21 Savage newest LP “american dream” was a great listen that adds another successful project in his discography that has shown a major improvement since 2018.
Savage has been on a great run since he dropped “I am > I was”, the improvement in his pen game has been remarkable and it shows on this project.
This is his first solo project since 2018, with his two latest being collab albums with Metro Boomin, “Savage Mode II” and with Drake in 2022, “Her Loss”.
The album starts off with an interlude of Savage’s mother narrating about his life growing up and seeing him overcome the challenges he had to face to get to where he is right now.
Then we get into the second track of the album called, “all of me”, which starts of with a sample of “Wishing On a Star”, by Rose Royce which sets the tone of how the album is going to be moving forward.
In this song he talks a lot about his childhood, emigrating from the UK to Atlanta, Georgia, describing what he went through during this time in his life, stating, “I seen plenty homicides and still kept my focus, kill you for some clout, and they’ll do anything for motion”, said Savage.
The first half of the album is a reoccurring theme of 21 being 21, we also get great features in the first half from the likes of Travis Scott and Young Thug.
But once the album gets to track 11 the theme of the album starts to shift into a romantic side of Savage.
We get the first glance of this in the song, prove it with an amazing feature from Summer Walker.
He talks about a relationship he has with a woman and explains how this girl makes him feel a way no other woman can.
In the song he states, “My brother say he want a niece, When I’m with you, it’s a safe space, Baby, you bringin’ me peace”.
As previously stated Walker was a great addition adding some much-needed versatility to this project that was missing in the first half.
This theme continues on with the next two tracks called, “should’ve wore a bonnet” which features Brent Faiyaz and “just like me”, which features Burna Boy and Metro Boomin once again.
“just like me” is a bit different in this song he talks about how this girl he’s with started innocent but as time went on she started catching onto his ways and started acting like him which is a savage.
The switch in the girl’s personality is described by 21 in the second verse when he says, “You be actin’ like a man, play your role, I need a woman, baby I don’t need a bro, I asked her body count, she sent a GIF of me and Cole (J. Cole).”
The final bar in those lyrics is a reference to 21’s collab song with J. Cole called “a lot” in which the woman is referring to the fact that she indeed does have a lot of bodies which was a pretty funny and clever punchline by 21.
The album ends off with an amazing closer called “dark days” featuring Mariah the Scientist which is one of 21 Savage best written songs of his career.
This is the most heartfelt moment in the album no question, where he talks about achieving the American Dream but with 21 Savage being a mentor to the younger audiences advising them to stay out of the street life.
He references the trauma that the street life brought to his life and the damage it has done to him. And he talks about how he still thinks about the day his brother died.
“Never do no suicide, but I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind, I hurt on the inside but still act like I’m fine.” said Savage.
“american dream” by 21 Savage is not a perfect album by no means, it has duds on the album but for the most part it’s a pretty consistent one, giving this album a nice 8/10, highly recommend checking it out.
