Compton rapper WESTSIDE BOOGIE ventures through emotional revelations, ironic truths, and trauma unpacking on his latest second studio album More Black Superheroes. The consistent theme woven throughout the project is Boogie’s earnest truth, even when it’s toxic. The album is an opening of his journal and a sit-in on his therapy sessions with lo-fi funk production creating rainy days and late nights around his honest words.
WESTSIDE BOOGIE Finds Safety In Knowing Himself
Within Superheroes we see the 32-year-old rapper talking himself through his known toxicity. On “LOLSMH II” he says “I need power to be present / Teach me how to stop deflecting every time you show affection.” He is emotionally aware of himself. “Honestly, this been feeling like some shit that I can’t shake” he says, facing it head-on.
Irony Is Truth Too
However, Boogie also has content in his bad traits. Perhaps, stemming from feeling like he can never escape his traumas. Traumas from growing up a Black man in the hood – the message radiating from “STUCK.” The sixth track “PRIDEFUL II,” a follow up to his 2016 single “Prideful” further shows what inescapable negativity feels like. Here, the somber track narrates his thought process after a breakup. Its a back-and-forth of missing his old girl, and messing with others to fill the void she left. He reveals his process of using lust to heal his loss. The spiteful next track “Aight” really illustrates his use of deception as a bandaid to use love loss. “Know that I’ve been, uh, big steppin’ / Never learned my lesson.”
Nonetheless, Boogie shows he is capable of facing the worst parts of himself. “CAN’T GET OVER YOU” is the cracking open of the hard shell he’s created around his person. He becomes his own Black superhero, by using his music as therapy. Literally, he even has his actual therapist open the closing track, “ANTHONY (WAR).” The most emotionally revealing, here, he raps about some of his heaviest trauma; his father. Then, in the latter half of the track he summarizes all the journal entries in Superheroes. The conclusion he comes to here, without shame, is that his traumas are his toxicities are his self. This is Boogie’s superpower; his truth.
WESTSIDE BOOGIE’s More Black Superheroes is out now via Eminem‘s Shady Records.
