Review: “Revenge of the Dreamers 3” Album by Dreamville
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J Cole’s Dreamville is beginning to solidify their spot as the top hip/hop label in the game right now. In January of this year, Cole announced that the label would be releasing their third collaboration project. This time, however, they would be doing things a bit differently. Dreamville would be inviting dozens of creatives to meet at a studio in Atlanta for 10 days to make music. 6 months later, we now have “Revenge of the Dreamers 3”.
When it comes to collaboration projects, there is a lot that can go wrong. When I first heard about all the invitations that Dreamville sent out, I thought that there potentially could be too many chefs in the kitchen. I was afraid that every song would have 10 artists on it who didn’t fit well together. I also thought the project would be like 3 hours long. All of these fears were put to rest after my first listen.
The 18 track, hour long album was much more condensed and organized than I was expecting. It appears that while there were dozens of people working for those ten days, only the best of the best made the actual album. (The way it should be). Of course the Dreamville core of Cole, Bas, Cozz, JID, Ari, and Earthgang made the project. The rest of the artists who made the cut were all deserving, regardless if they were mainstream or underground.
I like this album because it has a well rounded sound. There are bangers, more lyrical tracks, club records, slow RnB jams and more. The artists are paired off together well. An example is the song “Lambo Truck” featuring Cozz and Reason. They had such a great dynamic that I’d love to hear them make more music together. Also, the pairing of Ari Lennox and Ty Dolla $ign on “Got Me” is amazing. Even the song “Costa Rica” which features 9 artists is excellent. Although a lot of the artists on the song have different styles, it’s one of my favorites. Sometimes hearing different styles of rap on the same record makes it better.
The core Dreamville cast did their thing. Honestly, J Cole needs to watch out for JID. Cole was amazing but JID was definitely the stand out on the project. He killed every single verse that he spit on this album. He even has a track with T.I. called “Ladies, Ladies, Ladies”. Bas, Cozz, Ari and Earthgang all showed why they are a part of the label and helped the case for why Dreamville should be in the same breath as TDE. (Speaking of TDE, Kendrick made a surprise appearance on the very first song.)
“Revenge of the Dreamers 3” is an excellent example of a collaboration project. It’s always nice when creatives from all over can come together and just make dope music. I must say that 2019 is beginning to feel like J Cole’s year. I’m extremely excited for what the other Dreamville members do in the near future. I’ll definitely be playing this album all summer.