The fast rising resurgence of the west coast in hip hop has been quite surprising. What's even more surprising is how diverse the coast is now. It's no longer just the stereotypical violent gang banger music. It's now expanded to everything from bay area hyphy music, skateboarder music, psychedelic or "stoner" music and even some sounds of south influenced trap music. Here now is one of the newest contributors to the coast's change of sound, Los Angeles native Kid Ink. After gracing the cover of XXL in 2012 as a member of the XXL freshman class, that is when many started to take notice to him (those who weren't already aware of his early mixtape success). That year he released his debut album Up & Away. Although it was an independent album, it didn't get much attention due to lack of good promotion and good singles. It wasn't really until late 2013 when got more into the spotlight with his current hit record "Show Me". That single was what he needed to push this, his sophomore album My Own Lane. Now I'm gonna be straight up here. From what I have previously heard from Kid Ink, I'm not at all impressed. He sounds way too generic and too similar to many other mainstream rappers now. So pretty much going into this listening session I didn't expect nothing special. Sure enough, it wasn't. This album is just below average to me. Like I said, Kid Ink's lyrics, flow, and overall sound just sounds so copycat. This album is nothing but the same old generic topics. Girls, cars, money blah blah blah. Today it's known as "swag rap". At least that what's I call it. The album is just filled with it. On top of that, there were points on this album where it sounded like I was listening to other swag rappers. I could hear some Tyga, some Wiz Khalifa, some A$AP Rocky even some Chris Brown (who's featured on the album twice). He's not really doing anything different or original. Nothing unique at all. I guess the one good thing I could say is that the albums is 90% radio singles so he certainly shouldn't be a one hit wonder. Well I guess that's a good thing depending on how you look at it. Anyway, here's my breakdown of the album starting with what little I did like. The final track "More Than A King" was the only real stand out track. It was also the only track where he sounded most aggressive and non-swaggy with his rapping. The highlight of this song though was the cool beat switch up in the from trap style beat to something more underground and throwback. A definite favorite if I had to pick one. "No Option" became a more like-able song the more I listened to it. This due in large part to King Los's dope guest verse that sounded very Childish Gambino like. But the beat is pretty cool as well. Cool song. "Murda" had a really dope beat and an even doper guest verse from Pusha T (who saved the hell out of this song). But this is another good beat I feel is wasted because of Kid Ink's lack of lyrical depth. Now on to my many dislikes. Like every other swag rapper, Kid Ink favorite topic of discussion is females. He made that loud and clear with countless songs on here for them. None of them were appealing at all. First there's "Iz U Down" which is nothing but all hook, all beat and mediocre swag rap lyrics. He's joined by Tyga on here and the both of them are talking about nothing but how they use their swag to pull females basically. As weak of a song as this is, it's sounds single worthy and that scares me a little. Speaking of single worthy, "We Just Came To Party" actually sounds more single worthy than "Iz U Down". This the second song aimed at the ladies and again, okay hook by August Alsina (despite the repetitiveness), okay trap beat, but Kid Ink's "singy" rap lyrics makes this so non-enjoyable. I feel like this would sound better if it was someone else's song. The next ladies anthem is "Main Chick" and this is the second Chris Brown assisted track on the album. Now this actually is well produced by DJ Mustard who becoming very popular in hip hop. Honestly it sounds like the remix to "Show Me" but much worst. The hook is very lackluster and rushed. Then Kid Ink's boring sing-raps does nothing help as he talks about stealing random chicks and making them his main. I thought rappers were against the whole "wife-ing random chicks at the club" thing? Whatever the case, not even a cool mainstream beat could save this one. But wait, there's more. "Tattoo Of My Name" is a song I kinda expected to hear on this album. He spits some lame lyrics about wanting to brand his girl by tattooing his name on her. This is something else I thought people were against but I guest when you simp like he is on this track then all of that means nothing. This is honestly a Drake song minus the extra singing and depressed emotions. Just not feeling it at all. I'm sure some ladies will enjoy some of these tracks but they all to me pretty much ruined the album. "No Miracles" is an interesting collaboration of him, Elle Varner and Machine Gun Kelly. Now here he finally talks about something different and speak on something more inspiring and I guess "deep". But as you can guess, he's not that guy and he falls short of that. Where he messed up was trying to insert his swag style in a song that supposed to have serious meaning and that will ruin a song every time. I do like what he is trying to talk about as far as overcoming obstacles, pain and suffering to make it in life but again he just doesn't nail it. Waste of effort. In conclusion, this album was not quite enjoyable to me. You can have all the catchy hooks and beats all you want but if you're raps are boring and hold no weight then it's a no go for me. I give it a final grade of a C-. As this swag rap era continues to grow, Kid Ink as well as the others will more than likely stick around for quite sometime because of their ability to make hit records. But a lot has to be done for them to be taken more serious. In Kid Ink's case, I think his album title is mis-leading. Nothing on this album showed me that he's in his own lane. He's in a lane with a bunch of other people. If he wants to be in his own lane, he has to bring more variety and originality to his music. Do that and the Kid Ink personal lane will open. No question. End.
Final Grade: C-
CREDITS
Executive Producers
DJ Ill Will
J. Grand
Lead Artist
Brian Collins
Production
Floyd Hollis
Alex Schwartz
Joe Khajadourian
Dijon McFarlane
Michael Holmes
Andrew Harr
Jermaine Jackson
Lasanna Harris
Sham Joseph
Jeremy McArthur
Mikhail Cronin
Raphael Jurdin
Pierre Antoine-Melki
Larrance Dopson
Carl McCormick
Ned Cameron
Kenneth Coby
Khalief Brown
Collaboration
Christopher Brown
Michael Stevenson
August Alsina
Carlos Coleman
Terrence Thornton
Richard Baker
Gabrielle Varner
Brandon Green
Robert Williams
Olubowale Akintimehin
Darold Ferguson
Karim Kharbouch
Label
The Alumni Music Group/88 Classic/RCA Records
