The dream for an artist usually works as follows: get famous, put other artist friends on, then release group album with friends. We’ve seen it time and time again with the Hip-Hop industry over the decades. Wu-Tang Clan had several affiliates with the group, Cam’ron did it with The Diplomats, and many others have done it as well. This isn’t just an artist’s dream but it’s something you do as a kid. You think of dream scenarios where you can employ your friends and all work together (I always wanted to hire my best friend to be my barber if I got famous).
Hip-Hop fans know of ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg but many are not familiar with the ASAP Mob. This is the group that has helped Rocky achieve stardom and in turn he’s done his part in putting their music out as well. One of the issues an artist will face when trying to get people to listen to their group’s music is the popularity factor. Sure, die hard fans of an artist will do anything that person tells them to do (which is why I own two Memphis Bleek albums and a Young Gunz album). Getting the casual fan to bite? That’s a different story. Even for fans of TDE that only knew of Kendrick, it took some time before people pressed play on ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul.
Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy is a who’s who of guest features mixed with members of the A$AP Mob you may be unfamiliar with. With the announcement that Rocky will be dropping a new album soon, this project serves as a warm up for him lyrically as he’s featured on 10 of the 14 tracks. It’s hard to digest the project as there are so many unfamiliar voices, at times it’s difficult knowing who is who. Mixing that with guest features from Q, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, Gucci Mane, Big Sean, Key! and more, and it becomes even more difficult to enjoy a majority of the project. The skits don’t provide comic relief as they intended to do and Too Cozy suffers from a bloated tracklist. Where its predecessor (Cozy Tapes Vol. 1) excels in a short track listing, the group tries to expand to more songs here and it doesn’t hit.
The problem with having so many names on songs is you don’t get the chance to enjoy or take in everything the track has to offer, such as ‘Bahamas’. Then you have songs with a small guest list, like ‘Please Shut Up’ featuring Key! and Gucci Mane that fail to meet the mark for the names that are listed. There are standouts towards the end of the project with the ASAP Mob and Pro Era combination on ‘What Happens’ and ‘RAF’ is a song that will be memorable for everyone looking to have a fun time over the weekend. Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy fails to hit the mark but overall isn’t a terrible listen. This is a project where you find your favorites and add them to your playlist, but it’s not mandatory listening unless you’re a die hard fan of the A$AP Mob.
Repeatable: ‘Perry Aye’, ‘Frat Rules’, ‘What Happens’
Skippable: Skits, ‘Black Card’, ‘Coziest’
By Joe Coad
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