the kind of level you can make whatever kind of music you want and the listeners are going to tune in. While Trippie is certainly relevant he is nowhere near that kind of level so I think he made this project a little too soon in his career.

The first listen I wasn’t too impressed. After a couple more spins it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The first song on the whole project was “PILL BREAKER” and it was easily the best song on the “NEON SHARK” version of the album. The second track was “WITHOUT YOU” which is just Trippie on the vocals. Those two songs give you enough to at least keep you intrigued. After those two it’s kind of hit or miss as far as “NEON SHARK” goes. “LEADERS” is the softest song but has some decent guitar. The worst song is “DEAD DESERT” which is the heaviest song. The vocals are screaming for the most part. The head banging stuff isn’t for me especially if it’s not good. Leave that to Slipknot or Mudvayne. The punk rock songs are better but even those are average at best. “SWIMMING” isn’t much for vocals but Travis is great on the drums. If anyone should get credit for this project it should be Travis Barker. Also two of the better songs had MGK featured.


I will give Trippie the credit on picking some amazing artwork for the digital cover and really sticking to the aquatic theme. The name of the songs sound like something that would be on the title of the album. They even used a sample of what sounds like whales or dolphins talking to each other on “MEGLADON”. (On side note check out that documentary during shark week on the Discovery channel).


Overall, the rap album of “Pegasus” was a lot better than the rock album. I think he should have packaged this music differently. Instead of putting the rock music ahead of the rap music and calling it a deluxe he should have waited and made these two separate albums. 40 songs is just a lot of music no matter how differently the deluxe sounds. I think he should have added a handful of rap songs to the deluxe version of “Pegasus” for more streams and album sales. Similar to how he packaged “ALLTU4”. I would have put “NEON SHARK” out as a completely separate project which seemed to be the original plan.

Lil Wayne packaged his rock album the best. He waited until he proved he was the best in the rap game before putting out a rock album. Trippie will never get on that level but I feel he still has a lot more to prove as a rap artist. Wayne put out 7 LP’s before dropping “Rebirth” and it was after Tha Carter III which was a number one album. Tha Carter III went on to sell a million copies the first week and “Rebirth” came 20 months later. Once you have a number album people are going to listen to the next project no matter what it is. “Rebirth” went on to reach as high as number two on the charts.

I think if Trippie let “Pegasus” breath a little and worked on marketing “NEON SHARK”. Machine Gun Kelly packaged his rock album separately and he had some solid reviews. Either way this project will get streams but I think it’s going to get hurt reviews wise. I gave “Pegasus” a 73% or 3.5 ⭐️. “NEON SHARK” gets 50% or 2.5 ⭐️rating which is barely passing. Now if you put the two together and call it one project I would give it a 65% or 3 ⭐️ rating which is average.



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