Album Review: Trippie Redd returns to form on 'A Love Letter to You 4'

After a disappointing album in August, Trippie bounces back by referring to his signature style his fans love.

Written by Thomas Galindo

On Nov. 22, Trippie Redd dropped the fourth installment of his “A Love Letter to You” series of albums, his second project in the last three months. In August, he dropped !, which was arguably his worst project to date. Coming into A Love Letter to You 4 as a Trippie Redd fan, all I hoped for was anything but a repeat of !

What made ! such an undesirable project was that in every aspect, the album lacked any passion. Trippie’s music is, and has always been, effective because you can hear the passion and heartbreak in his voice when he croons, and the soft, often guitar-infused production compliments his emotions well. In !, the effort and passion are lacking in the songwriting, motifs, vocals, and beat selection.

Now we have A Love Letter to You 4, an hour-long, 21 song album loaded with features from artists that have all made a name for themselves in the past year or two. These include marquee names such as DaBaby, Juice WRLD, and Pi’erre Bourne. These features, along with Trippie re-committing to the style of the previous three A Love Letter to You albums are what make this album a success.

The first three A Love Letter to You albums, which date back to 2017, portray a very melancholic, love-seeking Trippie, passionately expressing his discontent with a significant other throughout the album. Scattered amongst his woeful croons are bangers that deviate from the mood of the album, but help lift the spirits and vibe of the project as a whole without diluting the message Trippie is trying to get across. In past albums songs like these have been “Poles 1469” on ALLTY1, “Bust Down” on ALLTY2, “Elevate & Motivate” on ALLTY3, and “1400/999 Freestyle” on ALLTY3. On ALLTY4, “Death” featuring DaBaby and “The Grinch” accomplish this well, with hard-hitting beats and upbeat, aggressive performances from Trippie, and a fantastic verse from DaBaby where he spits the bar “I’m with Trippie Redd, oh you with a b---- he scared.”

As for most of the content on this album, the soulful, trademark emo rap songs do a great job flowing with one another, and include many impassioned bops that are easy to sing along to. Fans love Trippie Redd because he can portray the attitude and mood shifts of a heartbroken person, while also making ballads that create earworms in the listener’s head. This is really the goal of most emo rap, and Trippie is one of the masters of this genre because he can do so effectively. Songs that accomplish that on this album are “Love Me More,” “Real Feel,” “Chosen,” and the opening song “Leray,” which is practically a diss track to his ex-girlfriend Coi Leray, who had a feature on his last album. With Trippie returning back to the sound that brought all of his success, and getting his features to match the mood with their contributions, this album is a great listen all throughout and establishes a somber groove with few hitches to disrupt this vibe.

Overall, A Love Letter to You 4 is a much needed rebound for Trippie. Songs like “6 Kiss” featuring YNW Melly and Juice WRLD, and “Can You Rap Like Me, Pt. 2” reaffirm Trippie’s talent and ability to create enjoyable music. Another bad album could have created a sense of irrelevance and non-essentialism for Trippie Redd in the landscape of rap, more specifically emo rap. He hadn’t put out an impressive, cohesive project since Life’s a Trip in mid-2018, and this quick turnaround from ! could help fans get that bad taste out of their mouths.

REVIEWSAfterglow ATXNovember 26, 2019