Oxymoron

Following in the footsteps of fellow Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q makes his major-label debut with Oxymoron, an album as thematically ambitious and sonically adventurous as Lamar's celebrated good kid, m.A.A.d city. Detailing Q's days as a drug dealer, hustler, and father, the record doesn't just open a vein; it practically bleeds to death, as on the album centerpiece "Prescription/Oxymoron," a menacing track about the litany of bad vibes caused by drug use: "I cry when nothing's wrong." Not that Oxymoron is a downer–far from it. "Collard Greens" is addictively rambunctious, daring listeners to not bounce with its circular bassline and jittery beat. And Q's flow is a thing to behold. He snarls, wheezes, croons, coos, barks, and caws, playing the lascivious lothario on "The Studio," the boisterous party-starter on "Man of the Year," and the unapologetic recidivist on, well, pretty much on every track. Indeed, Q more than lives up to his rep as Black Hippy's unhinged id.