Pegasus: Neon Shark vs Pegasus Presented By Travis Barker (Deluxe)

From the very beginning, the only people who’d have been unable to identify the rock influences of Trippie Redd’s music were people who hadn’t heard it. With regard to his vocal delivery in particular, nu-metal, pop-punk, and goth metal have always informed what Trippie had to offer. With NEON SHARK vs Pegasus (Deluxe: Presented by Travis Barker), the Canton, Ohio-hailing singer and MC has attached 14 new songs explicitly of a pop-punk origin to 2020’s already 26-song-long Pegasus project. Producer and blink-182 drummer Barker is co-credited on almost all of the new tracks, setting the table for guests like Deftones’ Chino Moreno (“GERONIMO”) as well as Machine Gun Kelly (“RED SKY,” “PILL BREAKER”) and blackbear (“PILL BREAKER”), a pair of vocalists whose music has likewise toed the line between their hip-hop and rock influences. For Trippie’s part, the vibes here are well familiar, both lovelorn and carefree, an artist at utmost peace in his own creative melancholy. Historically, to listen to Trippie Redd is to know what attempts at engaging in love have done to his psyche, and NEON SHARK vs Pegasus is dialed in to that same messaging. Barker is merely helping the singer lean just a bit further in to the aesthetic he’s long owned.