After listening to the first two songs of Ski Mask the Slump God’s BEWARE THE BOOK OF ELI, I quickly wrote it off with this snide derision:

“For the sake of my sanity, I’ll make this easy: I refuse to type here the 36 letters comprising the album’s title and the artist’s name because I already wasted enough time listening to it.“

And that, kids, is why you should never jot down anything more than notes until completing a work of art. Because I’m here to tell you, Ski Mask the Slump God’s BEWARE THE BOOK OF ELI is indeed a work of art so worthy of discussion that I didn’t mind typing Ski Mask the Slump God’s BEWARE THE BOOK OF ELI for the third time just now.

Don’t let the first two snoozily-derivative tracks scare you away; the rest is as wonderfully weird as Ski Mask the Slump God’s BEWARE THE BOOK OF ELI looks and sounds, right on down to its references to other artistic oddities (was there any chance I wouldn’t fall for a song that alludes to O Brother, Where Art Thou? I think not!). The slower tracks on the album’s latter half may not be as inventive, but god damn are they silky smooth.

I’ll probably flesh out this idea in a future piece, but it really seems like rappers put their most widely-accessible feet forward before delving into more distinct territory on their albums, an acceptably-transparent attempt to hook casual listeners who may be turned off — and thus turn off the music — if immediately thrown into the deranged fires. Thus the reason I always finish albums even if I’m hating them; you never know what treasures might be in store after the initial coal!

If only I had such patience in my pursuit to speedily write about them…