Melt My Eyez, See Your Future album cover (Denzel Curry, PH. Loma Vista Recording)
“The album is my personality, but it’s exploring all my emotions at the same time. Usually, I disguise what I’m actually going through with a story or by putting in a different perspective. But this one, I had to put everything on “front street”, because there’s nowhere to hide.” Denzel had this to describe his 5th studio album Melt My Eyez See Your Future (inews.co.uk).
The 14 track album is a great example of art reflecting the artist. Curry’s approach to a more emotionally honest album isn’t something that is new to the hip hop industry, nevertheless, paired with his ability to write his emotions in a way that reveal and inspire deeper thought is what makes this album nothing short of amazing.
Melt My Eyez was released in March earlier this year and had gained a lot of traction by the time it was released due to the three singles that were dropped prior to the release of this album. The songs Walkin’, Zatoichi, and Troubles all spoke of their own stories and were very fulfilling as stand alone singles. They individually reveal different areas of inspiration that Curry draws his identity and his mindset from. With the context of the rest of the album, we are shown a new side of Denzel and how much more there is to his experiences and how he views the world.
We get to see the world in a pair of paradigm glasses called “Denzel Curry”.
“Being aware is my definition of melt / My eyes see imperfections within myself.” These lines from the opening track Melt Session #1, summarize the major selling point of the album, that is to call himself [Curry] to be more introspective and self aware of who he is, what he does and, why he does them.
Tracks such as Melt Session #1, Walkin’, and Troubles (and some others) are recollections and masterfully written insights to his personal struggles ranging from topics like sexual assault, depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as struggles with women. Whereas tracks like Worst Comes To Worst, The Last and John Wayne address Social Issues dealing with his experience and losses due to police brutality, systemic and institutional racism
These topics are never easy to discuss, and Denzel has done a fantastic job of transparency with his words and blatancy but his lyricism is so curated that it never feels as if we’re being described a story.
I first discovered Denzel’s ability to drop absolute bars in his 2020 collaboration album with Producer Kenny Beats, titled Unlocked. When the release of this album caught my attention I knew he would blow it out of the water and this albums holds no disappointment in any of the songs, for anything it exceeded all my expectations.
Whether you’re a casual hip hop listener or an avid rap connoisseur this album will find one way or another to connect with you. For this reason I give it an 11/10.
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