YG's "Stay Dangeous" (Review)

"Stay Dangerous" doesn't quite approach the near-perfection of YG's first two albums, but his looseness and maturation make for an essential listen. 
YG's first two albums, My Krazy Life and Still Brazy, are two of the most essential rap albums— or at the very least, L.A. rap albums— of the past five years. His debut surprised everyone with its skillful execution of the "day in the life" trope, which was more hard-nosed and less introspective than Kendrick Lamar's similarly-styled good kid, m.A.A.d city, but just as honest and engrossing. Still Brazy dialed back the structural ambition but saw YG stepping up his fundamentals, delivering better rapping, more thoughtful subject matter, and a more cohesive-sounding final product. For someone whose features and non-album material usually come off as more playful than serious (think BlocBoy JB's "Nike Swoosh," Cardi B's "She Bad," or Ty Dolla $ign's "Ex," to name three recent examples), YG doesn't mess around with his albums. Song titles like "I Just Wanna Party" and "Bool, Balm & Bollective" might have promised something sunny and relaxing, but instead we got tales about YG socking a dude in the mouth and a girl putting a brick though the window of his 6-4. 
While Stay Dangerous may not quite measure up to its predecessors, it does offer some respite from their unflinching portrayals of life at street level in Compton. This still being YG we're talking about, the album's not exactly "relaxed"— after all, its first lyrics are, "It's 10 times harder for a real n****." More accurately, Stay Dangerous showcases a more mature artist who's less afraid of letting his guard down.
The purpose of opener "10 Times" isn't brutally depicting what it means to be "real," as YG often did on his first two albums, but rather explaining how hard it can be to lead a normal, relaxed life with that reputation forever branded on him. YG weighs his options: either stay dangerous or capitalize on his fame and protect his family. "Pops told me to change up," he raps, illustrating one side of the pressure. He continues, "But if I change up, they gon' say I changed up," capturing the push-and-pull he feels between family, fans, and the 400 set he still reps. As writer Matthew Trammell put it in a Fader cover story shortly following an assassination attempt in Fall 2015

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