Denzel Curry is a south-Florida rapper who's been making a name for himself since he was about 17 years old. In 2013, he released his first mixtape "Nostalgic 64," and it made a big splash in the underground rap scene.Denzel Curry is an artist who really pays attention to his lyrics, he takes his time with his music. Curry’s lyrics make people think about what he is trying to say.
Denzel's performance is incredibly aggressive right from the get-go with him dropping this very long first verse and practically yelling these first lines on the song "ULT." This track also has a great hook on it as well, making it a very strong opening to this mixtape. Denzel's lyrics and song topics on this project are just as aggressive as his flow and delivery, mostly dealing with topics of racism, violence and crime, and loyalty among friends.
Denzel and Joey Badass work very well together on the track Zenith, and it does well adding variation to the instrumentals while it not sticking out too much. However, the most notably different track here is the closing track, “If Tomorrow's Not Here” featuring Twelve’len. I actually hear a strong Kendrick Lamar vibe with a little bit of R&B.
Apart from the odd track, the other thing that bothered me is the production quality. Although I really like most of the beats in the songs, the production of some songs can sometimes sound very muffled when all of these different sounds mix together. It can kind of be justified in the fact that this is a mixtape and they generally sound a little worse as far as recording quality goes, but I almost expected more since this is his third major project.
In the track “Sick&Tired” he is talking about he is sick and tired of living around people living in poverty and it reminds him of being poor. Here he talks about he wants to give his son everything he never had. Plus I don't want him growing up saying that he never had s***/ Daddy never had it, but based on analysis
Overall, Imperial is one of the most fantastically memorable hip-hop albums of the last decade. It is a truly unique album, especially compared to his peers from the XXL Freshman Class(Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, Desiigner, G Herbo, and Lil Yachty) . Denzel fully recognizes his promise in Imperial, and I can not wait for this artist to blow up. Curry may have finally found the sound that matches his flow and voice well, and his songwriting has definitely improved a lot since his first project. I really hope this mixtape finally opens some major doors for Curry and he can start doing more in the mainstream and achieving his full potential as a rapper.