DESPITE SEVERAL SETBACKS ON “BENEATH ONE,” RYLO RODRIGUEZ EARNS HIS FLOWERS

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone better than Rylo Rodriguez if you ranked rappers based on how many sports allusions they could fit into an album. The Alabama rapper has made it a point throughout his career to mention as many players as he can, but they are almost never inappropriately mentioned. Rodriguez continues the pattern on his most recent album, Been One, where he utilizes them to narrate his life rather than just flex.

Rylo compares his Dodge Ram vehicle to former Los Angeles Ram Jalen Ramsey in the first seconds of the album’s introduction, “System,” and then claims he has more rounds left in him than boxer Devin Haney. In addition to putting Rylo in familiar ground for others who are unable to relate to his circumstances, the references also provide a humorous way to demonstrate that he hasn’t been excessively toughened by his turbulent surroundings.

Dreamy acoustic strings and an interpolation of “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” reduce the pace set by the opening and its fierce follow-up “On Da Floor” in “Right.” Rylo manages to subtly make references to CeeDee Lamb and Ja’marr Chase within a couple of seconds of one another, despite the fact that the topic of the song is more heavier than the bragging of the tunes that came before it. The casual name-dropping may seem to disrupt the flow of an otherwise introspective tune, but it really helps to remind Rylo to cherish the things he cares about.

Even if the album’s themes start to grow stale halfway through, the opening three songs serve as a template for the rest of it. Drake-inspired tracks like “Free Game,” “On The Run,” and “You’ll Find the One” use muted R&B vocals to power the beat. Thematically, they are only somewhat different as Rylo raps about his career, his accomplishments, and doing all he can for his family, but his delivery is still captivating enough to keep listeners interested.

Rylo’s sense of rhythm is unwavering, even when he veers away from R&B-influenced instrumentals. Before switching to a more conventional trap rhythm, “Unfuckwitable” sounds like it was taken straight out of the crunk period. Even though each section might stand alone as a song, Rylo seamlessly shifts between them, bolstering his assurance and demonstrating that the song’s title is a fitting description of his standing in hip hop.

Throughout a number of tracks in the album’s second half that end up sounding identical, that certainty is gone. While “Leaks” and “Ah Never Be The Same” share a similar tone, “Taylor Port Junkie” finds it difficult to differentiate itself from the concluding song, “Thang For You.” Although neither of the two tracks is subpar, the album’s protracted duration gives the impression that Rylo struggled to kill his pet projects.

Been One waffles in its second half with shallow themes and brilliant-yet-derivative rhythms. Beyond some smart punchlines in the first (Micro Draco, this sort hard to obtain, I ain’t never traveled to Canada), the sequence from “Digital Pictures” to “You Should” doesn’t provide anything fresh, and “End of the Road” features stories of great loss. On any of the more sensitive tracks, it would be unfair to discount Rylo’s suffering, albeit his admissions would carry more weight if he kept the focus sharper.

Rylo has a lot to say, sometimes too much, as Been One makes abundantly evident. He has all the space he needs on the record to express his suffering, his success, and everything in between, but he has a tendency to stay on the same route for too long before changing course. Rylo might be able to publish a genuinely outstanding product if he can figure out how to prioritize quality and variety more effectively across all of his projects. His lofty ceiling will not be broken till then.