Jack Harlow’s sophomore album Come Home the Kids Miss You swung and missed with most critics and his more casual audience. But, is this indicative of his career trajectory?
Breaking: A music star at the peak of their career is receiving negative album reviews from professionals and casual listeners.
Although it shouldn’t come as a surprise, Jack Harlow’s sophomore album Come Home the Kids Miss You has been taking flack all over social. But what exactly led to the hatred, is it warranted, and what comes next for one of hip hop’s trendiest names?
I guess we should start by saying that social media is a cesspool of grossness. The most negative corners of the internet are filled with people who will serve as a wet blanket for even the toughest-minded.
Social media platforms like Twitter serve to give people 60 million followers and a dude named hankp84752398 a somewhat equal platform. Obviously, the blue checkmarks are going to garner attention more quickly. But the more well-known users and the negative shitposters essentially have the ability to reach as many people. You’ll find some of the vilest, most hateful messages that can be conjured up by the human brain in these corners of the internet. It’s part of the intrigue but can be cancerous when not taken in moderation.
Social media- hell, the internet in general- is a tough place for someone who is garnering a lot of attention. Especially if that attention is positively spun by media and well-respected voices.
Never has that been more the case than for Harlow- A Tik Tok sensation turned recent media darling.
How the Harlow hate began
Those who have followed Harlow’s career understand that his rise to rap and pop superstardom began years ago. The progression from handing out mixtapes in grade school to signing with a record label took years.
But the vast majority of the general population has only seen his rise to fame since his smash hit “What’s Poppin” rose to No. 3 on the charts in 2020.
Thusly, hatred and the platitudinous use of the word “mid” among hip-hop fans and casual listeners alike have reached a deafening climax.
The clash between early Harlow listeners and the general population has been a long time coming. Onlookers have taken notice of his massive popularity, heard the Tik Tok earworm hits, and immediately turned to the internet to voice their opinions.
The sheer amount of hateful tweets ranged from flat-out unfactual to pretty damn funny.
Thousands of Tweets jokingly insinuating that Harlow was involved in YSL, a Young Thug record label that was recently indicted by a Georgia grand jury, gained so much traction that a reporter asked unironically why Harlow was not charged.
While many on social media poked fun, some who review music went straight for the jugular.
Most notably, Pitchfork News Editor Matthew Strauss crawled out of whatever hole he was in for more than 5 months to call Come Home “among the most insipid, vacuous statements in recent pop history.”
A more well-articulated Buzzfeed article backed up Strauss’s claims, calling the album “generic and self-righteous.”
And that is where we stand now.
Harlow has gone from niche artist to pop sensation in a matter of a few years, and now that he has the world’s attention, the vocal minority is getting in its jabs.
Addressing the elephant in the room- A white man in an industry created and dominated by black artists
In a space created by and filled with predominantly black artists, Harlow is going to have to really solidify his brand to make headway at the top of the industry.
The list of white rappers with long-term success can probably be counted on one hand.
The reality is that in terms of long-standing popularity there is Eminem. Wide gap. Beastie Boys. Another wide gap. Then everyone else.
Mac Miller made serious headway while carving out a successful career, leaving us with a catalog of brilliant originality.
Outside of the dominant forces, the vast, vast majority of white rappers have faded as quickly as they entered the scene- Ultimately being cast aside as corny or phony.
It’s easy to reject the idea of white rappers. Banish them to the corner with the likes of Logic, G Eazy, Russ, and Macklemore. Sentence them to a life of performing in front of preppy teenage girls. And, perhaps, that is where Harlow is headed.
But one might be inclined to believe that putting Harlow in a corner isn’t that easy.
But, do Harlow’s lyrics really hit a sour note?
The low-hanging fruit of criticism of Come Home is the lack of creativity in the lyrics. And that is absolutely fair.
From braggadocious bangers like “What’s Poppin'” and “Sundown” to introspective pieces like “River Road” and “Keep It Light”, Harlow built the foundation of his career on creative and well-delivered lyrics.
Lines like this in “River Road” are not only thought-provoking and coming-of-age but they are delivered in only a way that Harlow can. Smooth and confident, but vulnerable.
Time’s tickin’, my mom’s 50 / Told me that she been thinkin’ ’bout spending time different / It’s more precious, what if I took the same method at 21 and adopted it? / Sometimes I feel like I’m tripping for dipping out of town while my pops living still / Palms itching, but this money is not Benadryl /Ain’t no pattern to the way I tend to feel
Juxtaposed with the work on Come Home, it is evident that Harlow leaned into the trappings that put him over the top: catchy beats, creative hooks, and a hip-hop/ pop crossover made for Top 40 radio and Tik Tok.
Lyrically, however, he brings the same clear delivery but fails to pack the punch we have come to expect.
Still, the hooks, maturing sound, and polish of this record bolster the product as a whole. Harlow told Zane Lowe of Apple Music that he wanted to leave behind beats from packs.
“No finished, glossy, fruity loops, rap over the MP3 and bounce it, we’re good to go packs,” Harlow said. “I’m touching everything, I’m helping produce this.”
The finished product makes it wildly apparent that this is the most work Harlow has put into an album or mixtape yet. So while the lyics sometimes feel more generic than previous iterations of Harlow, the product as a whole is a hopeful example of what’s to come.
Harlow pulls from greats in the rap game to make it feel more polished and convey his message. Features from Snoop Dogg, Lil’ Wayne, Pharell, and Drake signify his power culturally but also add variety and flavor to the album.
The hooks and variety of beats and choruses represented a new, bold step in Harlow’s career. A lot of the pundits completely swung and missed while trying to critique this aspect of the album.
Still, critics come across as misguided
“Clearly, he worries about being tagged as just a rapper with big pop hooks,” said Buzzfeed. “But puzzlingly, he has done little to address the problem.”
Contrarily, Harlow has spent the majority of his career battling this exact thing.
Harlow first generated buzz with his single “Dark Knight,” a song without a chorus. His biggest single, “What’s Poppin”, was without a hook until collaborator Cole Bennett implored him to add the first verse to the end of the song to make it more packaged.
If anything, Come Home should be lauded for his ability to create an album chalked full of creative hooks. Harlow’s music doesn’t lose any character on Come Home, while bravely venturing into the poppier side of his genre.
No, he isn’t going full Lil’ Wayne lighter flick and spitting for three straight verses. But to act like he doesn’t showcase some creativity in the middle of this album is exceedingly misleading.
“Dua Lipa” cuts through one of the catchiest beats on his album strategically. Each verse expertly switches timing and tempo. He tantalizingly dances around a chorus that is crafted as a perfect earworm.
“Side Piece” feels like the underrated gem of the album. The acoustic, poppy beat can only be described as sipping a cocktail on the beach in 2008 with a newfound love interest. Yet, mid-song, the beat switches to something a bit more modern, parlaying an upbeat tune serenading his secret love affair with a smooth, melodic beat where he is convincing the love interest to see the world with him. Regardless of your opinion on the meaning behind the song or the inspiration behind the lyrics, the message is crafted so smoothly that one is left to contemplate the imagery of the song as a whole.
Harlow harkens back to the vibe of “Side Piece” with “Lil Secret”; A track that features a verse we heard before on his chicken shop “date” with Amelia Dimoldenberg. Harlow goes nearly word-for-word with the seemingly off the dome lines he fed Dimoldenberg in an interview that had his suave and chemistry on full display.
“Spendin’ time with somebody else and I get to wishin’ that she was you / Any girl can be beautiful, but not any girl can just be in tune / And you so in tune, you understand me / I make you laugh, and you say to me that you can’t stand me / You soul food, and you eye candy, I wanna meet you in Miami / And I want you to meet my family”
As one begins to dissect this album, it is more apparent that Harlow is leaving breadcrumb trails; Clues into his more private life. Only allowing the audience to see what he wants. Vulnerable in the areas that he feels will behoove him the most.
Sure, there are throw-away lines in Come Home but it’s much more of a step in the right direction in his career than experts will lead you to believe.
Critics lauded Drake’s verse on “Churchill Downs” two paragraphs after chastising Harlow for sounding too much like him. While the Canadian megastar boasts one of the better resumes in the industry, we are talking about the same man who gave us genius verses such as “say that you a lesbian, girl, me too” and “got so many chains they call me Channing Tatum.”
Obviously, Drake has garnered respect in the industry after taking his lumps. Harlow deserves criticism when it’s due as well. But, let’s not pretend Harlow has gotten to this point without successfully taking risks while also throwing punches that only served as glancing blows. Every risk has been calculated enough, however, that assessing anything he has put out in his career a 2.9 (as Strauss did in his Pitchfork review) is flat-out agenda-driven.
The hatred towards Harlow is less a reflection of the quality of music he is putting out, and more an indication of the fact that he is near the pinnacle of his profession.
If his newest work didn’t matter to the hip-hop industry, people would look the other way. But, it does. The greats before him received the same level of hate in one form or another. Now, it’s his time to take his lumps.
Harlow isn’t going anywhere. Co-signs from industry mainstays and current superstars alike are indicative of such. Its probably advised to become acclimated to the hatred because as with the detractors of other popular artists it comes with the territory.
Perhaps Harlow put it best when he proclaimed “I mean the world’s in denial, but they all know what I’m headed for.”
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