Atlanta rapper VL Deck boasts the kind of connections typically reserved for the upper-echelon only; he’s worked with Young Thug (“Spot Run“), Future (“Which One You Workin’“), and NBA YoungBoy (2018’s disastrous Kane & O-Dog EP), garnering local praise and occasional national recognition. Trap Pastor 3, the successor to last year’s Trap Pastor and Trap Pastor 2, arrives at a time of national crisis, with the Covid-19 pandemic far from under control, and widespread protests over police violence and systemic racism in the United States. Can VL Deck speak to the occasion?
No, not that he really tries to. I didn’t hear a single reference to any current events, nor any awareness that life as we know it has fundamentally changed in the past 6 months. It’s more important for Deck to tell us what color his hundreds are (blue), how often he gets racks (daily), the status of his new watch’s bezel (busted down). His lyrics exclusively deal with street life and gang activities, recycling the same themes and tropes, exhausting the potential of each beat within 30 seconds. I mention this because the beats are actually strong; any rapper would be happy to receive this pack in the mail.
It’s not just that VL Deck never digs deep: if you actually listen to what he’s saying, you’re likely to cringe. Lines like “I sweep the carpet / Aladdin” on the noxious “Rack For Passion” make me immediately doubt his (gross) claims that women throw their wet panties at him. “I’ll set you on fire just like bacon” from “Concentration” suggests that he’s cooking his bacon wrong. “I’m a factor, I’m so relevant” Deck pleads on “Fresh 2 Death,” though he presents no evidence to back up that claim.
Besides the questionable lyrics, consider his forays into mumble rap: the back-third of “Veteran” would have Lil Uzi shaking his head. Then there are songs (“Highly Anticipated,” “Others”) where he shouts into the microphone a la Meek Mill, begging me to turn the volume down. I’ll do one you one better and drag that MP3 right to the trash. (Speaking of the MP3’s, why are half the files in the Datpiff download 192 kbps, the others 320 kbps? Make your files consistent! It’s so unsettling looking at the discongruity of these bitrates I feel nauseous.)
I was hoping this mixtape would have more to offer, but there’s nothing of value besides the beats. I’d rather hear this as an instrumental project with no raps. If you still wish to proceed, download Trap Pastor 3 here.
Opinion of the Court 