Genre: Sadboy Explained

Genre: Sadboy
Type:ep
Artist:MGK and Trippie Redd
Cover:MGK and Trippie Redd - Genre Sadboy.png
Alt:Two young men stand against a light background – MGK, at left, dressed in all black and Trippie Redd wearing a big funny hat.
Released:March 29, 2024
Genre:
Length:27:16
Label:
  • EST 19XX
  • 10K
  • Interscope
Producer:
Chronology:MGK
Prev Title:Mainstream Sellout
Prev Year:2022

Genre: Sadboy (stylized genre : sadboy) is a collaborative extended play by American rappers MGK and Trippie Redd. It was released on March 29, 2024.

Background

MGK and Trippie Redd are both Ohio natives and collaborated on several tracks prior to the release of Genre: Sadboy.[1] They first collaborated in 2019, when Redd was featured on the track "Candy" on MGK's fourth studio album, Hotel Diablo. Redd was featured again on "All I Know", a track off of MGK's 2020 album, Tickets to My Downfall. A majority of the album was recorded at Record Plant Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.

Release

The duo announced the album in a March 23, 2024, Instagram post featuring a snippet of the song "Lost Boys".[1] [2] On March 25, 2024, in response to a post about the album's release, a producer named Kaixan wrote on X, "the way I just learned I have a beat placement in this this morning and I know it's bout to be the worst song I've ever heard."[3] Following his tweet, Trippie Redd responded and said he was removing Kaixan from the album.[3] On March 26, 2024, they released their first track, "Lost Boys", as a single with an accompanying music video.[4] Genre: Sadboy was released on March 29, 2024. A mini-documentary, directed by Sam Cahill, was released alongside the album, giving fans a look at the rappers' creative process in the studio, as well as behind-the-scenes music video footage.[5]

To promote the album, the duo announced two free concerts, scheduled for April 2, 2024, at Irving Plaza in New York City, and April 4 at the Bluestone in Columbus, Ohio.[6] [7]

Critical reception

Upon release, Genre: Sadboy received generally negative reviews from critics. According to HotNewHipHop, Genre: Sadboy "didn't get the best reviews".[8] Fred Thomas of AllMusic felt that "none of it feels authentic" and concluded that the album "wallows painfully somewhere between unfinished and unlistenable".[9] Sheldon Pearce of NPR felt that "While the surface-level signifiers of emo rap are all here, so are its worst impulses — the genre's meagerness, its latent callowness and underlying futility — and it can never quite blend its two markers into anything transformative." He also argued that what he perceived as a poor blend of rap and pop-punk in the album "highlights what made [the genre collision] so effective in the first place".[10]

Track listing

Note

Personnel

Charts

Chart (2024)! scope="col"
Peak
position
Australian Hip Hop/R&B Albums (ARIA)[11] 31

Notes and References

  1. News: Saponara . Michael . Machine Gun Kelly & Trippie Redd Bring the Emo-Raps for Genre : Sadboy Project: Stream It Now . 30 March 2024 . Billboard . March 29, 2024.
  2. News: Brow . Jason . Machine Gun Kelly's All "Alone in a Vamp Castle" on His New Genre: Sadboy Project . 30 March 2024 . Us Weekly . March 29, 2024.
  3. News: Armstrong . Megan . A Producer Insulted Trippie Redd and Machine Gun Kelly's Genre:Sadboy, and Things Got Ugly Quick . 30 March 2024 . UPROXX . March 27, 2024.
  4. News: Martin . Annie . Listen: Machine Gun Kelly, Trippie Redd release 'Lost Boys' single, music video . 30 March 2024 . Yahoo! . March 27, 2024.
  5. News: Mendez . Marisa . Machine Gun Kelly & Trippie Red Drop Mini-Doc For 'Genre: Sadboy' . 31 March 2024 . Yahoo! . March 23, 2024.
  6. News: Smith . Dylan . Machine Gun Kelly and Trippie Redd Announce Two Free Concerts to Promote Surprise Release — With Additional Shows Possible . 30 March 2024 . Digital Music News . March 29, 2024.
  7. News: Haidet . Ryan . Machine Gun Kelly, Trippie Redd hosting free concert in Columbus on April 4: How to get tickets . 30 March 2024 . WKYC Studios . March 29, 2024.
  8. Web site: Cole . Alexander . 2024-04-25 . Trippie Redd & Machine Gun Kelly Clown Producer Who Got Kicked Off Their New EP . 2024-06-15 . HotNewHipHop . en.
  9. Web site: Thomas . Fred . genre : sadboy – Machine Gun Kelly, mgk, Trippie Redd . 10 June 2024 . AllMusic.
  10. Web site: Pearce . Sheldon . April 4, 2024 . Emo rap at its limits . June 10, 2024 . NPR.
  11. Web site: ARIA Top 40 Hip Hop/R&B Albums Chart. Australian Recording Industry Association. April 8, 2024. April 5, 2024.