Review: "No House Calls" Album by Vzathegreat
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Vzathegreat is a 21 year old, hip-hop artist out of Groton, Connecticut. Back in January, Vza released his 9 track debut album titled “No House Calls”.
After listening to this project, I would compare Vza’s sound to Tyler the Creator, SuperDuperKyle and Isaiah Rashad. Some of his music is lively and upbeat with lyrics that are full of word play. Others are slow, smooth and full of conscious lyricism. Vza has a unique voice that is deep and raspy and he can spit with many different flows and cadences.
This project features production from ducked off, Ryllo, Twayne the Kid, Dougie, and DJ Noose. The production certainly stands out in this project. It’s not just basic trap beats. There’s a lot of intricacy and musicality in the beats. I especially love the beat on track 6 “Open Ending”.
The first 3 tracks of the project are very poppy and bright. The lyrics are very fun and playful and the songs are very danceable. Track 4, “Pandemonium!” gets a bit more serious as Vza spits about how difficult life has been for him in the past as well as the present. This ability to evoke different moods throughout an album is essential. The very next song “How Did You Die?” creates an even darker mood. He speaks on his demons, alcoholism, depression and death. I feel it’s important for today’s rappers to rap about a myriad of topics and to make their listener feel different emotions. Happy, upbeat, dancing songs are fine, but when it comes to making an album, their needs to be variety. Vza does a good job of this.
On “Open Ending”, Vza gets personal and speaks on some of his feelings. He speaks on his mental health and suicidal thoughts. It sounds as though finding music helped to pull him out of a very dark place. This is a story that many artists and creatives can relate to, including myself. The track is very mellow and smooth, and once again, it does a good job of evoking emotion.
The track “Distracted” is a deep toned, slow song that gives me Isaiah Rashad vibes. This is one of my favorite songs on the project. Lastly, “Hell!” is a song with an extremely dope beat and premise. “This must be Hell I’m livin in because I’m feelin home” spits Vza on the hook.
Overall, this project is extremely diverse and unique. Vza is versatile and his project is extremely well rounded. I’m interested in what he does with his music in the future.