You Can Be My Wave

I was looking forward to diving into this new Cakes da Killa project because I very much enjoyed The Eulogy mixtape. For whatever reason, I haven't heard anything else from the talented rapper in the nine years since that tape. Svengali sees Cakes continue on this hip-house wave he's been riding on for the last little while, and I certainly think it fits him. It provides a great avenue for his bold lyrics as well as his smooth, seductive delivery. Unfortunately though, on his first full-length album since 2016's Hedonism, I'm not hearing a whole lot of material. This album is padded with so many interludes which on paper only take up seven of the records twenty-nine minutes, but in the midst of the experience, I feel like Cakes is not rapping more often than he is. I'm also taking into account the fact that Cakes reprises one of the album's earlier tracks, Luv Me Nots. All signs for me point to either a lack of preparedness and/or lack of inspiration. It's a good thing I didn't listen to that teaser EP that came out in September, otherwise this would feel even less like an album and more of an addendum.

There was one song I could really get behind and that was the opening track W4TN. It's a great introduction, exhibits all those great qualities I mentioned above and also has a killer chorus where Cakes is really putting on his hype voice. From here though, things slip into a predictable cycle. The production runs one-note, Cakes doesn't really do all that much to deviate from his seductive tone; again it just comes across uninspired. On top of that, there's a few spots here with some noticeable blemishes. Both Drugs Du Jour and Ball and Chain suffer from really weak hooks, and while I like what Cakes was going for on Think Harder, I don't think his singing is strong enough to hold up the weight of the song's mantra. It's a shame really. I know Cakes can do better than this, I just think he needed more time to craft a truly engaging full-length album experience.