Culture Review

Migos, an underground rap group in the city of Atlanta, consists of two brothers and a nephew: Quavo, Offset and Takeoff. After their first major hit album, “YRN,” Migos started to get more recognition and were most famous for shouting crazy ad-libs throughout their songs. On Aug. 27, 2016, they came out with the song titled “Bad and Boujee” which turned into the number one hit song in America and an international internet meme, where people used the caption, “Rain drop, drop top” all over Snapchat and Twitter. This song eventually received a shout out from actor Donald Glover at the Golden Globes, giving Migos even more social recognition than ever before.The recently released album, “Culture” by Migos, launches the Atlanta based rap group into the mainstream, as more and more people (mostly under the age of thirty) discover their latest work. “Culture” includes thirteen songs featuring rappers such as Gucci Mane, Lil Uzi Vert, 2 Chainz, DJ Khaled and Travis Scott.This album opens up with an explicit motivational speech by DJ Khaled, adding extra anticipation for listeners. While this useless talk was a waste of fifteen seconds, the rest of the song clearly makes up for it, as it launched one of the greatest production from a rap album since Travis Scott’s “Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight.”Migos continues to impress lyrically, as presented in their best song of the album, “Slippery.” Fellow Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane added to this popular song with a verse of his own, making it go from superb to exceptional.The three relatives have a unique style in their music, as they very often shout weird ad-libs throughout their songs, which many current rappers intend to copy but fail to do so. Migos’ odd style of rap flow was previously called “triplet rapping” but as it became more common in their music, this name was changed to “Migos flow.” “Migos flow” has been so influential on other artists, for instance Young Thug and Meek Mill have both started using this style as well. The song “T-SHIRT” is a good example of this, as it includes triplet rapping along with many ad-libs used for extra charismatic effect.As displayed in Migos’ music videos, the group has a bold fashion–wearing chains, fur coats, teeth grills and bizarre glasses–making them more appealing to the younger generation. Their love for fashion is even evident in their older song, “Versace,” where they shout out this Italian designer company ninety-one times in one song. Their videos depict the Migos going on crazy missions, whether it’s snowmobiling on a mountain, performing at a concert, or chilling in Bermuda–which all connect to the album title, “Culture.”After this stand-out album, Migos is destined to create other masterpieces, which will hopefully live up to “Culture.” This album will continue to garner more and more attention as its excellence is realized and celebrated.