Hopsin – Pound Syndrome (Funk Volume/Warner Bros; 2015)
Obvious and often unlistenable, Pound Syndrome is yet another on-the-nose polemic by L.A.-born rapper and self-described bullshit detector Hopsin. Evoking Eminem, Hopsin doubles down on the nastiness, evoking a 12-year-old on an internet message board in his pointlessly cruel insults and soapbox pandering. It’s a position made all the more ironic by his unfounded arguments; Hopsin repeatedly makes claims about hip hop’s current state that hold no water. On “No Words (Skit),” the rapper laments how “mentally retarded rappers” have taken over the game in 2015, the same year Kendrick Lamar dropped the showstopping To Pimp a Butterfly. Hopsin even takes aim at auto-tuned trap rappers before warbling like a crying Wookie on the painfully preachy “Fly.” Pound Syndrome is edgy showboating at its most unbearably desperate.
Trial Track: “Fort Collins”
2/10
