The third series of the compilation of the Dreamville Records label, comes from an interesting idea by the founders J. Cole and Ibrahim Hamad, around autumn 2018: unlike the two previous chapters of "Revenge of the Dreamers", the project consists of tracks made during open sessions between dozens of different artists.
Despite this curious intention, there's an exclusive window of time in which the two best artists of the house, Bas and JID, are in the same place at the same time, and it's in the first weeks of January 2019. Dreamville manages to gather its artists in ten days in early January and finds a complex in Atlanta, large enough to accommodate hundreds of artists to record songs: over 300 people show up in the recording studios and, at the end of the ten days, over a hundred tracks are produced, eighteen of these are part of the final selection that becomes part of the compilation. Among the major performers, stand out J. Cole (8), JID (6), EarthGang (5), Bas (4), Buddy (4), Ari Lennox (3), Cozz (3), Guapdad 4000 (3) and Omen (3), while guests include DaBaby, T.I., Vince Staples and Ty Dolla Sign. In total, it engages 35 performers and 27 beatmakers, including J. Cole, who produces his solo cut, Bink, Cubeatz, and Girl Talk.
The disc is bound to have perhaps even greater problems than its previous chapters: with over an hour of listening in order to give more space to lesser known rappers, it's quite bloated; moreover, precisely for having given more space to these performers, the disc is qualitatively quite irregular, and the enormous quantity of producers present (with a peak of seven in a single track), makes it musically dancing and stammering. As expected, everything can't go well, but the driving force of its best artists manages to keep the record beyond the threshold of sufficiency.
Most of the cuts are decent, honest and forgettable, there are rare quality shots that you, as a listener, have to be good at searching and finding, otherwise a lot of the good here is bound to stay under the radar. "Under the Sun" is a practically perfect example: male and female soulful sample, let to breathe, intro, snare drum, trap rhythm with chopped sample (which sounds bad), J. Cole delivers with a decent rapping, short chorus, then Lute with great verse delivered well and DaBaby. This latest MC arrives with the best performance of the entire edition, spitting straight-hardcore bars with an unstoppable flow and an enviable delivery style for practically every other hip-hop artist of the period: he's even more fit than everyone else on all other tracks, however, listeners prefer to talk about the five-second hook starred by uncredited Kendrick Lamar.
The music is a relaxed mix of trap, hip-hop, and rnb, and that's okay, while, lyrically, there's not much to watch for, most of it is battle rap. The best choices can be guessed even just looking at the title track: the aforementioned "Under the Sun", "Down Bad", "Self Love", "Ladies, Ladies, Ladies" (tribute from T.I. and JID to Jay-Z's "Girls, Girls, Girls"), "Costa Rica" (interesting joint, there are four / five MCs running for the throne of best performer), "1993" and "PTSD". Very easily, I believe that JID is the MVP of this edition, ahead of Baz, Cozz, & Ari Lennox. The compilation is well received by critics, pushed to the top of pop and hip-hop charts, also reaching the top in Canada, being certified platinum and nominated for 2020 Grammy, accompanied by "Middle Child" and "Down Bad" in race for the title of Best Rap Performance.
Rating: 6/10.
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