Bas: Milky Way Album Review

Story posted October 31, 2018 in Arts & Entertainment by Jibril Washington.

Bas, the Dreamville recording artist dropped his third studio album, Milky Way on Aug. 24, 2018. This album is truly different from what’s been being put out by hip hop artist this year. It has its own vibe that puts you into such a smooth, relaxing good mood. Bas brings together a variety of genres to complete this intriguing hip hop album. It has hints of African drums and sticks from his visit to Africa over the summer.

He also brings some pop-ish beats along with the soft hip hop beats. But don’t get it twisted, Bas raps straight through this album with the only signs of singing on different hooks. This album speaks to his trips around the world and mainly, to women.

Bas has been working on this album for two years and a lot of his inspiration came from going to Sudan and visiting his family over there and a few other places in Europe and Africa. When it comes to the song “Sanufa,” J. Cole produced it and it came from Johannesburg sound. He wanted this album to be more than just commercial rap and truly be about something worth listening to.

With this album, Bas did just that. He infused all the cultures he invested himself into over the past two years so sonically and smoothly to the ear. From the very moment you start the album to the end you can clearly hear the African drums, afro-beats etc. It’s one of the most international rap albums to date.

The hit song on the album conveys all these things into one is “Boca Raton.” The song is the perfect mix between the international beats with true hip hop beats, but with mind clearing, R&Bish type lyrics. With a 14-album tracklist and only five artists featured on the album, Bas made, for the most part, maximum use of all of them. From A$AP Rocky, LION BABE, and Dreamville’s own Ari Lennox and Correy C each artist complemented the album beautifully.

As great of an album it is, some of the songs also need patience in order to grow on the listener. While the general vibe around this album is relationships and the complications that can come with them, there are two songs on the album where he speaks more to just his regular life. He made a song ironically sort of similar to J. Cole’s “Neighbors” as he speaks on how he was pretty much forced to leave his new place of residence in Los Angeles because of possibly racist neighbors.

He is on a mission to create the new sound of New York with this album and forthcoming, and he’s taking steps in the right direction to do so. There’s no one quite like Bas in New York City right now and he may be paving the way if he keeps this up.

The only thing that can slightly bring this album down is the closing of it. While from the beginning and towards the end, it was a well put together album, the last song, “Spaceships + Rockets” didn’t quite give the finish it deserved. The ending wasn’t terrible, but it lacked the presence that the rest of the album had. It wasn’t a strong and clear closing. Even if he would’ve switched up the beat near the end and gave it the “closing” of an album feel, it would’ve been better.


Looking to the future, with Bas having such a vast number of fans from different countries, they’ll be looking forward to how he can open their minds more in his next project. They allow him to experiment and be Bas, and that’s what they expect moving forward from the Dreamville artist.

Rating: 8/10

 

Jibril Washington is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism and minoring in theatre arts. To contact him, email at jibrilwashington@gmail.com.