Hodgy - Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide

Pitchfork 50

Technically, Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide is the debut solo album from Hodgy (née Beats). The Odd Future co-founder has been in the public eye, however, for over half a decade. He’s released six solo mixtapes and EPs, five projects with MellowHype, MellowHigh, and been prominently featured on all three OF group efforts–not to mention the “Sandwitches” verse that landed him on national TV. Still, there’s typically a reason why a rapper calls something an album after years of mixtapes. Even if the distinction is increasingly meaningless, as Drake and Chance the Rapper have both scored Grammy nominations off of releases they insist are “mixtapes,” the implication remains that the “album” is a statement piece. In addition, going solo allows an artist to explore sounds and themes that may not fit into a group’s more established aesthetic–even if Hodgy was the lone MC in MellowHype. In both regards, Hodgy offers nothing new on Fireplace, and brings into question what he offers as an artist with MellowHype dormant and the more powerful collective dissolved.

Right off the bat, Hodgy struggles to distance himself from Odd Future. After a brief intro, the first rapper to deliver on the record is Salomon Faye. It’s a move that will instantly ring a bell for OF loyalists–the widest audience for a 2016 Hodgy release–as it’s the same one Earl Sweatshirt pulled on his own debut, Doris, when the shy and sly Sweatshirt let non-rapper SK La’ Flare open his comeback record in one last effort to delay his triumphant return from Samoa. Regardless of intent, Hodgy’s decision to wait his turn on “Kundalini” is a misfire, as he and Faye share tone, pace, and message, making them virtually indistinguishable. There is no contrast or aha moment, just confusion as to why Hodgy would not want to set the tone for his first real album.

Non-distinction plagues much of Fireplace. With MellowHype, Hodgy leaned on Left Brain to create the mood. With Left ensuring a consistent vibe, Hodgy was free to express himself with more creative lyrics that rarely explored much, but had great energy. Fireplace lacks any semblance of cohesion in production, which leads to a survey of generic rap beats that ranges from a Clams Casino copycat cut like “Resurrection” to the chopped-up soul of the Knxwledge-produced “Dreaminofthinkin,” which does not fit Hodgy. There is nothing to ground Hodgy on the record, and very few of the instrumentals catch the ear, despite collaborations with big names, like Unknown Mortal Orchestra, BADBADNOTGOOD, Knx, and 88-Keys.

Without interesting beats, or at least ones that fit a defined aesthetic, all that’s left is Hodgy’s lyrical ability. To start his career, Hodgy’s greatest asset was that he was not Tyler, the Creator. He could have fun while his comrades screamed vilely, but no longer are they rambunctious teens, and lines like “I’m just like Mike, Mike-WiLL, Miley Cyrus,” and “I’m observing like I’m the fly on the wall, nigga, Pink Floyd” are just bad. The latter is on a track with Busta Rhymes, who upstages Hodgy even while on cruise control, just by varying his flow and delivery.

Throughout Fireplace, Hodgy is stuck somewhere among being a punchline rapper, a storyteller, and a moralist. On “They Want,” he raps about institutional racism, and on the closing “DYSLM,” he fights to win back the mother of his son. Otherwise, he does not maintain a consistent message throughout a track, nor does he connect ideas throughout the album. On “Glory,” for example, he declares, “The brightest light my future,” but by “The Now,” he intones, “Don’t be waiting around, go get it time is now.” There are no developments between the two moments that indicate a change in perspective: They remain empty cliches.

The only discernible advancement on Fireplace is Hodgy’s continued growth as a singer. It’s a skill he began to flex in earnest on his 2016 mixtapes They Watchin Lofi Series 1 and Dukkha, and it’s quickly become his most pleasant trait. Unfortunately, although no fault of his own, he sounds exactly like Frank Ocean circa Nostalgia, Ultra., and the Odd Future connection certainly doesn’t help in distancing the two. Hodgy’s singing allows him to handle hook duties on his own, but it also amplifies how bad some of the rapping is (“I’ve learned that ball is life, and I’m the goalie” on “Laguna”), knowing he could do so much more with less just by using his own abilities.

Fireplace is not even Hodgy’s first release on a major label. MellowHype’s Numbers, MellowHigh, and The OF Tape Vol. 2 all came out on Odd Future’s Sony imprint; even BlackenedWhite got a reissue via Fat Possum. After six attempts and years after the collective’s cultural peak, it’s not clear what made Fireplace the project worth declaring Hodgy’s official debut. The record lacks consistent themes and any set of beliefs beyond scattered attempts at positivity. Musically, it is hardly satisfying, as the fleeting enjoyable moments are swallowed up by a great deal of frustrating mediocrity. Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide does not give depth to Hodgy, does not answer why he’s any different now that he’s Beats-less, does not prove that he’s capable of carrying a project on his own. It’s disappointing, considering the potential he showed as a fiery young rapper, but that feeling is perhaps the same reason why Fireplace even exists. Hodgy is a rapper you once knew, and he’s still here for better, but mostly, for worse.