Album Review: 4batz "u made me a st4r"

4batz is an industry plant. Well, this is the general consensus when people try to explain 4batz's quick fast rise to fame. Neko Bennett, better known as 4batz is a singer/songwriter from Dallas, Texas who has been taking the world by storm which has also landed him a deal with Drake’s record label OVO. 4batz has the radio on lock but what about an actual project? 4batz just answered this question with the release of his mixtape “u made me a st4r.” The 11-track project comes in at 23 minutes and 35 seconds, making it very consumable. But does it live up to the hype? Let’s dive into it!!!
The first track is actually a skit called "umademeast4r.mp3" and is really a slight jab to all the naysayers and people who have said that he's an industry plant. That he's blown up too fast. I like how he addresses this first, by saying ‘You're the reason’, meaning that all publicity good or bad has helped catapult his career to millions of streams seemingly overnight. But could you blame anyone for thinking this? 4batz came out of nowhere with his viral song "act i: stickerz 99" and each release since has seemed to have gotten bigger. Even his From The Block Performance of "act ii: date @ 8" has reached over 12 million views the unexpected performance is a contradiction to every R&B performance known to man, as he is surrounded by a group of friends from the block and is dressed in a white wifebeater and ski-mask. The performance seems more like a Chicago Drill video than an R&B video.

Now let's get into the music. 4batz was smart, he put the two viral singles on the mixtape. Track 2 which is "act i: stickerz 99" and track 3 which is "act ii: date @ 8". It was smart of him to do this because it means that he can "inflate" his numbers with the track’s existing streaming numbers, as well as entice new listeners to listen to the mixtape solely on having these two singles on there. It's almost a perfect plan. I say almost because he put these songs at the beginning of the mixtape instead of putting them embedding them deeper into the mixtape. Doing this would've ensured that people who came to just hear the two singles were more easily steered toward listening to the other tracks on the mixtape because the streaming service would have another song from the album in the queue. Another point about these 2 songs is that there is no flow from one to the next and it throws off the cohesiveness of the album. It seemed to feel like “let’s just get this out of the way” more than it was “let’s give them something to look forward to”. This is a reoccurring issue with the mixtape.

​Track 4 “act iii: on god? (she like)” is his third radio single that seems thrown on the album. The track already has over 22 million Spotify plays. It’s a slow crooning 4batz singing about not letting go of a lady because of you guessed it, love. The song also has a remix which is the only credited feature on the mixtape. Who would've guessed? Kanye West, which is surprising given that 4batz already has a Drake feature on his single “actii: date @ 8 (remix)”, which is not on the mixtape. Kanye's verse wasn't anything spectacular and did nothing for the song. Honestly, I would've rather he left him off the song altogether and maybe just did an acoustic version. The remix is really just the original song with a Kanye verse on it, letting you know that the two probably just put the song together through emails instead of being in the studio together. The remixes of Diddy years where R&B artists and rappers made a song together on a slightly modified beat are over.

Now we jump into uncharted territory after getting the three radio singles out of the way. Track 5 is a skit called "get out of your feelings ho" where 4batz friend kind of reminds him that he shouldn't be tripping over a female especially since he's already been involved with so many others afterward. It is a light-hearted laugh between the two that was like a snap-out-of-it moment that then leads into track 6 "act iv: fckin u (18+)", the song is this hyper-sexualized song that sounds like it would never play on the radio but humorously bleeps out words that aren’t radio friendly and covering up probably the boldest lines a man could ever say to a woman as a compliment, "I can't stop f##kin you because your body is like a prostitute". Maybe we have to different ways of serenading the ladies because Jodeci would never. 

Track 7: act v: there goes another vase. I think this is my least favorite song. The lyrics just lack that connection between the feelings he’s trying to describe and the way he sings to express those feelings. His tone is very deep and passionate, but the words seems very surface level. Also, I didn't like how he incorporated the vase into the song. It was too direct I would've liked to see the vase be more of a symbol or just an overall better line. I do think he executed the melodies of the hook to perfection. It's a song about a toxic relationship, yet it has this hold your woman tight and slow dance feel to it, which makes it that more confusing.

By the time we get to Track 8 the flow of the mixtape starts to get better, “act vi: mad man probably has the best transition from feel that carries from song to song. This song is more of a passionate intimate track I would say making love rather than Track 6’s feel of promiscuous sex. It’s the acoustic guitar that has this Latin, passionate feel and sets the tone for the track, 4batz comes in smooth jumping from bar to bar like a nursery rhyme, I oddly hear The Weekend in his town when singing the hook. The hook competes with the smoothness of the verses rather than complementing it, making it just an OK song.

No R&B album is complete without conflict and that’s exactly what 9 is about, "act vii: all we do is argue, argue” comes in with 4batz sounding like he’s imitating Michael Jackson, the short quick bursts of his voice overshadow the slow-evolving production of the track, but is immediately forgotten about as soon as the beat drops. The conflict, which on this track is, you guessed it, his lady, it’s the first time we notice that he’s rapping more than singing on a track. But even with all these things going on, it still doesn’t feel like a complete song.

Throughout the tape 4batz seems to borrow vibes from earlier generations, this is very apparent in Track 10 titled “act viii: i hate to be alone” The song sounds like it samples Luther Vandross’s Always and Forever”, and again also speaks to him tapping into those nostalgic songs from the 90s and earlier eras and putting his spin on them. The song is his attempt at a Love Ballad but is executed more like a late night informercial for BET Lover’s Greatest Hit album. I don’t think Love Ballad’s are his lane. It calls for a vocal performance and vocal range that from my knowledge he doesn’t have.

The album ends with “act iii: on god? (she like) (remix), which we stated before could’ve been left off the album. It sounds like Kanye just sent the verse in an email, and 4batz knew that people seeing Kanye’s name alone would be enough for the song to be a hit. It’s not a hit. But it’s also not my mixtape to live with.
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Is 4batz an industry plant. Who knows, but as far as his new mixtape I would say that his rise to fame is more formulaic than traditional. The mixtape is made more for streaming playlist consumption where each track can be singled out instead of a cohesive body of work. But maybe that’s what people would say a mixtape is. It’s an introduction and not necessarily a story that an album would build, which would be very opposite of Drake who changed the way mixtapes were made and consumed with the release of his “So Far Gone” mixtape. As for 4batz u made me a st4r the mixtape seems to be filled with deep feelings sung subtly enough that you want to hear more but not deep enough that you would play them to get through different events in life such as a break-up or job promotion. These songs feel like skeletons of what great songs could become and are more reference track like than full complete songs that an User "U Got It Bad" or even a Toni Tone Tone "It Never Rains in Southern California". Maybe technology is a little bit to blame for how we consume music and the abilities it has given people who you wouldn't think of as singers. But I have to also give 4batz his credit, he knows how to make a song that gets your attention, some it by pulling on those old strings of rnb classics. Final thoughts, though it may seem like I may have bagged on this album a lot, I would still consider it a good album because of it's formulaic singles that make it easy to place on different playlists. Overall, I would give it a 5 out of 10. OK to listen to but not replacing any of User’s albums any time soon.

​Let me know what you think of the album: