Curren$y - Pilot Talk (Album Review)

Pilot Talk's cover art features a series of fighter jets swooping over a massive landscape filled with marijuana leaves. This is unabashed hip-pot. In a lot of ways, Curren$y and his music is a lot like what Meth & Red were in the 90's, albeit with a lot less personality and skill. Even so. This is an album by a hip-hop loving weed smoker, for hip-hop loving weed smokers.

Topics on Pilot Talk range from that magical-and-peculiar-smelling-substance to girls (bitches) to money to being dope. There's a grand total of one-half tracks that feature something different (all thanks to a murderous guest spot from Jay Electronica). They say that if it ain't broke, don't fix it; how about if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but don't use it thirteen consecutive times. My point here is that Curren$y needs some new shit to talk about, as Pilot Talk's monotonous subject matter gets old after a while.

The primary factor preventing Pilot Talk from being ultimately trash is the man with the boom-bap: Ski Beatz. Responsible for production on every track save two, Ski lays down some superb groundwork for Curren$y to rhyme about one of his four subjects. The beats are cohesive and part-of-a-whole, but with each creating it's own identity. Hats off for that, as the lyrics frequently do little to distinguish one track from the next. The instrumentals steal the show more than once, most notably on the knocking "Audio Dope" and ridiculously smooth "Roasted." The beats are so dope on these cuts that they manage to lift the lyrics on top of them to a higher tier.

Sure, Curren$y rhymes across a depressingly unoriginal and short spectrum of topics, but there's a reason he stays in his comfort zone: he's good there. The first track gives an example of both his confidence and abilities on the mic:

Reimburse me for paid dues

The money made me move, running through my shoes

For the day that I can kick em off, relax

I said I'd quit smoking these beats but I relapsed

There are plenty of moments like this on the LP, where we see the skills that Spitta has, and the potential for excellence he holds. It's just that it's hard for anything to leave a lasting mark in the strict musical template he's locked himself into.

Another saving grace for Pilot Talk is a series of well-timed guest spots. Just when Spitta's repetitive material is getting to be too much, the features are ushered in, and everybody performs well. Smoke DZA, Young Roddy and Stalley all come through and do their thing, offering nice changes of pace. The best guest spot goes, unsurprisingly, to Jay Electronica, who shits on everybody's life, as he tends to do.

Ultimately, Pilot Talk is a good album. Just good. It has moments that are much better than good, and vice versa. It's worth a couple of listens for those good parts, but in it's entirety it only asks for one or two plays.

Grade: 7.5/10