GoldLink
And After That, We Didn't Talk
Release Date: Nov 6, 2015
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: N/A
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Album Review: And After That, We Didn't Talk by GoldLink
Fairly Good, Based on 6 Critics
Based on rating 7.3/10
On GoldLink's 2014 debut mixtape The God Complex, the then-20-year-old rapper nailed a difficult balance: soft sounds, hard rhymes. The music—an uptempo mixture of house music and hip-hop signifiers (GoldLink coined the term "future bounce" for it)—offset lyrics full of hypermasculine, purposefully exaggerated sexual boasts and street-savvy narratives. There was something indescribable about hearing the high-voiced rapper spit something like "Dick to the face, might choke" 0ver bubbly champagne synths, and the tape caught on, along with its signature hit "Ay Ay".
Based on rating 7/10
Head here to submit your own review of this album. Since debuting with the critically acclaimed mixtape The God Complex, DMV rapper GoldLink has gone from strength-to-strength, carving out a lane for himself in which his style of music can thrive. Charging himself with the task of creating music that people can dance to, GoldLink's debut album And After That, We Didn't Talk is the result of rising to his own challenge.
Based on rating 7/10
GoldLink is probably one of the more charismatic genre-benders in rap right now, a danceable force with a chameleonic, often explosive flow that helped cover up some gaps in his writing on 2014’s stellar God Complex mixtape. In the year since releasing the tape, he’s collaborated with a host of producers, chief among them Rick Rubin, fleshing out his sound and becoming the rap face of Soulection, a forward-thinking, Los Angeles-based indie label for genre-ambiguous musicians. The D.C.
Based on rating 2.5/5
The Ta-Ku produced “Electronic Relaxation” has clocked 45.2 thousand Soundcloud plays. It was two years ago that GoldLink uploaded the track, thus launching a meteoric ascension into the XXL Freshman Class of 2015 and invitation into the Malibu dojo of Rick Rubin. At this juncture, the 22-year-old prodigy from the DMV is eyeing the mansion with an indoor fountain displaying a rotating globe that reads “the world is yours.” But, not so fast.
Opinion: Fantastic
Goldlink’s And After That We Didn’t Talk is a triumphant debut, a record cements his status as a trailblazer in modern hip-hop both for his pioneering, house-influenced sound and his gifts as a skilled, charismatic storyteller. Ever since Goldlink burst onto the scene, he’s been touting his new “future bounce” sound, a spacey, uptempo groove based around lavish synths and frenetic percussion. Now signed to progressive electronic label Soulection, the D.C.
Opinion: Excellent
In an interview with NOW this year, GoldLink didn't sugarcoat his assessment of contemporary hip-hop. "Rap is boring to me," he said when asked why he started rapping. The 22-year-old DC MC and Rick Rubin protege doubles down on that sentiment on his debut album with a plea for emotional honesty. "Hip-hop will die, I promise that / If we keep the lies in our raps," he states in the chorus of New Black.
'And After That, We Didn't Talk'
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