Information/Write-up
After the experiential darkness that informed 2021's Life After, Young D and Young Trybez present the more celebratory side of Snotty Nose Rez Kids on a succinct, now-you-see-us-now-you-don't blast of songs that find them stunting and savouring their success. More than just letting their hair down with party rhymes after personal struggles and tragedies, SNRK sound genuinely proud of how their innovative, outspoken music has cemented their status as trailblazing cultural leaders.
Bookmarked by skits lampooning clueless commercial radio DJs who have no choice but to give the people the SNRK they want, I'M GOOD, HBU is brisk for an album, clocking in at around twenty-three minutes. Its brevity makes it more direct, with loping beats by KYRIGO inspiring D and Trybez to go for broke on dense, pop culture-soaked braggadocio like "I'M GOOD."
Things get more pensive on "TRENDSETTER," again produced by KYRIGO, but with a wondrously sharp feature by DillanPonders. Within the song's Pusha T mode, SNRK are on one here too, surveying the hip-hop landscape they've altered — against all odds, as a couple of First Nations kids from a remote reserve in British Columbia — and addressing biters who've copped their aesthetic.
If it sounds like navel gazing, SNRK's conscious approach is always informing their frivolity. On "HOT PLANET," sly parallels are drawn between climate change, the duo's ancestry, its relationship to the Earth and their group's status as blazing stars on the rise. But it's not just Young D and Young Trybez alone; on "PAINT THE TOWN RED," a hypnotic, vaguely Dr. Dre-inspired beat propels the rappers to revel in the overdue renaissance of Indigenous music and culture they've been part of bolstering.
"We Native Beatles, bro," Young D raps on "DAMN RIGHT," fearlessly amped about what he and Young Trybez have accomplished together. His creative partner goes in too, on this and "KIDS COME UP, IT'S SUPPERTIME!," hungrily enumerating why Snotty Nose Rez Kids deserve all the love and praise they've been getting, and letting us all know that despite personal traumas and a pandemic in their path, they ate and aren't done yet.
-Vish Khanna, Exclaim, Nov 30, 2022
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