Review

Pusha T

It’s Almost Dry

G.O.O.D. Music • 2022

How can decadence in 2022 still be so outrageously cool? In fact, it seems contrary to all reason to be still rapping on about one’s own luxury and immense wealth in times of climate change and scarcity of resources. But Pusha T is the king of creating flawless hedonism bangers – invariably garnished with a little white gourmet powder.  For his fourth solo album »It’s Almost Dry«, however, the New Yorker begins first with Adam and Eve and tells of his dealer past before the millennium in his usual concise manner.  For years, Pusha T’s narratives have been considered authentic portrayals of American troubled neighbourhoods, and although that past was decades ago, hardly anyone can evoke what happened between stacks of money and cocaine with such atmosphere. The description of himself as »Cocaine’s Dr. Seuss« is no exaggeration.  A big contribution to the fun, besides the vivid descriptions, is the exuberant nodding production by Pharrell Williams, who already co-produced Pusha T and his brother No Malice’s legendary 2006 »Hell Hath No Fury«.  Equally fitting are the casually cool features by Kanye West and Jay-Z, among others, on reduced soul samples or a bass-heavy beat massaging your ear: When Pusha »Seuss« T raps about his past hustle while decadently climbing through the wing door into the here and now, it’s plenty immoral, but it’s also outrageously cool.