At least he wears a mask…
[Video]
[4.00]
John Seroff: “Astronaut’s” TikTok-fueled international relaunch, following a less-successful 2019 test orbit in Australia, is clearly intended as an introduction to Masked Wolf as burgeoning pop star and possible future fill-in for Post Malone’s spot on the festival circuit. As a technical rapper, Michael is reasonably facile, but his lyrics are stub-your-toe painful (“y’all don’t really know my mental / let me give you the picture like stencil” would be awkward even as a freestyle), and the beat doesn’t offer anything we haven’t heard this week already.
[4]
Al Varela: I honestly really like the dirty guitar chords against the cavernous beat and aggressive trap percussion, and Masked Wolf has a pretty solid flow and potency on the mic. He kind of reminds me of Joyner Lucas — which might actually be the problem. You can tell this guy idolizes artists like Eminem and Hopsin (oof), because he’ll have these impressive flows and vocal presence but have the writing ability of a disinterested middle schooler writing a poem for a class. The lyric “I believe in G-O-D, don’t believe in T-H-O-T” is one of the worst of the year. Shame.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: He’s white, Australian, and damned near makes Post Malone sound like Lil Wayne. Just because you bought a trap beat doesn’t mean you know what to do with it, dude.
[0]
Aaron Bergstrom: Points for the central metaphor but not much else. If this is some kind of meta performance and Masked Wolf is trying to personify the idea that untreated depression can make you boring and kind of a jerk (“I believe in G-O-D / Don’t believe in T-H-O-T“?), he’s not wrong, and he’s playing the part perfectly. But I don’t think that was his intent.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: The obvious first: “I believe in G-O-D, don’t believe in T-H-O-T” is not only just dogshit awful, but dates this song permanently to 2019, when it first came out. Otherwise, Masked Wolf is an improvement over Post Malone on every level: flow, versatility, the lyrics that aren’t that one. (That isn’t that faint praise.)
[5]
David Moore: Busdriver is still the reigning champion of alienated astronaut rap. Also, isn’t an astronaut in the ocean just…a scuba diver?
[4]
Samson Savill de Jong: Discovering Masked Wolf was Australian was a mild surprise. Discovering he was influenced by Joyner Lucas, Hopsin and Drake was not. Which isn’t to say that he doesn’t pull it off, but he certainly wears his influences on his sleeve rather than having his own sound. Like the titular metaphor, the track works better if you don’t look at it too hard.
[6]
Alfred Soto: He’s got an ear for melodies and his flow ain’t bad. Plus, the title conceit grabbed me. The rest will come along.
[6]