Culture II
2018 seems light-years away from the time when Migos felt so implored to stake a claim in hip-hop that they’d call their sophomore album *Culture*. And yet, *Culture II* arrives only a year after its predecessor, Migos having fully established themselves as three of the most influential voices in rap. This latest offering is a flex, the group delivering no less than 24 tracks of their signature multisyllabic, baton-passing raps. The party starters are here (“Walk It Talk It,” “Auto Pilot”), but they’ve allotted themselves room to experiment, as on the funky Pharrell collab, “Stir Fry,” and Kanye West coproduction, “BBO (Bad Bitches Only),” built on a triumphant horn riff. Migos\' output just prior to *Culture II* may be what made them into superstars, but if their first offering of 2018 proves anything, it’s that there’s plenty more where that came from.
Where Culture was an event, its follow-up feels more like an occurrence, the quality of its songs handicapped by an album that plays like a long and formless grab bag.
This follow-up to 2017’s ‘Culture’ sees Migos cement their reputation for musical innovation, sly humour and louche delivery.
For the first 40 minutes of Migos’ Culture II, the Atlanta trap-rap trio’s combative, aspirational mantras of jet-set consumption achieve such a stark, staccato groove that the music almost becomes meditative – the kind of stupefyingly decadent reverie that gets you “lost in the sauce,” to paraphrase trap forefather Gucci Mane.
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Even during their earlier years on the mixtape circuit, runtime has been an issue for most Migos releases.
The distinctive Atlanta rap trio throw everything but the kitchen sink into a marathon third album
Culture II is both bigger and bolder than its predecessor but with an inevitably diminished impact.
The Atlanta-based hip-hop trio Migos was one of the dominant forces in popular music in 2017.
Migos reinvent the wheel but still say something fresh in our review of 'Culture II'
The new album from the biggest group in rap is very long, and mostly about cars and drugs. But there’s comfort in repetition – and some genuine eeriness and melancholy