Coming up in one of the country’s innovative hip-hop hotbeds, rapper, singer, songwriter $NOT is tough to pin down. Wearing his signature drawstring hoodie, $NOT is constantly trying out different sonics and styles in the early years of his career. His profile has grown immensely since signing with 300 Entertainment. Look no further than the impressive feature list he’s gathered on his latest offering, Ethereal. Coming off a couple of Cole Bennett-directed videos, this third LP from the New York-born, Florida-raised rapper has all the potential to be an artistic breakthrough. Unfortunately, that’s much easier said than done.
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The single “Doja” with A$AP Rocky checks all the boxes of a grimey, mosh-worthy anthem with heavy bass and a straightforward trap beat. $NOT’s forced aggression on the track almost feels like he’s biting the style of Sheck Wes, something we hear again at the end of “BENZO.” Pair that misguided anger with an underwhelming verse from Rocky and you get a fairly skeletal, flavorless banger. Also, $NOT’s “I’ll fuck that bitch named Doja Cat” line in the chorus is just really weird and unnecessary considering the two have no affiliations. It even prompted a confused response from Doja, forcing $NOT to clarify the intention of the suggestive line.
Sandwiched between “Doja” and the upbeat, synth-driven “Go” is the woozy guitar ballad “BLUE MOON” with Teddi Jones. If that transition sounds weird on paper, it’s even more awkward on the album. This brings me to one of the biggest problems with Ethereal: sequencing. “BLUE MOON” is a very laid-back cut and one of the better songs on the project. However, it has no business being stuck between two rage tracks. The latter of which (“Go”) finds $NOT delivering absurd bars in a very serious tone over a Playboi Carti-type beat. Much like Gunna’s DS4EVER, one can only hear so many lines about busting nuts and killing ops until moving on to something more substantial.
Truly the only cohesion on the record comes from the chopped and screwed sections of the intro and outro. Conceptually, even the title Ethereal isn’t at all reflective of the music presented. Sure it sounds cool but there’s little to nothing about this project that embodies a delicate beauty too perfect for this world.
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Despite the abysmal lows, Ethereal offers its share of highs as well, including a solid four-track run in the midsection. The smoky, soulful production on “EYE EYE EYE” makes it one of the more memorable cuts on the record. Kevin Abstract delivers an outstanding feature, offering more character and personality in his brief appearance than $NOT does on the entire album. Abstract’s shifting vocal timbre and cadence essentially feel like two different features in one. “Halle Berry” finds $NOT link with Juicy J on a beat that combines Memphis hip-hop with cloud rap melodies. Juicy J’s feature is fairly average given his résumé, but even on a bad day, Juicy is leagues ahead of the core material on Ethereal.
We finally get a slight sense of purpose and direction on the standout track “How U Feel” with Joey Bada$$. $NOT and Joey dive into deeper lyrical themes here over a class boom-bap beat with chipmunk vocal samples. Joey touches on heavy subject matter including death, depression, and survival, saying “Ain’t a prescription strong enough for my mental condition / Kamikaze visions, I been having premonitions.” It’s as though Joey’s presence forces $NOT to dive beyond surface-level writing. On the chorus, $NOT raps “Flowers in the field, even in the grave / ‘Cause that’s where I’ma chill, ain’t nothing for a lowlife, still / Heart broke and my own love kills” in a rare moment of introspection. But more often than not, Ethereal is littered with lyrical vomit in the form of unenthused, meaningless threats and flexes that we’ve heard plenty of times before.
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Ethereal presents a lot of grand ideas that ultimately just fall flat. There’s no distinct sound or direction with this project, making it feel much more like a mixtape than an album. At the very least, Ethereal’s sonic diversity tries to offer something for everyone. $NOT is clearly a jack of all trades in the modern hip-hop landscape, but at what cost? He lacks a signature sound or flow to stand out amongst the already crowded scene. The potential is obviously there, it just needs to be fleshed out. Prior to digesting Ethereal, $NOT wasn’t an artist who frequented my personal playlists. However, I can say that after hearing this effort, I’m intrigued by the untapped potential. $NOT needs to stretch these ideas and sounds as far as possible instead of stopping at “good enough” in order to break through to the next level of his artistry.
As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Lastly, in case you missed it, check out my review of The Weeknd’s DAWN FM.
