By Pierre-Jamal Ouellet (Contributor) – Email
Fetty Wap is an anomaly: rarely do we see a debut artist have a meteoric rise even close to what the “Trap Queen” rapper has experienced in 2015. To start, that same debut single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and is even more of a rare commodity in the sense that it is one of the few American rap songs to successfully break through to Canadian mainstream radio. While many rappers would find it difficult to follow up that major success, Fetty Wap brought us “My Way,” and “679,” both of which would later find themselves in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. His latest single, “Again,” has peaked at number 33 on the same chart, making all four of his singles Top 40 hits — a major accomplishment in its own right. The most astounding fact of his young career came after the release of “My Way,” which made Fetty Wap the first male rapper to have two concurrent top ten hits as a lead artist since Lil Wayne in 2011.
While his rise is reminiscent of Drake’s early days with Young Money, in an era of sing-song rap (Snootie Wild, K Camp, Rich Homie Quan, to name a few), Fetty has managed to separate himself from the pack. While his lyricism is simplistic and on par with the vast majority of the others, Fetty Wap has managed to differentiate himself through his excellent ear for melodies and vocal intonation; most noticeably on “My Way,” but for those who haven’t treated themselves to that album yet, the best example of this on Fetty Wap would be on “Jugg.”
But the high points of this album don’t stop at Fetty himself; his beat selection is extremely complimentary to his style. If there is one thing that could be improved upon, it would be differentiating the tempo of his flows along those beats — at the moment, all the songs can sound the same (the same issue many had with YG’s debut album, My Krazy Life) and blend together. However, Fetty did what he does well, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for out of a debut album. It seems that he’s noticed this on his own, though, as his freestyle over Future’s “Trap N*ggas” beat was an excellent change of pace, and a good example of how an artist can maintain the style that made them popular while still altering a few things here and there.
This writer’s personal favourites from the album are “Jugg,” “679,” “D.A.M.,” as well as, “How We Do Things”, although I’m sure each and every one of the songs on this album will make their way into my iPhone rotation. If you’re looking for an album full of catchy songs from front to back, then Fetty Wap’s self-titled debut is the album for you.
