The buzz around Schoolboy Q has been building for the better part of two years. The Los Angeles’ rapper’s gift for wordplay, dark sense of humor and marijuana fixation became well-known amongst hip-hop’s underground. With the release of his 2012 indie album, Habits and Contradictions, Q officially became hip-hop’s “Next Big Thing.” Also, his Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) compadre Kendrick Lamar went from underground sensation to major superstar during that time, setting up high expectations for Schoolboy Q’s major label debut, Oxymoron.
And Q doesn’t disappoint.
Driven by hooks and bass-heavy production, Oxymoron finds Q rapping about his own vices, his hardscrabble beginnings in his old neighborhood and his past selling OxyContin on street corners, among other things. He’s paranoid and troubled most of the time and features assists from a number of notables, including Tyler, the Creator, Pharrell and even West Coast hip-hop vet Kurupt. Schoolboy Q’s greatest asset, in terms of defining himself amongst the other members of TDE, is that he doesn’t try to be “conscious.” He wallows in vice, perhaps to the point of celebrating it.
And he loves to celebrate it, especially as it pertains to his hometown. On “Los Awesome,” Q raps about “Crips, county blues and barbecues” over the Pharrell-produced backdrop. On the grim “Hoover St.,” he admits that “Since a young n—- I admired the crack sellers, seen my uncle steal from his mother; now that’s the money that I’m talking bout.” In reference to the aforementioned OxyContin selling, Q raps, “without the injections, same love and affection, how could they say feeling good is an addiction?” on the ambitious two-part track “Addiction/Oxymoron.”
Those who prefer the more thoughtful raps of Ab-Soul or the unapologetic earnestness of Kendrick Lamar may be turned off by Schoolboy Q’s nihilistic view. But this is gripping music from one of hip-hop’s best talents. In a genre that oftentimes gets pigeonholed, those artists that we deem less-than-conscious can sometimes get a short shift. But with Oxymoron, Schoolboy Q proves that it’s his time to take his seat at the big boy’s table. And his perspective is just as necessary as that of anyone else.
