ANOTHER LOOK: Pusha T "DAYTONA"

I think it’s about time that I did this, but today I want to write what is the first in a series that I call “ANOTHER LOOK.” This is basically a series that I’ll occasionally do when I feel like my opinion changed really drastically on a certain album. 9 times out of 10, though, this will be a series that I do if I previously gave an album a “Not For Me” rating, just to give it another look and see if I can give a more definitive opinion on the album. That, or it'll be done for albums that I may not have expounded enough thoughts on in the past. So, naturally, let’s start by giving another look at the only album that has received a “Not For Me” rating to this point, and that is the latest Pusha T album “DAYTONA.” (Oh, by the way, this doesn't count as review #132. Since this is technically a series in and of itself, it doesn't count chronologically in my reviews. Thought I'd add that in.)

Now, this series will be a bit different from my reviews. Instead of going bullet for bullet talking about why I liked each song as I tend to do in my reviews, I’ll basically just re-introduce the artist to you guys, talk about how I felt when I reviewed the album, why I may have felt that way, and try my best to sum up my new thoughts on the album, with a more precise list of “favorite tracks” and “least favorite tracks,” along with (in most cases) a shiny new rating.

So, for those unfamiliar with Pusha T and “DAYTONA” in general, Pusha is a New York rapper and the President of Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. He first started up with his brother No Malice as part of the hip-hop duo Re-Up Gang. Though the two split up, Pusha was signed to Kanye’s GOOD Music label and appointed the President of the label in 2015, the same year he released his second studio album “King Push - Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude,” two years after his debut album “My Name Is My Name.” He’s also shown up more than a few times as a feature on albums I’ve reviewed, from Desiigner’s “New English” to Belly’s “Mumble Rap” to Logic’s “Bobby Tarantino” and even Linkin Park’s “One More Light.” He also seems to have a very, umm…friendly relationship with Drake, as I’m sure you guys may remember from this past Summer.

Now, I bring that up because, as I said, when I give these albums another look, I want to talk about the mindset I was in when I first reviewed them. Now, when I first reviewed “DAYTONA” back in late May, I didn’t really have it on my radar. I had heard several positive things about the album, but the high praise for it actually had nothing to do with my motivation to write a review. I’m sure it should be obvious, but the entire reason I wanted to listen to it was because of Pusha’s beef with Drake. For those unaware of the beef, on the closing track of this album, “Infrared,” Pusha brought up the claims that Drake’s music is ghostwritten with lyrics like “it was written like Nas but it came from Quentin” referencing Quentin Miller, who was labeled as Drake’s “ghostwriter” back in 2015 (even though Quentin has said several times over that he's not Drake's ghostwriter and that they merely collaborated). The lyric “how could you ever right these wrongs / when you don’t even write your songs?” also references Drake’s track “Legend” and further insinuates ghostwriters.

Drake shot back with the “Duppy Freestyle” where he basically called out Kanye West (the man who produced Pusha’s album) for using Drake himself as a ghostwriter (which was confirmed because Drake helped write the amazing track “Yikes” off of Kanye’s latest album “ye,” and initially didn’t receive the credit for it), and further called out Pusha’s drug-dealing hustle, the fact that he’s not multi-million, and the fact that Quentin was not a ghostwriter, but rather someone Drake was trying to help. However, it was Drake’s simple error of making a joke about Pusha’s fiancée (where he claimed he would “let it ring on [Pusha] like Virginia Williams”) that led to Pusha firing back with the absolutely deadly rebuttal “The Story of Adidon.” On it, he dissed Drake’s estranged parents, insinuated that Drake was hiding a child that he had with artist and former porn star Sophie Brussaux (which turned out to be correct, according to Drake’s “Scorpion”), claimed that Drake was hiding said child for the sake of an alleged Adidas press run (has yet to be confirmed but it wouldn’t be shocking if Drake planned it and then backed out as a result of this track), and fired shots at Drake’s producer 40 and his multiple sclerosis (ironically doing so on the day before World MS Day). Yeah, it went pretty hard.

Now, I know, I just spent way too long talking about the beef, and some people might be like “what? You spent more of your second look talking about a beef than you did talking about the actual music!” and things like that. The thing is, it’s important that I talk about it not only for those unfamiliar, but to give an idea of what I was thinking going into the album: while I do think Pusha’s track was insane, and I think it’s definitely an enjoyable listen, at the time I spent too much time wondering why Pusha decided to make the rebuttal personal after Drake dissed his artistry and hustle on “Duppy” (I know, Pusha said it was because Drake name-dropped his fiancée, but hot damn, Pusha, all that because of a damn name-drop?). Looking back, I feel like there was at least a small part of me that was so burned out from hearing so much about the diss tracks and the beef at the time that I walked into the album with a slightly negative mindset. In the end, I ended up creating the “Not For Me” rating because there were legitimately no tracks that I considered “favorites” and no tracks that I considered “least favorites.” It was easily the most conflicted I had felt after reviewing an album, and even after I posted my review, I felt like I didn’t give it a fair enough shot. After hearing it a few more times afterward, that only rang more and more true to me, so I just had to give it another look and give it a new rating and opinion.

And, I’m glad I did, because hearing it again, I think Pusha really comes through with something very solid on “DAYTONA.” The opening track “If You Know You Know” actually has a pretty fun hook to it, and as I said in my original review, Pusha comes through with some clever bars on this one. It takes a little bit for the song to kick in, but I love the very energetic production when that does happen, and Pusha’s vocal performance is very charismatic as well. During my first listen, I didn’t really find much of it sticking with me, but now I think Pusha’s performance and energy are quite compelling. And the production remains very interesting on the very plucky “The Games We Play,” which again has a very old-school feel to it that I really like. In my original review, I mentioned that I wasn’t crazy about Pusha’s performance, but I must’ve been overly cynical because I think his very aggressive tone is actually pretty strong here. I do kinda wish the song had a better hook to it, but Pusha’s lyricism and flow are commendable, and they keep the song interesting for the entire duration.

Pusha’s energy keeps up on the track “Hard Piano,” which has some more busy, rattling percussion that really works, and again, I love Pusha’s hard tone on this one. I still don’t find myself really digging Rick Ross’s feature all that much here, but I think there’s still a lot to like, from the aforementioned production to the very memorable hook from The World Famous Tony Williams. And Pusha manages to bounce back from that with the very bouncy “Come Back Baby,” a track where he discusses his love for dope and money over an instrumental with some very fun, simple percussion. Pusha’s flow and performance are assured and confident, and the George Jackson hook is one of the most compelling choruses on the record. It stands right up there with the hook on the next song “Santeria,” as 070 Shake comes through with some very eerie Spanish vocals on the refrain. And the rest of the cut around it is compelling as well, with a very dark, sinister edge to it and a Pusha T performance that oozes in assured aggression.

The album does hit a bit of a speed bump on the track “What Would Meek Do?” featuring Kanye West where, despite some very atmospheric instrumentals and enjoyable vocal performances from Pusha and Kanye, I don’t really find Kanye’s lyricism to be quite as compelling as Pusha’s: where Pusha makes some neat references to Meek and really brings some clever bars to the table, Kanye’s appearance just feels like another somewhat clumsy attempt to continue trying to justify the ridiculous “slavery sounds like a choice” comments and MAGA hat-wearing chronicles that he found himself engaging in during the lead-up to his album “ye.” Fortunately, the album ends off with a massive bang on the track “Infrared,” the song that started this whole messy beef with Drake. I love Pusha’s very clever disses not only to Drake, but also to Lil Wayne, the bouncy production leads in perfectly from the last track, and Pusha’s very energetic, hard performance is cold and very attention-grabbing.

I’m really glad I chose to look at Pusha T’s “DAYTONA” again because, the more I listen to it, the more I feel like I didn’t give it a fair enough shot the first time around. With repeat listens, I found that the production was really compelling and that Kanye’s typical sample-hunting worked very well on this record. Pusha and Kanye created a great mix of tracks that managed to blend well between being bouncy, sinister, and at times atmospheric. And beyond that, I found that Kanye’s sample-hunting allowed him to create tracks with very compelling hooks, and Pusha’s performances throughout were consistently entertaining and charismatic. Even on the weaker tracks, Pusha’s performances and lyricism remained clever and extremely enjoyable. If anything is really holding the album back for me still, it’s the length of it. Yes, the songs hit harder for me now than before, and there’s definitely a lot to like about the album that I was missing when I first listened to it, but at just 7 tracks and 21 minutes, I found myself wanting a lot more. Even with “Infrared” being such a strong finisher, I wanted to hear Pusha say more here. Not only that, but at 7 tracks, you really don’t leave room for error, and unfortunately, there are a few weaker moments on the album that very slightly hold it back from being truly fantastic (coincidentally, the two tracks that have credited features are the weak spots, so you can blame the features, too). Still, Pusha really comes through here with a rock-solid album that’s definitely worth experiencing for yourself. I’m glad I went back to listen to it again, and I’m sure I’ll be listening to it more and more in the future.

If I had to pick my favorite tracks, I would pick “If You Know You Know,” “The Games We Play,” “Come Back Baby,” “Santeria,” and “Infrared.” If I had to pick my least favorite tracks, I would say “Hard Piano” and “What Would Meek Do?.” So, with all of that in mind, if I can sum up all that I’ve taken into account from my return to the album and give it a brand-new rating, I would say that Pusha T’s “DAYTONA” would get a “Good” rating from me. It would’ve been an "Excellent," but as I said, at just 7 tracks and 21 minutes (and with those lackluster features), it left me wanting a little more. Still, Pusha really came through on this one, and I’m glad I got to give it another look.

So, to end this one-off, I’ll give you guys a rather funny story: I always listen to albums I review on Spotify, and then once I’m done listening to the album, I just turn “shuffle” on and go to my “favorite songs” so that I can just jump right into all the songs I have favorited next time I want to listen to Spotify. Well, after listening to “DAYTONA” for this re-review, I turned “shuffle” on and hit play on my “favorite songs,” and the first song that the shuffler picked was a Drake song. I think that, even after giving Pusha T a positive review, they still want me to listen to all my Drake songs. Don’t worry, Spotify, I will. Just, also throwing in those Pusha tracks.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of this format for “re-reviews” and, while I might not have many more re-reviews in the pipeline, I might do one or two at some point in the future, so stay tuned for those.