Album: Takeoff – The Last Rocket
Following the 2017 release of Culture, the personal brands of Migos members Quavo and Offset grew in ways that few fans of the group could have foreseen. The demand for Quavo and, to a slightly lesser degree, Offset as featured artists and collaborators blew up; Offset would also become more visible due to his relationship with Bronx rapper Cardi B. Over this same period, the group’s youngest member, Takeoff, stood firmly in his position as a Migo, happy to celebrate his family’s victories, slightly left of frame. Just three weeks after Quavo’s debut solo album, QUAVO HUNCHO, Takeoff delivers his own, The Last Rocket. The LP shows Takeoff dialed in as the sneakily proficient verse-killing specialist he’s been throughout the whole of Migos’ catalog. On the The Last Rocket’s opener, “Martian,” he’s a greyhound burst out of the starting gate, stacking syllables nimbly over minimalistic 808 rumble. Quavo pops up on “She Gon Wink” for a chorus (and a verse), but it’s essentially the Takeoff show thereafter. The MC gets real about his spending habits on “None to Me,” reminisces about his days running the streets on “I Remember,” and provides advice to young rappers on “Lead the Wave,” a song that plays as worthwhile counterpart to Quavo’s “Big Bro.” The album is not without its experimental flourishes: Takeoff raps in a number of different timbres on “Last Memory” and even tries his hand at an out-and-out pop song on “Infatuation.” Ultimately, the MC proves to Migos fans, if no one else, that he’s just as responsible for the group’s success as his more popular counterparts.