A$AP Rocky’s newest album since his “LiveLoveA$AP” debut in 2011, “LongLiveA$AP” is surprisingly a big step up for the young artist. Several mainstream artists are scattered throughout the album, contributing to the wide array of styles and sounds.

A$AP has definitely upped his game in the vocals department, which is evident on almost every track. He is good about being consistent when it comes to his delivery. However, I do hope his writing abilities improve on the next album.

As much as I enjoyed his overall delivery, his writing style was very reminiscent of other artists in the same genre.

Lines like “My Santa Clause was missing/catch you slipping then it’s Christmas/motherfuck a wish list/my ghetto was ambition/for my benjis and my Bentleys and them bitches” are too reliant on weak rhyming patterns and cheap metaphors.

The style doesn’t carry much originality and reminds me too much of mainstream rappers like Tyga and Lil Wayne.

I got increasingly bored after the track “PMW (All I Really Need),” when the use of certain vocal effects and off kilter beats kept repeating.

The second half of the album picked up after more notable artists began to feature on the tracks such as Drake, Yelawolf and Skrillex.

I especially enjoyed “Wild for the Night,” primarily because Skrillex helped produce the track.

I felt that lyrics like “Back to the Mac/tats on her back/ass so fat/hit that from the back” downgraded the production of the track, though, and took what could have been the best song on the album and turned it into another typical club banger.

Overall, for only his second album, I’m definitely impressed.