{"id":53910,"date":"2025-12-16T00:39:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/21-savage-what-happened-to-the-streets-album-review\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:39:22","slug":"21-savage-what-happened-to-the-streets-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/21-savage-what-happened-to-the-streets-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"21 Savage ‘What Happened to the Streets?’: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\u201cThey tearin\u2019 down the real ones,\u201d rues 21 Savage<\/a> on \u201cAtlanta Tears,\u201d the penultimate track from his latest album, What Happened to the Streets?<\/em> For the 33-year-old rapper who has earned four Billboard <\/em>chart-topping albums, a 2020 Grammy Award for his 2019 single \u201cA Lot,\u201d and a reputation as a defining voice in Southern rap for the past decade, \u201cthe real ones\u201d are not only the multiple friends he lost to the street life. It\u2019s also the \u201csoldiers\u201d navigating an Atlanta ruptured by the untimely murders of Lil Keed<\/a> and Takeoff<\/a> from Migos<\/a>, the yearslong racketeering trial against Young Thug<\/a>\u2019s YSL Records, and the repercussions those incidents engendered. Given his own experience in becoming a target of national scrutiny, thanks to a high-profile 2019 arrest by ICE for emigrating as a child from his birthplace in Britain, it seems like 21 Savage is well positioned to address and heal some of the fractures in his hometown scene.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, 21 Savage also wants to remind us that he\u2019s not a pussy. \u201cMillionaire, but I\u2019m still a soldier,\u201d he growls on \u201cWhere You From,\u201d a track where a quintet of producers led by Southside and Wheezy nestle loud, barking dogs in the background. Aptly, another track is called \u201cDog $hit,\u201d where the rapper and guest Glorilla flex about their swollen bank accounts. With so much money, it seems like 21 Savage could leave behind the reputation he enjoyed as a teenager \u201cthuggin\u2019\u201d in Atlanta\u2019s Zone 6, where \u201cshit like Vietnam\/Gun smoke in my lungs,\u201d as he puts it on \u201cWhere You From.\u201d But in rap, \u201cthe streets\u201d are also a metaphor for the Black community, which often nurtures and inspires its children, only to loudly and painfully wonders if they\u2019ve left it behind once they\u2019ve grown up and achieved success. \u201cYou know you got them niggas out here sayin\u2019 the fame changed me,\u201d he says on \u201cGang Over Everything,\u201d a track on which he raps over longtime collaborator and super-producer Metro Boomin\u2019s chipmunk soul beat. \u201cI got thirty niggas right here sayin\u2019 that I\u2019m the same me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tThe tension between bridging a community\u2019s divides while remaining committed to its unspoken codes should lie at the heart of What Happened to the Streets<\/em>?. Tragically, it doesn\u2019t. 21 Savage may have had some success on last year\u2019s American Dream<\/em> by balancing reflections on his status as a wealthy immigrant artist with enough of his patented trap talk to satiate hardcore fans. But here, he succumbs to the latter bit far too often. He wastes time threatening the online commentariat trolling his every move. \u201cAll your internet niggas, I see you. All you content creators, catch you down bad and break your MacBook,\u201d he warns on \u201cWhere You From.\u201d It\u2019s the same tactics that rap dudes like Drake<\/a> (who recently boasted<\/a> of physically confronting a bystander for mocking him while he recorded a livestream) and Snoop Dogg<\/a> (smarting over detractors mad about his MAGA courtship<\/a>) have deployed when criticized. Speaking of Drake, the Canadian American superstar cameos on \u201cMr. Recoup,\u201d and trots out a nonplussed flow that hearkens to his newly minted \u201cIceman\u201d persona. Latto uses \u201cPop It\u201d to rap, \u201c\u201cBuy a Birk(in), I squirt, buy a car, I cream.\u201d She\u2019s responding to 21 Savage\u2019s rules for committing to monogamy: \u201cTen bodies or less, you a fuckin\u2019 queen\/If it\u2019s less than nine, condoms ain\u2019t a thing\/And if it\u2019s less than eight, you get a fuckin\u2019 ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t21 Savage remains a compelling artist capable of adding depth to his sundry rants about shooting opps and never trusting bitches. On \u201cCup Full,\u201d he opens with dialogue from Young Thug, who explains how past trauma informs their disastrous life choices. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how to, like, cope with agony. We cope with bad things by doing drugs, sippin\u2019 syrup, smoking weed, poppin\u2019 Percs, doin\u2019 ecstasy,\u201d he says. But these moments of needed context can\u2019t disguise that much of What Happened to the Streets<\/em> sounds inessential, and inferior to past peaks like 2017\u2019s Issa Album<\/em> and 2018\u2019s i am > i was<\/em>. Tracks like \u201cStepbrothers\u201d with Young Nudy<\/a>, \u201cMr. Recoup\u201d (where he and Drake repeat \u201cUs, us, it was us\u201d), and \u201cDog $hit\u201d falter over weak choruses and a lack of real emotional stakes.<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tThere are five strong cuts near the end of What Happened to the Streets<\/em>? that suggest the album it could have been. On \u201cCode of Honor,\u201d 21 Savage and G Herbo<\/a> snap hard over a thrillingly ominous beat from Taurus and Casper as they honored friends dead from gun violence. \u201cTattoos cover my face\/Scars on my whole body\/On the cup bad, I\u2019m missing Johnny\/I had shootouts with him right beside me,\u201d raps 21 Savage as he drowns his sorrows in liquid intoxicants. \u201cGang Over Everything\u201d and \u201cHalftime Interlude\u201d build on the momentum as he raps on the latter, \u201cStreets murdered all my niggas and I\u2019m traumatized.\u201d On \u201cBig Stepper\u201d he admits navigating hurt feelings after his girl uncovers evidence of a sexual interlude with a \u201cpretty girl\u201d sidepiece, leaving him to conclude, \u201cEverybody fuck up.\u201d \u201cAtlanta Tears\u201d features a strong verse from Lil Baby. Perhaps chastened by the failure of his recent solo album, WHAM<\/em>, he claims, \u201cI don\u2019t do this shit for fuckboys, so you ain\u2019t gotta listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tWhat Happened to the Streets <\/em>closes with \u201cI Wish.\u201d As 21 Savage reminisces about fallen rappers like Takeoff and Lil Keed as well as Juice WRLD and Nipsey Hussle, and Jawan Harris sings the chorus with spiritual fervor, one imagines it to be a maudlin but sincere follow-up to American Dream\u2019s<\/em> closer, \u201cDark Days\u201d and 21\u2019s advice for kids to stay in school\u2026until one realizes that \u201cI Wish\u201d is a cover of an 2000 R. Kelly<\/a> hit single. The moment eventually feels disastrous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy would 21 Savage try to rehabilitate R. Kelly, a man who assaulted and sexually abused countless women and children for decades? Maybe he\u2019s a fan that still enjoys Kelly\u2019s music<\/a> despite the harm that disgraced singer has done. Or perhaps, like too many other rappers, he\u2019s keenly interested in male exaltation and redemption, regardless of how that mentality hurts everyone else.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cThey tearin\u2019 down the real ones,\u201d rues 21 Savage on \u201cAtlanta Tears,\u201d the penultimate track from his latest album, What Happened to the Streets?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":53911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}