The bundle of joy that Erykah Badu was carrying on the epic Live album in 1997 is not a baby anymore! Andre 3000 and Badu’s 18-year old son Seven is now off to college.  The Cain’t Use My Phone artist celebrated on Twitter on April 25th (Monday) to announce the news.  She proudly noted that her oldest was accepted into all four colleges that he applied to.

Our son Seven got his 4 college choice acceptance letters. Makes parents feel good. Dream worked. pic.twitter.com/y5Mv703dEZ

— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) April 25, 2016

While Badu and Andre’s romantic flame didn’t remain lit always, Badu did not forget to mention how much of a great father Andre has been even moving to Dallas to be closer to Seven at the start of high school.

Andre BEEN back & forth tween Dallas and ATL & ALWAYS took care of his son since birth. He moved here /dallas for high school permanently.

— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) April 25, 2016

Although his mama is one of the dopest in music of all time and his father is one of the baddest hip-hop lyricist to ever grace a microphone, Seven may have other plans.

We got a psychology /arts and science major. Go 7.

— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) April 25, 2016

Go Seven! Congrats to you!

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Harlem MC/producer Crystal Caines drops off a care package in the form of five new tracks. (via COMPLEX) For anyone who thought it may be difficult for Ms. Caines to follow up her breakout single “Whiteline” (w/ A$AP Ferg) think again. Sure, this isn’t an album or even an EP for that matter, but the production value and audible diversity within these releases is artistically validating to say the least. If her upcoming “Vertigo” EP sounds anything like these records, it’s going to be difficult for other artists to keep up.

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The album is divided into 3 sections, each with its own elemental description – “Fire,” “Water,” and “Earth” – and its own characteristic mood. “Fire” comes first, beginning with the declarative “Straight Out the Gate,” which opens with an eerie litany and surges forth with a rage-filled verse from Tech, followed by a chorus from Serj Tankian, who introduces the album’s primary contradiction through a twisted image: “We are the children of your rivals, holding guns while reading bibles.” On the second verse, Tech makes the contradiction more explicit by referencing E.B.A.H, his 2012 EP that stands for “Evil Brain Angel Heart.”

Though Tech personally describes his brain as evil, which is a rather one-sided concept, the “Fire” section as a whole is fairly complex. On , “B.I.T.C.H. (Breaking In to Colored Houses)” which has quite a red herring for a title, Tech joins forces with T-Pain to decry his alienation from hip-hop and black culture. The pairing is highly tongue-in-cheek given the two artists’ respective positions within the music industry, but the sarcasm of the track isn’t its highlight. The highlight is Tech declaring that now is his time while going even further inward. Most artists tend to become more palatable when it is time to crossover, but Tech aims for purity, doubling-down on the traits that encouraged his initial alienation. Accordingly, “B.I.T.C.H.” is followed by “With the BS,” a thumping track that easily could have been a club song, but is made into a horrorcore posse cut. The next sequence of tracks avoid pandering just as aggressively, especially “I’m Not a Saint” and “Fragile,” moving songs in which Tech voluntarily exposes his heart, much like the Something Else album cover.

The  brief (3 songs) “Water” section is a conundrum. While Tech the technician is still present, meaning his rapping is still brilliantly crafted and executed, for two of the section’s three songs, the word “weenie” has a noticeably increased frequency and the tone is rather goofy. Nevertheless, by  the time the B.O.B. -driven “See Me” is over, despite the increased goofiness and a rather lame verse from Wiz Khalifa, the “Water” section feels like a necessary transition to the “Earth” section, which has tectonic shifts in tone and content.

Featuring few choruses from Tech N9ne himself, the “Earth” section takes the listeners beyond Tech‘s personal thoughts and desires on his life and focuses on the lives of others, particularly children. “That’s My Kid” is actually this section’s highlight, featuring musings on parenthood from Tech, Big K.R.I.T and Kutt Calhoun alongside a very powerful chorus from Cee-Lo. “My Haiku-Burn the World” is a close second. It’s tempting to classify the track as an attempt to crossover, but what kind of crossover song talks about child molestation? Furthermore, as “B.I.T.C.H.” indicated, who exactly would he be crossing over to? In addition to the general message of “Don’t give horrible deeds the luxury of silence,” the meta-message “My Haiku-Burn the World” seems to be something along the lines of, “You can make whatever kind of music you want and you should.” Rappers should take note.

Autonomy doesn’t always guarantee success though. “Believe” and “Priorities” are definitely misfires, no pun intended. The former is heartfelt in its ambition, but its execution lacks the passion that characterizes the rest of the album, even on songs like “Dwamn.” The latter is also ambitious in terms of its format -3 rappers trading bars over an increasingly frantic beat – but it is kind of an anomaly in terms of tone.

In the end, the range of Something Else may be a little disjointing, but the album makes a coherent statement about what one rapper can do. Emotional vulnerability, braggadocio, lust and rage are not mutually exclusive.  Furthermore, more than just a compilation of contradictions, Something Else is an assertive album that declares what rap can do in both its independent and commercial manifestations. In that sense, Something Else truly is something else, not a middle ground or a compromise, but an alternative, a workable aesthetic option for both those at the top and at the bottom.

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