Giving us his debut album, upcoming artist Thiago Frazier has given us Thank God It’s Frazier. While rough around the edges, the young MCs debut is a charming welcome to the music world that will interest you in his future.
Kicking things off with “Adamant’s Intro,” we are greeted with an intriguing voicemail where Adamant talks about how Thiago wants him featured on this record and ending the song off with a vocal sample, this transitions seamlessly into the following song, “High Noon.” On this track, Thiago welcomes us to his world over this same vocal loop and a standard boom-bap drum pattern. Thiago puts his heart out here and off-rip, you can tell he has lyrical skill and the confidence to flow on any beat. He pays homage to inspirations of his like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Logic, and all of these bars to a great job of characterizing Frazier and getting us ready to dive deeper into his psyche.
“All The Time” has a smooth but ominous instrumental, and on this song, Frazier gives us a much tighter lyrical where each bar works like clockwork with one another. From shouting out his crew to asserting dominance over others around him, Thiago further welcomes us into the world. While the abstract instrumental makes this one of the best-sounding cuts on the record, “Toss Up” starts slow lyrically but does pick up later in the cut. While this moment is not perfect, Thiago’s smooth flow commands you through the track, and as his lyrical sword gets sharper, the song gets more enjoyable.
Serving as one of the highlights on the record, “Brothers Grimm” is a smooth but flashy anthem with its hard-hitting boom-bap beat and bar-fest from Frazier. While Frazier’s confidence is definitely present in his flow and rhymes, his energy feels a little too low in this moment for me to really be sold on this track. This could be because his vocals are being drowned out in the instrumental, but if Frazier can make his vocal presentation more in our faces, this song would become something special. While the feature and introduction from Daltony is a nice addition to this song, I have similar issues with his part of the track also.
With a minimally produced beat, “Full Circle” is one of the moments where Thiago shines brightest. His storytelling ability proves to be really good here as he narrates us through some of the defining moments in his life, and over this grimly faint loop, the phantom-like style of Thiago’s shines through in the best way it has on the entire project so far.
From sampling Jay-Z to Count Dooku, “Twitch Tapes pt. 1 is a wild six-minute long anthem where Thiago displays both his skill and his creativity. Consisting of an instrumental that samples “Everybody Loves The Sunshine,” the first beat on this track has iconic qualities and a great vibe. As this track continues, we see Thiago switch gears multiple times with different beat switches, and Thiago gets more and more personal with each new instrumental. From his charm to his skill, Thiago shines in this moment, and this only continues in “Twitch, Tapes pt. 2.” Through more beat switches, the young mc continues to further unwrap layers of his mind, and it remains really entertaining to hear him in these different textures. My favorite out of all the instrumental sections is hands down, the last as Thiago switches up his flow and pulls through with one of the most impressive rhyme schemes on the record, all over some angelic production.
With Thiago letting us into places we had not seen to this point, it feels like we are seeing a new version of him on the second half of the record. From the self-reflection to his desire to be great which feels more intoxicating than ever, “Soho Lobby” welcomes us to the evolved form of the MC and sets up another standout song in “Master Plan” quite well.
Over a psychedelic but muddy loop, Thiago Frazier taps into his grimey sound as he asserts dominance over his competition. The raw feel of this track makes everything hit so hard, and Frazier’s inspiring confidence makes this a song that you could definitely throw on anytime you need a confidence boost.
Teaming up with Villainous KamiKaze, “Prodigal Son” is a smooth jazz rap cut that showcases Thiago displaying his lyrical skill in a much more tame environment. Serving as one of the best-produced moments on the album, the charismatic “Cross Country” is another strong moment for Thiago Frazier. Thiago shows how crafty of an mc he can be with his clever bars and a firey flow, and the feature from Penconcious does not feel well mixed into the song in terms of both the audio quality and vibe.
Ending off the album in the right way, “Soul Sample” is a well-fitted closer that exits us out of Thiago’s mind with some powerful closing bars, which all come to life over some smooth jazz rap production. With this being followed by “Yung Powerhaus Outro,” the album closes out in the same way it finished, giving it symmetry.
All in all, Thank God It’s Frazier is a solid and charming record, and while it has a lot of holes in it, Thiago Frazier’s potential shines really bright here. From his lyrical wit to the layers of heart he has behind his voice, Thiago has a lot to offer, and if he can become more confident behind the mic and use better tools to record these tracks, he can make something truly special. Going forward, this young artist will be on my radar, and I look forward to seeing him grow in the future.
