Following his bloated 2020 album
Pegasus by just under a year, chart-topping rapper
Trippie Redd's fourth studio album
Trip At Knight is something of a return to form. Relatively lean at just 17 songs and less than 50 minutes running time, (or 18 if you're listening to the "Complete" edition that adds on only the
Drake-assisted "Betrayal,")
Trip At Knight doesn't drag to the point of exhaustion like many of
Trippie's projects that followed his 2018 debut
Life's A Trip. The songs clip by, dotted with exciting features but kept consistent with synth-heavy production that goes to more interesting places than
Trippie's usual melodic trap instrumentals. Album standout "MP5" is a rush of anthemic synth tones and blown-out bass hits, and "Holy Smokes" features lively verses from
Lil Uzi Vert and an backing track of vocal samples and bit-crushed synth tones that sound straight out of '80s video games.
Trippie and
Playboi Carti trade bars on the excellent, barely contained "Miss the Rage," and
Ski Mask The Slump God turns on a possessed-sounding feature on the appropriately titled "Demon Time." The guest spots on
Trip At Knight threaten to steal the spotlight, especially with posthumous material from late super stars
Juice WRLD and
XXXTentacion, but
Trippie sounds inspired and wired on his own, to a much higher degree than on his past few belabored and tedious outings. Concise and brisk,
Trip At Knight is one of the more focused
Trippie Redd albums, and calls for repeat listening where some of the others were difficult to get all the way through. ~ Fred Thomas