YG’s fourth studio album “My Life 4Hunnid,” released on Oct. 2 , is not your typical hip hop album. YG branches out from his distinctive rap-heavy style by breaking up the album with R&B songs, while the majority of the album maintains the high energy and political commentary that is characteristic of his music.

One of the most notable successes of this album is the carefully selected features, some of which showcase up-and-coming artists. The second song on the album, “Blood Walk,” features a verse from D3szn, who has only been making music for a year, and showcases his vocal abilities.

In the song “Hate on Me,” YG experiments with singing a little, and Lil Tjay’s R&B feature perfectly complements this experimental verse. The song “Surgery,” featuring Ty Dolla Sign, is a unique crossover between R&B and rap, with rap verses layered over an R&B sampled beat. On the song “Thug Kry,” YG even sings in autotune, which is completely unheard of in his discography. 

This album is also much more thoughtful than YG’s previous albums; on the song “Out on Bail,”,YG mentions his late friend, rapper Nipsey Hussle, who focused on repairing his community and was politically active prior to his death. 

Carrying on Hussle’s’s legacy, the album features two 10 second long politically charged interludes, titled “Traumatized Interlude” and “Traumatized Interlude #2,”in which a little girl states that there is police at her door and she’s scared of them.

 Following up the second interlude is a song titled “FTP,”which stands for “F*** the Police.” This song seems to be a sequel to “FDT” (F*** Donald Trump), which isn’t on this album, but is one of YG’s most popular songs. YG refers to law enforcement as the “Ku Klux Cops” in this song, and suggests that they have hidden agendas, presumably racially motivated.

I was really pleasantly surprised by this album. YG albums tend to be mostly rap with a few features that bring an R&B or alternative sound, but in this one I really enjoyed how YG  sang himself and experimented with his raw voice and autotune. The progression of the album was also really well-arranged; songs with R&B features and singing were placed in between the exciting rap songs, which made it fun and exciting to listen through the whole album in order. I definitely think this is one of YG’s best albums yet.