Score: 5 stars/5
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I must confess a fairly amateur knowledge of the man who brought us the great hazy, smooth radio single “Waves” early on in 2013, right around the time of another Dolby favorite Born Ruffians – Birthmarks. Sure, I follow Mr. Mr. Probz on facebook, but his shares tend to be more pictorial than they are dictive, which of course every bit jibes with the liquid, feather-light quality his ascensional music carries.
It should be understood that I am only reviewing the song and not the accompanying video, although I must say I stole some glances at the video and it did anything but displease. I guess I just feel that as a white person, to an extent I want to distance myself from just the OBLIGATION of having to coherently parse the current black condition in America (screw the moral aspects, I could care less about those… everybody should just do what they feel like doing).
You know what “American Dreaming” reminds me of? It would make like the perfect outro for a hip-hop album which was full of rapping but needs some emotional remonstrance at the point of its conclusion. What I’m talking about is sort of like “Lost in the World” on Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which of course precedes the very similar “Who Will Survive in America,” which indeed could have been conjoined as the same track. Fans of trap, or all things trap-like such as Oddisee’s new banger The Iceberg, will enjoy the thick, complex snares and the overall ruggedness (like I said this thing could very well soundtrack a side b of a Kanye joint), but let’s also not forsake the Stevie Wonder-caliber melodicism this cat brings to the table (the self-produced). Mr. Probz seems like a different man on “American Dreaming.” Or a different animal, for that matter, all the more ferocious and sauntering for his ability to build on his already chosen topic for his commercial breakthrough, the indulgent but seemingly inevitable process of “slipping inside the eye of your mind,” as Oasis might say.