ScHoolboy Q. Habits & Contradictions LP

ScHoolboy Q Habits & Contradictions
2012, TDE

by Martin White

6.4 / 10

Habits & Contradictions is the second LP from Black Hippy member ScHoolboy Q.  Of course, Kendrick Lamar hit it big last year as a part of that outfit, and Q seems to be set to be the next to take off.  He's got a catchy flow and cadence and a knack for being able to adjust his voice to match the attitude of a given track.  And this thing absolutely has its share of great tracks and fantastic beats.  But the problem with Habits for me is that Q just gets so caught up his foibles, impulses, and fixations (most of which center around women) that it becomes difficult to get a real sense of his personality. 

Like a lot of hip-hop discs, this thing is pretty long.  There are a ton of tracks here and with that comes some filler.  Some of it doesn't really make much of an impression negatively or positively, but tracks like "Sexting" and "Sex Drive" and "NiggaHs.Already.Know..." feature hooks that are annoyingly repetitive.  Their monotony lulls me into a bizarrely numb state of unconsciousness for their duration that leaves me strangely confused when they end.  And then there's the fact that so many of these tracks are littered with references to Q's obvious obsessions and insecurities about "hoes" and "bitches."  He is often so hung up on getting laid that it just obscures any depth his rhymes might otherwise have had.  Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of actual content or meaning beneath the surface.  

The production on this thing is damn good, though.  It has those floating, ethereal atmospherics that formed LiveLoveA$AP.  These beats are not so shimmering and pretty, though.  Instead, they are grimy and seedy, living in the shadows and dark alleys.  "My Hatin' Joint" is one of the best tracks here, its beat perfectly matching the laid-back, chopped and screwed rhythm that A$AP Rocky mastered on his LP.  So it's no surprise that Rocky does appear here, on "Hands on the Wheel."  The track has one of the catchiest hooks on the entire record, but it is somewhat marred by Rocky's weak verse that just rehashes the topics ("purple drink" and a lot of dope) that he covered on his own mixtape.  

There are a handful of great tracks here, though, and that's what you have to take away from Habits & Contradictions.  It does create a textured, fleshed-out sound and it's hard not to respect the unique places that some of these beats pull from.  On "There He Go," Sounwave creates a subtly shifting beat by smoothly cutting up the most moody elements of Menomena's "Wet and Rusting," then layering on some crisp live boom-bap drums.  Q then kills it with one of his most charismatic flows.  And you have to respect a track like "Gangstas in Designer," which pulls a flute sample from 70's prog-rock (Genesis' "Firth of Fifth) to create a beat that sounds more like Dave Brubeck.  It's exciting and it's not obvious, unlike Kanye's slap-you-in-the-fast sampling of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man." 

Also not to be missed are "My Homie," "Grooveline Pt. 1" and  "Blessed" (featuring Kendrick Lamar).  All of these tracks also have the suspended, uneasy jazz beats that were all over Section.80, but "Blessed" clearly shows Q's promise.  He's got an indelible flow, and like Kendrick, he's got the ability to make you feel the urgency of his rhymes no matter what the content.  


Listen to "There He Go."