ScHoolboy Q – Oxymoron

All killer, no filler from the LA rapper on album three...

With his first major label release, issued via Interscope alongside Top Dawg, Los Angeles rapper ScHoolboy Q (real name Quincy Hanley) proves to the mainstream that TDE’s success extends beyond Kendrick Lamar

Following a model that is traced back to Motown, the label reportedly only allows a track to be released if everyone involved is 100% in approval, and this is reflected on ‘Oxymoron’, Q’s third album overall and the follow-up to 2012’s celebrated ‘Habits & Contradictions’.

‘Oxymoron’ is all killer, no filler – and despite some tracks here not quite translating to radio, in the album context nothing feels out of place. A starry guest cast – featuring Pharrell on production and mic contributions from Lamar, Tyler, The Creator and Raekwon – never derails the set into incoherency, the spotlight forever remaining on Q’s headline role.

Tales of gangbanging and drug dealing contrast with emotional and introspective tracks like ‘Prescription’, successfully translating Q’s oxymoronic lifestyle of doing bad in order to do good by his daughter.

8/10

Words: Grant Brydon

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Listen to ‘Oxymoron’ in full via Deezer, below…

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