Hi, everyone. Breakthany Outtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Ski Mask the Slump God album, 11th Dimension.

Here we have the latest full-length LP from Florida SoundCloud rap phenomenon, Ski Mask the Slump God. And yeah, it's technically his sophomore album. His official full-length debut, Stokely, dropped all the way back in 2018. Though he hasn't been completely silent during that time in the interim, he has put out a few decent but also scant mixtapes that felt like he wasn't living up to his full potential.

And if you want to talk about potential, Ski Mask is essentially the definition of it. Because when you talk about the rappers who were making it big, just grabbing attention around the mid-2010s on the SoundCloud platform, to my ears and eyes, Ski Mask just stood out more boldly than any of them. Even the artists who went on to be more popular than him. And that's for a few reasons. His speedy and ever-shifting flows, his goofball sense of humor, and very innocent and silly references to a variety of video games and movies and TV shows. Also, his very smoky, raspy, distinct vocal delivery. Plus, his sense of rhythm is insane. The pockets he hits occasionally on certain beats are just really unlikely and creative. His taste in production tends to run raw and noisy in left field, too.

The problem is, though, over the years, he typically doesn't show up on whole full-length projects in much the same way he does on a single or in a random freestyle or on somebody else's track, which, again, is why I use the word potential, because despite Ski Mask being active now for about a decade, I feel like his full abilities as an album artist and as a songwriter have yet to be completely realized. It certainly wasn't on that pretty inconsistent debut in 2018.

Meanwhile, his mixtapes just haven't had the commercial play they could given the right beat, proper chorus, a sharp song structure. So I had hopes going into 11th Dimension that we might hear something bigger coming from Ski Mask this time around, given that it is a longer project, 46 minutes, 21 tracks. I mean, I wasn't crazy about the singles in the lead-up to the record, but that's a lot of songs. There's got to be some variation there, at least a few bangers, especially with Future and Juice WRLD features in the mix.

Now that I've heard the record several times over, I have to say I'm just shocked and disappointed. Disappointed because I don't think it's that great, but shocked because it's been six entire years since his last official full-length, six. That's a lifetime in the music industry these days. Countless one-hit wonders come and go within that span of time.

Also in this span of time, Ski Mask is showing no growth or evolution at all and is essentially on this record just giving us a bunch of cobbled together freestyles with no flow, no structure, no plan, no cohesion, which is something I guess you could pull off if you're lyrically at the level of a Lil Wayne, going on crazy, witty, clever, layered lyrical tangents with bars abound.

Even with all of his personality, quality and unique flows, Ski Mask is just not touching that rim here, especially given that the biggest highlights mostly feel like songs that would have been passable on previous projects like Stokely as well as Beware the Book of Eli. I mean, for sure, there are some fun beats and quirky bars on some of these tracks, but that's an angle Ski Mask has been working forever now, and he's just not adding to it with consistency or ambition.

He's rapping on this thing like it's supposed to be his breakout project when at this point in SoundCloud rapper years, he's a veteran. I mean, it's great to see him finally put out a sizable project, but I feel like going at this length without actually taking any risks or improving upon his songwriting craft, he really only just exposes his weak points as an artist because "Monsters Inc." with Future is just about one of the most generic trap cuts I've heard in years. The closer with Corbin is a surprise, but I don't know if an '80s spacey synthpop is quite Ski Mask's vibe.

Meanwhile, the lead single to the whole thing "Shibuya," just features one of those distorted cycling repetitive rage beats with a super typical flow over it, too. No more, no less. It just feels like Ski Mask is painting by the numbers within a style that is just trendy right now.

There are plenty of other songs on here, though, that feel more or less his usual speed given past output. But again, the structure and flow of these tracks mostly feel just like their random freestyles that he busted out within a couple of afternoons.

Some of the freestyles aren't even that good or dense, like "By Myself," for example. It just feels really patted out with refrains with only a few bars to be had. For every bar Ski Mask drops that's pretty good or maybe a little funny, he'll put out another that makes no sense or is a bit cringe, like this simile over here dealing in Vikings, but with no kilts when historically and culturally, Vikings and kilts have nothing to do with each other.

Yeah, the record does have a lot of these lyrical misfires, and a bulk of its run time is just scheme-ass playing to expectations, but there are still some highlights to be had. "Tuk-Tuk" goes hard and has a dark, danceable beat and a stellar flow that emphasizes the groove of the instrumental really well. Then the track featuring Juice WRLD is totally insane. Mega high point on the record. These guys are bouncing off of each other like they're in an insane asylum wearing strait jackets, doing a two-man mosh pit.

There are other tracks here that are okay, are listenable, show some decent potential given their quirky production choices and unique flows like "Him Jong Un," "From Yard" as well, "Mandalorian," too.

But again, the writing, the structuring, as far as building these tracks out into what feels like songs, they're too half-baked. They're too casual. I mean, he's putting in quite a bit of effort on the lyrical and the flow front sometimes with these cuts. But without proper choruses and better song structures to showcase this effort well, all of it just ends up breezing by, which is why I'm feeling a light to decent 5 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Ski Mask, Forever.