Raury’s work on “Woodcrest Manor II” and “Her” are some of the more interesting R&B offerings of the year. There are also moments of strong-suited R&B that infiltrated the record. “Trap Tears” repeats the phrase, “It ain’t nothin’ but them tears in the trap.” It echoes slightly like Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap,” but with a much more conscious message. However, the truth of the matter is that hundreds of thousands of Americans, especially black Americans, end up incarcerated due to drugs, whether using or selling. You don’t have to try hard to come across a song that makes it sound cool to slang bricks, and it’s usually linked directly to wealth and sexual success. Atlanta has had the term ‘trap’ very closely associated with it for fifteen years now, and a lot of the songs that have come out of that association glorify the layer of a drug dealer. “Trap Tears” might hit the closets to home for Raury and any other Atlanta natives out there. As we mentioned earlier, Andre has cosigned Raury before, so really we just need a proper collaboration before we can go ahead and fully make the assumption that he’s a second coming of Three Stacks, of sorts anyways. The sun-soaked guitar bits are met with harmonic vocals and drawn-out, jazzy outro, but in between are valuable verses that make Raury seem like the logical successor of Andre 3000’s weirdo-but-conscious rap style. “Peace Prevail” is another example of Raury’s ability to melt genres into his own original style while bypassing the stigmas that would normally come with something labeled ‘folk-rap’. Standin' on the couch inside the club and hit the mall How good is education long as you can ball? “I think their agenda's meant to kill us all shows us why the ‘K’ in his name stands for King: Not only is it an authentically great mix of folk-pop and neo-soul-influenced hip hop, but K.R.I.T. assists our subject on “Forbidden Knowledge,” which stands as one of the album’s best tracks. Love was unconditional, now it's prenuptial”īig K.R.I.T. “My heart's been punctured, I'm dysfunctional Adia provides sultry background vocals on the album opener, and Tom Morello, who’s best known for playing guitar in the rap-rock band Rage Against the Machine, shreds the guitar on the final track, “Friends.” As far as bars go, RZA delivers an emotional verse on “CPU,” which matches up pretty closely with his James Blake collaboration from a couple years back, pining for an old lover with melancholy lyrics
The features on All We Need are kept to a minimum, but they really count when you do hear them. Pyramids and stones, like stones from Stonehenge” Hope this music stands long as Redwood Sequoias Indigos are on the rise to make perennial shift
Just when you think it’s a little too corny for its own good, Raury will drop a real jewel on you, like he did on ”Forbidden Knowledge”: You can find that urge for change all over the record. Whether it is Andre 3000 cosigning him or a massive crowd of youth at his Raurfest (Raury threw an all day music festival in Atlanta back in June), he’s gaining fans all over with positivity. Evidently there are others who yearn for a sense of positivity in their music, because it landed him a deal with XXXXX, who have released this project to much anticipation. It wasn’t jammed with trap beats, drug-dealing anecdotes and strip club anthems instead Raury made a conscious effort to induce a sense of conscious behavior into the Atlanta rap scene. Through thirteen songs, the Atlanta native went completely against the grain of what is popular.
Last year’s mixtape Indigo Child worked to introduce this unique artist’s music to the world. His music is more Fleet Foxes than Young Thug, and with his debut LP All We Need, he is delivering his plea for peace, love, and understanding in a more convincing way than ever before. The nineteen-year-old has risen out of Atlanta’s cloud of dirty sprite to bring a blend of pop, folk, soul, and hip hop to the masses. Raury has been Atlanta’s hip hop wildcard for the past couple years.