Schoolboy Q: Oxymoron
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South Central LA rapper Schoolboy Q makes much of his gang background with the Crips, which apparently confers on members extraordinary sexual prowess and agility with wide range of firearms.
A hint that we should take the boasts with a pinch of salt (or perhaps some other substance) comes with “Prescription-Oxymoron”, a Portishead-sampling two-part track in which Schoolboy plays both drug addict and dealer, an excellently realised act of role play that highlights the dramatic license underlying his claims to be the “realest n***a breathing”.
Like his LA peer Kendrick Lamar, who guests on “Collard Greens”, he’s a post-gangsta rapper, belying the gang talk with an ecumenical range of styles, from the gothic East Coast menace of the Raekwon-featuring “Blind Threat” to the dirty south bounce of “Los Awesome” (overseen by Pharrell Williams, with his production hat on).
Schoolboy Q
Oxymoron
(Polydor)
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