Trouble - Year in 2016

Pitchfork 69

The Atlanta rapper Mariel Semonte Orr, aka Trouble, released his first mixtape in 2011, aligning himself with the nascent locals of Duct Tape Entertainment, a label founded by rappers from the same Edgewood Court section of East Atlanta. DTE hasn’t launched a full-fledged star from its roster, but over the last couple years, Trouble’s name has been popping up a bit more conspicuously. Trouble now seems like the imprint’s best chance at a resurgence; he has been earning the attention with some of the most interesting music of his career. His latest mixtape, Year in 2016, is a hasty year-in-review project, and functions as a fan-service document as well as an open invitation to catch up.

In 2015, Trouble made the best of an appearance on Young Thug’s Slime Season 2 mixtape: He slunk into bar-trading stride with one of hip-hop’s squirrelliest vocalists and helped to slur out the “Thief in the Night” hook, which propelled that banger in the first place. The appearance wasn’t an exhaustive come-up, but it suddenly cast Trouble in a newly capable, vital light. Trouble has been nurturing that collaborative spirit for years, and he’s become an increasingly reliable Atlanta team-player. Accordingly, Year in 2016 hosts enough Atlanta rappers to scan like a local studio sampler. The posse cut “Watchu Doin,” one of several here culled from Trouble’s 2016 mixtape Skoobzilla, corners him with Quavo, Young Thug, and Skippa Da Flippa. Quavo and Trouble co-pilot a tumbling, charged-up hook; on a busy beat with some big personalities, Trouble sounds indispensable, never like an add-on. It’s not an isolated occurrence: Trouble holds his own through a handful of other crowded tracks here, too.

More than ever, Trouble has opened up as a rapper, having long since retired the slow-talk flow he barked out on clunky early songs. Trouble is now more likely to channel the audacity and emotion of his bars in snappier ways. There’s still something endearingly awkward about the way he ladles his voice: sometimes shouty and yelping, others mumbling or singing a slur.

Lyrically, “Ahh Man” may be Trouble’s most depressing banger ever, in which he sours a piano loop with downright gloom. He moans about not wanting to answer his phone, justifies drinking because of his father’s health, and cops to copping pills for his grandmother in legitimate need. (“I guess the system just ain’t showing no love/I got her a pack off the street though,” he fesses.) He contemplates his uncertainties: “Sometimes I be blaming myself/For the doubt I brought down on myself.”

On “She in Love Wit Trouble,” another solo track with some wonky trap synths dancing in the background, Semonte plays the boastful homewrecker; he flips his own name into an easy pun for a playful melody. If there’s a lasting effect of this tape, and Trouble’s recent success, it’s that he’s become an increasingly adept hook slinger—prone to staying in pocket melodically, but versatile and daring in every other sense.

Not all the songs on Year in 2016 originally belonged to the headliner, but when Trouble plays the featured artist, he’s dynamic enough to make an impression. Still, a pair of Fetty Wap collaborations fall flat, not for lack of chemistry so much as a missed mark to begin with. And only one of Young Thug’s three appearances marks a return to their banger’s duet style. That track, the Goose-produced “Respect,” stands out early in the tape: Thug’s no-filler second verse might be the attention grabber, but the song belongs to Trouble from the moment he lists his bonafides in the hook.

Year in 2016 rounds up the best of Trouble’s best year yet, but it presses too much into a single compilation for a gratifying continuous listen. Still, an overloaded comp feels like a smart flex for Trouble, ample proof that he’s suddenly, quietly launched an urgent second act. If you haven’t been keeping up, Trouble is the type to remind you he’s been here all along.