Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Bobby‘s teasers made me wonder if he was simply trying to become a living meme at this point, and the actual release of “HOLUP!” didn’t do much to dissuade one from believing that.
The primary problem I have with reviewing any Bobby hip-hop track is my bias against him. No, not what stans think in terms of “Y U H8 BOOBY 4” because of his image or whatever else, but simply because I don’t think he’s a good rapper. And again, that remains my primary problem with this release, as his growl style is the most put-on pretend-hard shit ever, and despite praise for his diction or whatever (yeah, because all the best rappers are the best based on their enunciation), it’s just not aurally appealing at all.
https://twitter.com/asianjunkiecom/status/773216341733937153
Worse yet, I don’t think he necessarily adapts to different flows all that well, as in “HOLUP!” it just seems like the plan was to substitute yelling for switching up patterns and other things that could maybe save this from his style itself.
The sad part is that I actually think the buildup in the verses to the inevitable drop was well executed, and the instrumental itself plays up surprisingly well. While I figured the drop would be some kind of fucking mess, and it actually was extremely busy, I did think it works well as a club track or something similar to that. If you look at it as something to get hype to, then it’s useful, but as an actual release you want to listen to at home over and over again or something, I can see how it would wear on people.
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The editing stood out as a positive in the music video for “HOLUP!”, and the director also did a nice job of…
…wait, fuck all that.
…
Most importantly, do they realize that typeface they used for ‘Bobby’ looks more like ‘Mommy’ when it’s turned sideways?
It’s fitting.
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The constant attempt to come off as authentic is desperate and hilarious to us, but it generally works on his target audience, so it all makes sense when you think about it.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the music itself is any better. And while “HOLUP!” is actually one of the least offensive efforts involving Bobby, it’s not due to anything he actually did.
Despite Bobby’s rapping style and the comical styling, the instrumental does save some of this. But even if somebody else performed “HOLUP!”, it would still probably top out as a mindless club song and not something I’d necessarily want to listen to regularly. Not that any of this matters, because most of his stuff is designed to appeal to a specific demo, and he definitely does that well.
