First 48: Oxnard? That’s a Place of Higher Learning, Right?

Image courtesy of XXL Magazine

Welcome to the First 48. What’s the First 48? It is simply the first 48 thoughts that come to mind when listening to an album for the first time. It’s not to be taken as a full review of a project. To diminish an artist’s body of work, no matter the quality of work, to a review consisting of just forty-eight thoughts would be unfair to everybody involved with the project. First 48 is more of a book report outline than an actual book report. Think of the biscuits at Red Lobster, that’s the First 48. An appetizer that leaves you wanting more.

On tap for this installment of First 48 is none other than the major label debut of one Anderson .Paak. Oxnard is .Paak’s first album since signing to Aftermath and the highly anticipated followup to .Paak’s last solo effort, Malibu. Let’s find out if Anderson .Paak can continue his string of stellar releases and continue Aftermath’s streak of quality albums.

Without further ado: This is Anderson .Paak’s Oxnard and this is the First 48.

• Fourteen songs? This is the ideal number for an album. Anywhere from twelve to sixteen songs is a good length with fourteen being that perfect sweet spot.
• This is .Paak’s major label debut following his independent releases Yes Lawd!, Malibu and Venice. I have high expectations for this album. It doesn’t have to be better than those three projects but at least in the same ballpark.
• Some interesting features here in the form of Pusha T, Cole, and most importantly Q-Tip. These features have the potential to steal the show, especially King Push.
• “The Chase” opens up so beautifully. I’m getting Isaac Hayes “Shaft” theme song vibes from the first minute or so.
• A nice easy album opener that features some nice sports references such as “Hard to get up from this like Sonny Liston/Feel like Isaiah and Laimbeer with the Pistons.” A nice appetizer to start.
• “Headlow” started off with such a smooth intro then it just went right into .Paak telling us a great story about the various times of him getting head.
• “Tears falling down my left cheek. Baby hit the nerve like Pepsi.” If that ain’t some top shelf, make you reconsider life and maybe risk it all head then I wanna know what is. Cause….
• Oh, look an Aftermath album with skits at the end of songs. Where have we seen this before?
• That’s right by the guy who stole the show on “Tints”. Hi, Kendrick. Y’all can retire the skits gimmick now.
• *Looks at calendar* It’s late November and we JUST got “Tints” a couple weeks ago. Did nobody think to drop this back in say July or August? Hell, even September. Or was the record not finished?
• “Tints” really is that perfect early or late summer record. It has that perfect, relaxed west coast vibe.
• The outro for “Tints” is smooth. There’s no other way to describe it other than smooth. Go listen for yourself and tell me if you come up with a different word, I’ll wait.
• Normally, .Paak has a great ear for beats but something about “Who R U?” feels a bit jumbled together at times. As a whole, it’s a solid beat but something just seems out of place.
• “6 Summers” is an example of seeing a song title and expecting one thing only to get something COMPLETELY different. I was expecting a coming of age song or some sort of storytelling on the record.
• Instead, we got .Paak going right after Agent Orange directly. With lines such as “Trump got a love child and I hope that bitch is buck wild” and “That’s why he tryna start a war on the Twitter feed.” Wonder if 45 is gonna tweet about those lines or ignore it.
• Splitting “6 Summers” into two different halves was an interesting choice. The second half was definitely the better part.
• I was really expecting a summer anthem or something that hit similar to “Come Down”
• 9th Wonder took us to church with that beat for “Saviers Road”. Also, that song was incredibly short. Kept waiting for it to build to something.
• “What is it about my smile that makes you lie to my face? If I close my eyes to your bull shit, I could still smell it on you.” I think we all have been there and felt that at one point in life.
• Halfway through this album and while it doesn’t have the highs such as “The Season/Carry Me” and “Am I Wrong” it’s still a solid album so far with “Tints”, the second half of “6 Summers” and “Smile/Petty” being the highlights thus far.
• “Mansa Musa” is a great record but this is the biggest let down of the album so far. It’s not even close.
• I looked at the tracklist and saw that this featured and was produced by Dre, I was expecting some loud stadium, anthem type track. Think Ross’ “Devil Is A Lie”. Something to that effect. Something with some more force behind it.
• “If Jesus would’ve had a better lawyer, would he have had to see the cross?”. That’s a loaded ass line.
• Pusha came through with another great Pusha verse. We really need to acknowledge that Pusha is a great feature artist and doesn’t always rap about coke.
• What is this beat change after Pusha’s verse? Like that’s all we get? This record had so much promise. I feel like this record got reworked after Pusha laid down his verse or verses.
• Listening to this Snoop verse reminds me that he really beat a murder charge and there’s a whole group of fans/people who don’t know Snoop was ready to get his hands dirty.
• “Anywhere” is so damn smooth and one of the few songs on here to remind me of Malibu.
• *opens up Audacity, goes to 2:31, cut’s all audio from 2:31 to 3:31* J. Cole didn’t have a bad guest verse and stayed on topic, unlike this, but he ruined the energy of the song for me.
• Speaking of rappers ruining R&B songs, Hi Rick Ross.
• Feel like a lot of people are gonna miss .Paak acknowledging Mac Miller’s passing with the line “Wishin I still had Mac wit me”. A Mac and .Paak joint project would’ve been amazing.
• Q-Tip stole the show with this guest verse. Now I wanna go listen to old Tribe albums and hear him and Phife Dawg go back and forth trying to one-up each other.
• The saxophone and horns on “Cheers” really brought the record together. The outro is maybe my favorite minute of pure instrumentation this year. Reminded me of The Roots.
• Thank God “Sweet Chick” isn’t another sappy love song. Once again, never judge a song by its title and features.
• “She go vegan on the weekends. Hell naw, you shouldn’t be eating dick.” Is dick vegan? Does anybody know?
• “Sweet Chick” is an updated classier version of Jay Z’s “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Tell me I’m wrong. I’ll wait.
• BJ The Chicago Kid is so damn good and underrated. However, everytime I hear him on a record I think of this line from his Pineapple Now n Laters project: “Girl, you know you the shit. I can smell you stankin.”
• Oh look another skit at the end of a song, however, this one is actually entertaining and goes with the song. Aftermath still needs to let this trend die.
• I have nothing to say about “Left to Right” except that I could have done without it and I really don’t think I’m going to give it much replay. Such a bad note to end the album on.
• There are two ways to look at this record after the first listen. The first way is this is a solid respectable follow up to Malibu but it feels hollow at times and lacking. The other way to look at this is it’s a solid if not almost great debut to the masses and a new audience.
• I wonder where “Bubblin” would have been on the tracklist if it made the album. I would have closed with “Bubblin” instead of “Left to Right”.
• The second half of the album is definitely the stronger half of the album and shows .Paak at his best.
• The highlights are definitely “Cheers”, Pusha’s “Brother’s Keeper” verse, “Sweet Chick” and the second half of “6 Summers”.
• That beat change on “Brother’s Keeper” is still bothering me. There’s gotta be an extended Pusha verse somewhere.
• The album is titled after Anderson’s hometown of Oxnard, California. Looking at it after listening to the album I read it as Oxford because it’s clear that .Paak was learning about himself as an artist, musician, and individual during the process of creating this album.
• Just ran “Mansa Musa” back again, still a letdown.
• There’s a line in the Apple Music description about how “he doesn’t need to talk about how good the pussy is five times on one album.” Maybe just maybe the content can be the same as long as the quality of the record is still good and method of delivery is different.
• This really is a late summer sounding album. Not a fall/winter type of album at all. Well maybe if you live in Oxnard.
• However, “This shit gone bang at least six summers”.
• Bonus thought: “Don’t forget that dot nigga, you paid for it.”

To Anderson .Paak’s credit, very few artists can go four for four on album releases without there being some kind of misstep or falter. While this album is definitely one of the better albums that have come out this year, regardless of genre or superstardom, when put next to the rest of his work this is definitely the weakest of the bunch since Breezy Lovejoy became Anderson .Paak. Then again somebody once said, “My worst shit is better than your best.”