I Am

the take

It kind of felt like Lexa Gates was shoved into my face a lot in the last year or so since I started listening to and reviewing music. While I was kind of curious to check it out initially, I procrastinated in doing so not only because of people I follow on Musicgram hyping her up everywhere I go, but also because her tour last year was advertised HEAVILY to the point where I didn't even want to give her music a chance anymore. But here we are, after a year or so, giving her latest album a listen. And honestly? Lexa Gates' "I Am" is cool, but I don't exactly see the hype so far. It's unfortunate because I had somewhat high expectations for her, though I didn't know what to expect. Lexa's raps and flows are fine for a while, but they get a bit repetitive real quickly. Plus it doesn't help that her voice comes off as monotone to the point where it makes me want to kind of tune out at times. On the plus side, I do appreciate her rapping over various topics and at least attempting to have a wide range of subject matter to rap about. The saving grace is the beats... but even then, some beats sound more interesting than others. Personally, I'm more a fan of those that have those soulful samples incorporated, as it sounds like Lexa is more comfortable on this type of production more than anything. While Lexa Gates' "I Am" has a bit of mid throughout and many tracks that are good enough to listen to, there's something about "Nothing to Worry About", "Anointed", and "Stop Me" that make me still want to check out her older music and see what the hype is. Overall, I'd say this is a solid enough effort by her.