Rating: 5.5/10

Robert Glasper is a three-time Grammy Award winning producer and pianist, having worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar on his acclaimed album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly‘. Kendrick sadly doesn’t make an appearance on Glasper’s latest mixtape, entitled ‘F#%k Yo Feelings‘, but there are a plenty of other features on the tape ranging from rappers, to soul singers, to other jazz musicians. Whilst the project is nice to listen to and has a few standout features and tracks, it ultimately just feels like a mixtape – a bit too cluttered, rough and long. That said, the overall feeling of the tape and vibe of Glasper’s blend of Jazz and Hip-Hop is great and hopefully his next actual album will be more fine-tuned.

Nearly every track of this 71 minute mixtape flows together perfectly, so much so, that I found myself at times not realising I’d progressed onto the next song on the album. There are over 20 credited artists featured on the album, but I have no doubt that Glasper has featured many other artists as each track has so many musical layers. An early standout moment on the tape is ‘Gone‘, which features a great short verse from YBN Cordae, which is then overshadowed by a lovely keyboard solo from legendary Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock.

This blend of modern hiphop with classic Jazz, is prevalent throughout the album and really shows the musical vision of Robert Glasper. ‘This Changes Everything‘ is another solid example of this, as young rappers Buddy and Denzel Curry sound great on a real old-school hiphop style beat, with a particularly nice outro refrain from Buddy.

My favourite track on the project is easily ‘Treal‘ featuring rapper Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def). The seven minute long cut surprisingly doesn’t feel that long, as Yasiin Bey raps and sings over the chilled out piano-infused hip-hop beat. There are other chill moments on the project, such as the track ‘All I Do‘, featuring SiR, Bridget Kelly and Song Bird, which is another near seven minute long cut, but SiR’s vocals sound really beautiful over the piano backing with Kelly’s vocals overlaying perfectly.

Sadly I found that the project got a bit lost in the middle, with a few more experimental tracks and other moments that didn’t particularly add anything to the tape. Songs like ‘I Want You‘, ‘DAF Fall Out‘ and ‘Liquid Swords‘ are good background tracks that contribute to the overall vibe and feel of the mixtape, but they also emphasise that this is just a mixtape rather than an album. A mixtape is traditionally a compilation of tracks, whereas an album is a more concise high quality structured selection of songs. Glasper’s 19 tracks on this project feel a bit cluttered and lengthy and at times I felt that he could lose the interest of the casual listener.

One good thing about the masses of features and tracks on this mixtape, is that it showcased a lot of artists I’d never heard of, both in the worlds of hip hop and jazz. On the track ‘Expectations‘ I’d never heard of soul singer Baby Rose or rapper Rapsody, but Rapsody in particular nailed her verse and I’ll definitely be checking out her other material.

Overall, this mixtape is nice to listen to – it has a good vibe to it, some great features and the genre itself is really unique. I sadly got lost at times during the tape as it feels a bit cluttered and drags on a bit, but as it is a mixtape I can cut Glasper a bit of slack. All things considered, I’m excited for whatever Glasper does next, as this mixtape has further reinstated his status as a top-tier producer and jazz musician.