MUSIC REVIEW
By Amra Jean
I will be completely honest. I hadn’t heard of Russ before I first realized that this album existed. And when I decided to listen, I was praying for this guy to not be another SoundCloud rapper. Luckily he isn’t, and I will say I’m thoroughly impressed with his music.
I’m sad to say I never heard of him before because his album “Zoo” is infinitely better than half of the music that they play on the radio nowadays (granted that’s not saying much, but the point still stands) and I actually enjoyed listening to it.
I do have one complaint about it, however. The album seems to suffer the same issue as J.Cole’s “KOD”: There are several instances where the narrative structure and overall vibe of the album is broken up by a love song. Only, it’s worse because, at least how I see it, there doesn’t seem to be a narrative structure at all.
It feels more like an EP than an album. And even though you don’t need an obvious narrative structure, it does become clear as day that there isn’t one. When you start off with a song comparing yourself to other rappers and talking about your self-made success and then following it with a mellow love song, needless to say, I wanted to hear more about him instead of his feelings for some unknown person.
My issues with the album aside, I still enjoyed the songs, and I definitely plan to listen to more of Russ’s music. I give this album a 7/10.
