By Kevin Ludy ’18
American rapper G-Eazy came out with his new album “The Beautiful and Damned” on Dec. 15. This album features collaborations with music superstars like Halsey, Cardi B and Charlie Puth. The record covers the highs and lows of his life, and talks about the parts of the world no one else will.
The first single and standout song was “No Limit,” which debuted in September and featured A$AP Rocky and Cardi B. This song quickly rose to the billboard top 10 showing his popularity, but not all fans were impressed.
“[No Limit] wasn’t my favorite because it’s just different from his other songs,” Kathleen Konkos ’19 said, “but I’ve been a fan of him since eighth grade and I really liked his last album.”
The album Konkos is mentioning was his last record “When it’s Dark Out,” which had songs like “Me, Myself & I” featuring Bebe Rexha on it, and that was a smash hit. This was his first standout record, earning G-Eazy a name in the music world.
Another standout song on the album was “Him & I” featuring Halsey. In this song, he analyzes his relationship with fellow musician Halsey and how society interacts with them.
He raps, “They don’t wanna see us make it, they just wanna divide … 2017 Bonnie and Clyde …Wouldn’t see the point of living on if one of us died.” This shows the issue of society’s need for celebrity drama, and how it puts pressure on them to break up.
“[Halsey and G-Eazy’s] voices go really good together, and I think it’s cool that they’re dating and did a song together since that doesn’t happen a lot with artists,” Elizabeth Hogan ’19 said.
The background track for another song on the album, “Eazy”, is strikingly similar to Halsey’s “Hold Me Down.” Even though Halsey may only sing on the album once, it is clear that her influence is spread throughout.
One of the best songs on the album is “Love is Gone” featuring Drew Love. This song calls out the fact that many rappers rap about simple things, but when they mention trending topics in the world, no one listens.
G-Eazy raps, “So folks won’t listen if they think what I’m saying is conscious … They’d rather hear me turning up on some simpler topics … Yeah so what’s my place, am I outta line?”
This showed a different side to G-Eazy compared to the rest of the album, and I liked that. This song called on other topics like police brutality, sexual assault and equal rights. Putting a song like this out into the mainstream is extremely important today, as it forces its audience to think about these issues.
I really enjoyed this album and think that with the amount of artists featured, there is a song for everyone. “The Beautiful and Damned” shows the quality of G-Eazy’s work and I’m excited to see what he does in the future.
