Roscoe Sales. via publicist.
When you listen to S.K.A.T.E. by Rylo Rodriguez, you’re never far from a ridiculous pun. Signed to Lil Baby, the Mobile, Alabama, rapper has a knack for outlandish free-association that brightens up his stone-serious trap music. So although the midtempo raps on his first album in three years remain firmly in the bluesy territory of Southern pain rap, his lyricism more readily recalls forebears like Lil Wayne and collaborators like Rio Da Yung OG – for better and worse.
From his magnetic melodies to his undulating cadences, it’s not a stretch to say Rylo Rodriguez is one of the best rappers working right now, and he isn’t slacking off at all on S.K.A.T.E..
Album highlight “Eliza (Bless Me Up)” welds Rylo’s mush-mouthed legato flow to a luxurious soul chop almost as flashy as his lifestyle. He’s buying up bottles of Quagen and booking hotel rooms just to order room service, detailing how he can still see his wrist tat underneath the see-through movement of his skeleton AP. That attention to eclectic detail throws Rylo’s raps into high relief, half-obscuring the clear-eyed grief behind a line like, “I know he went to hell but I wish I could bring lil bro back.” It’s a testament to Rylo’s lyrical skill that these heavier sentiments can coexist with sillier ones (“One of my treeshes getting married, thinkin’ bout crashing the wedding”), and it’s no surprise he’s more than capable of holding his own with label boss Lil Baby and previous FADER cover star Veeze when they show up for features.
That makes the occasional missteps on SKATE all the more glaring. Rylo’s propensity for “first thought, best thought” wordplay can take him into unseemly territory, like when he spits, “all my women old enough, I ain’t R. Kelly” early on “Eliza.” And this week, the track led Offset to diss Rylo on Instagram stories in response to the line, “Freebandz, I’m locked in with Casino but I’m not Offset;” Rylo responded that the line wasn’t even intended as a shot at Offset, which offers a window into how seriously he’s taking the impact of his words.
Sometimes that can be a strength, leading him to genuinely unpredictable lines, like on “Low Top Vanz,” where Rylo brags, “She told me put my pride aside but I’m not Frank Ocean / if I stack my bankroll up it’s the size of Nine Vicious.” But it can also take him to predictably un-woke places, ranging from cringe one-liners like, “I’m getting money like a Jewish family,” to unsavory jokes about Patrick Beverly and Tina Turner.
In particular, the ambient homophobia on SKATE can distract from legitimately good songs. There’s a beautiful moment on “CBFW” where Rylo is showing a woman around his home. “She ask why I got so many empty baby bottles around the house for,” he sighs before breaking into song: a tornado flew around my room before you came / excuse the mess it made, it usually doesn’t rain…. Two bars later, he’ll rap, “I’ma tell my nephew, don’t be on no gay shit / in any situation, don’t tell because it’s lame.” It’s not quite a contradiction, but it’s disappointing all the same.
Halfway through “Eliza (Bless Me Up),” the instrumental downshifts, leaving ample room for Rylo to amble through Chick-Fil-A dates with a would-be watch thief and complain about women he’s already fucked asking him to send dickpics; twice, his lyrics are punctuated with ad-libs by Playboi Carti. When Rylo stops rapping, letting the beat ride while he occasionally hums along, it feels like letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.
The cover art for S.K.A.T.E. by Rylo Rodriguez.
