Hi, everyone. Nothany Rest-Tano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new AZ Chike record, No Rest for the Wicked.

New album for Los Angeles rapper AZ Chike, which is proving to be kind of a breakout moment for him. So, let's talk about it. No Rest for the Wicked is far from AZ Chike's first record, but it's most likely gonna be the first record a lot of people hear from him. Looking into this man's catalog, he has EPs and albums going back to 2017, 2018.

He even signed with Atlantic in 2019, and later moved on to Warner Brothers. So he's been active in the industry for a while now, and his modern slick spin on West Coast gangster rap has put him in a lot of interesting places despite its hyper-local appeal. For example, he nailed down a feature on Schoolboy Q's 2024 album Blue Lips, and his style also made him a prime contender for an appearance on Kendrick Lamar's super regional GNX album.

Chike, generally, had a pretty crazy run that year, also dropping Chisel, Spooky Summer, as well as the Don't Die Yet collab EP. But he's been mostly silent on the album front since 2024, which is kind of unlike him given his very prolific output up until that point. And apparently, that's because he's been strategizing super heavily behind this new album here, seeing this newfound flood of attention that has come his way through these features with Schoolboy, with Kendrick, as an opportunity to step up his lyricism, his songwriting, and broaden his audience with some bolder production and features.

Which is honestly encouraging to see, because a lot of Kendrick's GNX collaborators, from what I've seen, mostly rushed to market with new singles and releases right after that album had dropped, only to reveal there wasn't too much more to know about them that wasn't already made clear through their respective appearances on that record.

And it's clear from the outset that Chike here does not want to befall that same fate. Whether or not he actually achieves it is up for debate, but I would say take a look at the opener, "Mercy," which is not a super-focused track songwriting-wise, but does work as kind of this multi-phased preamble that sets up what we are going to hear throughout the rest of this album: A lot of self-affirmations, prayers for God's protection, paranoia, tough-talking, sharp social observations, usually tagged with a healthy amount of wordplay or even some dark humor.

And then there's "Chike Sound," which is obviously led by his rapping. He has a very cold-blooded monotone delivery that is sometimes offered through what sounds like clenched teeth.

It's a calm, steady, focused brand of anger. And then there's his production, which consists mostly of very simple MIDI pianos, tight-rolling drums that are elevated just a little bit with some additional effects and interesting sample source material. Take "Lamb Truck Keys," for example, which is an immediate favorite for me, due, not only, to Chike's very slick rhyming, but the mariachi vocal snippets interspersed throughout his bars and groovy synth bass, too. It's just such a smart, fun touch.

And there's more bangers to get into on this album, but believe it or not, Chike is pretty quick in the first leg to get into some of the headier, more introspective songs on this album, like "Sky Rockets," which is a very nostalgic, low-key piece of boombap, where Chike goes into memories around growing up, moving around, his first fight, his first kiss. But then also contrasts that with some darker memories, too. The thought of his mother, while pregnant, pinning him down as a child because bullets were flying through the neighborhood, killing this guy on the corner.

There's also "Need Your Love" featuring JMSN in the first half of this record, too, which is a woozy, intoxicating love anthem, a hip-hop R&B fusion, with beautiful vocal layering, a nice atmosphere, and I don't know, as dumb and as simple as this "Baby, you're the one. Baby, you're the two," chorus is, it's just such an earworm. And as silly as that is, Chike does kind of follow this up with some pretty substantive verses as to what's drawing him to this other person in the first place.

The very brash "God's Favorite" is also in the mix in the first leg of this album, which is okay. It feels mostly like a callback to a lot of the straight gangsta material on his previous projects, but maybe just, like, a bit more refined this time around.

So the first leg of this record builds up some pretty nice momentum that carries throughout the midpoint, too. Going into this section, we have "Look Like My Mama" featuring Tyler, The Creator, which does stick out like a sore thumb in this tracklist for its zany Tyler-style production with the quirky keys and synth layers, weird trunk-knocking beat, but honestly, there are enough kind of bits of West Coast flair there in the mix to make it sound consistent enough with the rest of the album.

Beyond that, it's really Chike's and Tyler's lyrical chemistry that works so well on this song, even though they have, like, different vocal approaches and flow approaches, like that brings a nice contrast, it's clear they have a very similar sense of humor, which goes a long way as they're bouncing off of each other off of this, again, crazy beat.

The song "Wonder" is a more somber and thoughtful moment on the record, a track that's really about a relationship falling apart. The beat kind of reminds me of a Dr. Dre throwback with a lot of acoustic arpeggios in the mix. And I'm really impressed with Chike's storytelling and pen game on this one. He really takes you through the highs and lows of this relationship: Essentially, the stressors, how much he needs this love, but simultaneously, the distrust that's pulling it apart.

Following this, we have a few more gangster rap-type cuts in the mix, "Negative," which feels almost like an idyllic and dreamy take on this sound that, to me, goes over really well. It's a unique spin on it for sure, and "Packed Up," while this track, by comparison, might be a little bit more average, normal, meat-and-potatoes, to be expected, it's weirdly one of the tracks on this record I am most addicted to. I just find Chike's flow on this one to be super catchy, razor-sharp. Meanwhile, the violent imagery strewn about the track is just diabolical.

Then, from here, we have another major contrast with "Uncomfortable Conversations," which is a track that, from Chike's perspective, is all about being kind of taken advantage of, financially. Wanting to take care of others and his loved ones with all the money that he has at his disposal because of his music career. Blowing money himself irresponsibly, too, and just not really knowing where it's gonna lead.

It's a genuinely confessional track that, honestly, in a lot of ways, kind of reminds me of a "Many Moments" from the recent YG album where he attempted to go deeper, but sort of fell flat on his face. By comparison, I think Chike actually does go deeper successfully and does so in a pretty compelling way.

The final moments, though, I feel like are where this record does fall apart a bit and where I think this album's Achilles' heel is exposed a little bit. Because while it's true, Chike certainly did seem to put more effort this time around into the writing and themes and conceptualization of a lot of these songs and what they were gonna focus on, what they were gonna mean, I think there still is some work that could be put in on the album craft front.

The idea of how all of the songs on a record play into each other, what each song kind of provides, because I feel like if more forethought were going into that, we wouldn't have a track on here like "The World Is Ours" with Tyler, The Creator, again. Because not only is this feature redundant at this point, it's a much weaker song, in comparison to "Look Like My Mama." And instrumentally, honest to God, this track just kind of sounds like a Don't Tap the Glass leftover, where Chike's presence and influence in the whole thing feels rather minimal.

Then between "Rock Bottom" and "Hateful and Grateful," I feel like we get two of what could be, like, two potential moments to end off on, but it's as if Chike couldn't decide which idea or feeling to leave things off with, so he just kind of did both. Each track has interesting moments and ideas, though; "Hateful and Ungrateful" has this incredible contrast between, in the first half, a lot of hateful and quite aggressive writing. And then a mood change that eventually brings us to this monologue, this rant that Chike goes on, about the way his life has changed and the way fame has kind of hit him in the wake of these features with Schoolboy Q and Kendrick.

Meanwhile, "Rock Bottom" is a very sad but simultaneously inspiring moment on the record, where I think Chike is really trying to lend the listener some perspective. In terms of getting them to look at what is their "rock bottom," the lowest moment in their life, contrasting it with his, and then trying to, ya know, inspire one to bounce back from there and grow. Which is sincerely delivered, an admirable sentiment for sure, even if it's not delivered with what I would say is the best songwriting on the record.

But yeah, overall, I went into this Chike album a little skeptical, I'll say, but ended up enjoying a lot more of it than I thought I would, as he's definitely shown a lot of growth in between this and his past couple of projects. And personally, as long as he's continuing to push forward in the way that he clearly is on this record here, I'm definitely excited to hear what he is going to do after this album. Which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, AZ Chike, forever.