“Contradictions in my thoughts, and I just execute my feelings…”

ScHoolboy tapped into the Billboard Top 100 last year with his proper debut Setbacks after landing on West Coast radars with his ScHoolboy Turned Hustla and Gangsta & Soul mixtapes, and, as has been the trend with his fellow Black Hippy Top Dawg Entertainment cohorts, he’s continuing to surpass what seems a prime with his releases, the most recent, Habits and Contradictions, shunning off the skill of its predecessors as if they were child’s play in comparison despite their prodigy.

HnC drops built steam simply off of mention when ScHoolboy announced it as the predecessor to Setbacks last September, though it sits as its own entity built in the world of personal dealings ranging from slinging pills (“Oxy Music”), herbs and Hennessy, street brovado (“N*ggaHs.already.know.davers.flow”) and dames (“Sex Drive”), bookended by statements on the skewed duality of the conscience and the contradictions in the abandonment of optimism.

The album opens with the morose “Sacrilegious,” a narrative following the contradictions of a killer seeking salvation, a man that “can’t get over that hump with life and shit,” who ultimately finds solace through suicide (ScHoolboy in an interview with OnSmash). HnC is quick to change pace with records like the Jay Rock included “2 Raw” with its heavyweight bars, swagger track “Druggy’s Wit Hoes Again” (which features one of Ab-Soul’s best verses), and “Gangster In Designer (No Concept),” though the tracklist still holds its notable oddities of individuality.

The astral tone slack flow chillers like “Groovelines Pt. 1 Feat. Dom Kennedy and Curren$y” and “How We Feeling” stray the album’s dimensions, with sounds in the latter composed of slow flow intones—“House full of money, tub full of bitches, we be sexing all night, give your ass the business…we feeling alright”—clasped by some spokenword with scattered utters. With some A$AP Ty sounds, ScHoolboy nabs a slice of Jay and Ye’s “N*ggas in Paris” to talk the TDE banner throne, tossing a few ambiguous shots in self-proclaimed greatness, while the additional A$AP family link with Rocky in “Hands on the Wheel” anthem features some sublime instrumentals from Best Kept Secret, built from some cuts from Lissie’s rendition of Kid CuDi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” that epitomize the nirvana in intoxication. Some turns are too awkward, such as THC’s electro-beat instrumentals in “Sex Drive Feat. Jhene Aiko” and “Tookie Knows Interlude,” though it’s rare you’ll find anything too strange for the taste, as the production throughout from boardwizards in the family of Lex Luger, Mick Will (hit up “My Hatin’ Joint), Tabu (“Sacrilegious”) and Nez & Rio (those “Blessed” necessities) collect a mulligan stew of style.

The link between Alchemist and ScHoolboy in “My Homie” is where reality is revived through a narrative detailing the division between a childhood friend turned snitch and drug-slinging kingpin ScHoolboy:  “When we was younger, you was my main n*gga, I wouldn’t figure you would be on that stand putting my life up in your hands, pointing your finger like damn…We was just slinging Oxy like a year ago, you knew my sister, though, Auntie, cousins, and my Uncle Joe…Remember them Cherrios, Ninja Turtles on my grandma’s floor…you got your sentenced reduced ‘cause you told them I pulled the trigger…”

The closer “Blessed” is the undoubted magnum opus of Habits and Contradictions, ScHoolboy’s autobiography written in introspection, and portrait of endurance under the social duress of the environment. It’s the most fitting record for Kendrick to appear on, working in that Section.80 vein, and contrasted against records like “N*ggaHs.already.know.davers.flow,” you can see ScHoolboy’s topical versatility as an emcee.

Tradition and evolution are the theories behind the music here, with a West Coast anchor and pioneer philosophy that saves Habits and Contradictions from definite labels and ties of the times. From “Sacrilegious” to “Blessed,” ScHoolboy Q makes an appeal across the spectrum with the varying wavelengths, making the LP highly accessible, and as personal as it is broad. Smoke to it, drink to it, listen, learn and chill—Habits and Contradictions is meticulously crafted with everything the title implies.

SumOlogy: ScHoolboy’s best. Habits and Contradictions sets the tone for the first half of 2012.

4.0/5.0

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