Bad Cameo

James Blake, Lil Yachty

Released on 2024-06-28 by Quality Control Music - Motown Records
Main artists: James Blake Lil Yachty
Genre: Alternative & Indie

Available in

24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Iconoclastic rapper Lil Yachty and electronic producer/songwriter James Blake play off of each other with both gentle curiosity and soft excitement on their joint effort Bad Cameo. While both artists have their own particularities when it comes to scoffing at genre (see Yachty's 2023 excursion into psychedelic rock on Let's Start Here for what might be the strongest example of this), they take a less aggressive tack throughout Bad Cameo, delivering textural ambient pop that brings each player's deepest tendernesses to the surface. "Midnight" sounds like an equal ratio of both personalities, with Yachty singing Autotuned verses before Blake drops in for melancholic-yet-anthemic choruses, a relaxed electronic kick drum thumping along as a guide for waves of different synth tones and rushes of vocal harmonies. There's some actual rapping at times, with Yachty flowing melodically over a Blake-ian dubstep instrumental on "Woo," and quivering his way through some weightless sung flows at the end of "Missing Man." More often than not, both artists seem to be enamored with each other and trying to emulate their ideas of the other's style. The breathless vocals Yachty turns in on "Twice" seem informed by a cram session listening to Blake's back-catalog, as Blake's production throughout seems to aim for the same confounding beauty Yachty achieved on his weightless trap hit "Poland." It's sweet to witness two artists carefully adapting to each other, even if the results are sometimes light to the point of forgettable. In its best moments, however--- the cloudy lament that builds into cinematic grandeur on opening track "Save the Savior," the weary, rhythmless groove of "Missing Man," the spacious plastic balladry of "Run Away From The Rabbit," --- Bad Cameo is a compelling picture of two collaborators inspiring each other to try things they might not have on their own.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo

More info

Bad Cameo

James Blake

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

From CA$ 10.83/month

Save The Savior Explicit

00:04:05

Joshua Smith, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - James Blake, Producer, Mixer, Recording Engineer, Vocalist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Randy Merrill, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Lil Yachty, Producer, Additional Producer, Rap Vocalist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Miles Parks McCollum, ComposerLyricist - Liz Isik, A&R Admin - Brittney King Brock, A&R Admin - Dom Maker, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Obi Udezeh, A&R Admin