Loco(로꼬) - BLEACHED Album Thoughts(K-Rap/Hip-Hop)

Track List:
01. A.O.M.G.
02. MOVIE SHOOT (Feat. DPR LIVE)
03. So Bad (Feat. Sik-K)
04. 호랑이
05. 입버릇처럼
06. 지나쳐 (Too Much) (Feat. DEAN) 
07. 열심히 살아보니 (skit) (CD Only)
08. 아침은 까맣고
09. DA DA DA (Feat. Hoody)
10. 남아있어 (Feat. Crush)
11. 너도 (Feat. Cha Cha Malone)
12. 다시 앞으로 (Feat. SUMIN)

    Loco was a contestant on the first season of Show Me The Money back in 2012. He took home first place and was signed to AOMG Entertainment run by artist, Jay Park. Bleached is his first full length album as far as I know of. I've became familiar with Loco because of the long line of digital singles he has released over the past few years. Some of these releases are collaborations while others are solo tracks written by Loco himself. Bleached comes across as an album that was a long time in the making. It's production does what a lot of other Korean hip hop albums are doing, only a little better. From the opening track AOMG, I noticed that this is going to be a "lets take it back to the old quality of Hip hop." kind of album. The bulk of the tracks are that old school vibe of Hip Hop that America used to do years ago before the mumble rappers and autotune singers came out the woods to infect mainstream hip hop.(Thank God for Kendrick Lamar and many others who don't get the spotlight.) Bleached takes the history that mainstream America hip hop has kind of thrown aside and expands on it to create Loco's own musical vision. Tracks have a soulful funk in some of the instrumentals with drums and bass guitars playing to support Loco as he raps. Instruments like saxophone are also used to give a finishing touch of rich RnB undertone. You all should know that RnB, Hip Hop, and Rap go hand and hand at certain points in music. Movie Shoot, Da Da Da, and a few others inserts that bring a more modern day hip hop sound in the form of a danceable base beat as well as auto tuned vocals all done by Loco himself. He doesn't do everything by himself though. The help of singers Crush, Hoodie, Dean, Cha Cha Malone, and Sumin was needed to make Bleached feel like a full out turned up party. So many different features of vocals was a great way to make Bleached more lit. I'm not a fan of every track on this album just because I'm picky but I did notice something about the lyrics that got me thinking. In Movie Shoot, Loco says in English that "He has a thug life" and I'm thinking what is his version of a thug life?? I think this is once again the issue of Korean rappers not really understanding the origin of Rap/Hip Hop when it comes to its relation to being a quote on quote "thug". As a black man thats lived around that lifestyle but wasn't involved in it, having a thug life means that you're out in the street hustling drugs, stealing, and looking over your shoulder every minute because you don't know when a person might open fire on your ass because you stepped on the wrong person's toes. Wearing your hat backwards, putting on baggy clothes, getting tattoos from your chest up to your arm doesn't make you a thug. Being a thug isn't something to be celebrated anyway. A Thug is a person that can choose to be in that dangerous lifestyle but nine times out of ten they are products of their environment. If your father and uncle are drug dealers, then you're going automatically be pushed into that lifestyle unless you have the means to get out of it. Most people living in poverty don't have that option though. I haven't observed many Korean rappers that understand the way that this process works. Korean's understanding of black people is very surface in fact. They normally don't get past our abilities or our supposed thug fashion to see the bigger history behind it. They even think that having Swag has to do with your actual appearance….. Way to make an aspect of my culture a fashion statement. Anyway, back to the lyric itself. I really don't believe that Loco has a thug life at all. He said that because he thought it sounded cool in the track. I know this and I'm not bashing him for it. The lyric did take me out of the song a little bit.(Love Movie Shoot a lot BTW.) Loco please rap about YOUR truth. Not stuff that you think will sound cool to others. I've seen Koreans starting saying "Thug Life" too and the only thing I can do is shake my head.

    Loco sing raps like Drake. He's an artist that has bars and a somewhat doable vocal. So since his vocals are doable but not amazing, producers autotune the hell out of his singing. This decision might also be a style choice just because American mainstream music is doing it. Loco has a tighter flow than Drake in my opinion.  I'm not being biased either. Drake has always been a weak rapper to me. He's good at what he can do. On the other hand, Loco hits that beat hard with his talent. Auto tuned is add to tracks for stylish effect without cheapening the overall sound too. The vocals without the autotune aren't bad either. There's nothing like a rapper that can legit rap and bring a catchy song along with it.

  Bleached's best tracks are the title track and the songs that were released as singles before the album dropped. Loco is a talented rapper with a bright future ahead of him. Just stay genuine to who you are as a rapper. Leave the drug life and thug life alone, please. Especially when  thats not your experience.