DAVE EAST ‘FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD’ DOESN’T LIVE UP TO ITS LOFTY NAME

Fortune Favors the Bold, the name of Dave East’s latest album, is not a phrase he learned while growing up in New York City. It wasn’t from the renowned Queensbridge slum projects, where he lived with his aunt throughout some of his adolescent years, or from East Harlem, where his mother resided.

While basketball alongside Ty Lawson and Greivis Vasquez in AAU, he didn’t follow this counsel. Kevin Durant, a close buddy, never said it either. He didn’t pick it up from Nas, who signed him right away to his Mass Appeal Records after listening to his songs. No, the name of East’s latest album, which contains some of his most blatant attempts for chart success and streaming success to date, came from an unexpected source.

“You need to be brave. Never listen to someone who says you can’t accomplish anything. In a message that was included with the CD, East urged listeners not to let their surroundings limit them. “Don’t wait for somebody to give you sh*t. I had nothing when I entered the projects. My children won’t even be able to smell the construction sites or have any idea of the life I led.

The future is not certain. I’m going to post some garbage that will be online forever in the interim. It’s a lovely idea, but East undermines it right away a few lines later. “I Googled John Wick’s tattoo,” he continues. When I considered what Fortune Favors The Bold meant to me, it perfectly complemented the record.

The album contains just enough moments to make East seem like the ambitious MC who once aspired to dominate East Coast rap. Sadly, a lot of these songs are eclipsed by others on which East cedes the spotlight to partners who are ready for the radio, essentially Googling “radio rap hit” the same way he did “John Wick.” The attempts to establish streaming supremacy are ineffective, not because they are evident.

While Coi Leray’s “Sex So Good” uncharacteristically makes sex sound shockingly terrible, “HUSTLERS” with Tyga and “WDGAF” with G-Eazy are as mild-mannered as you’d expect from these musicians.

Both of them are awful and very disappointing. However, East continues as if the well-known status of his collaborators can propel these songs to the top of Spotify’s rap playlists. As seen on “WDGAF,” Mike Will Made-East seems uneasy while trying to follow a rhythm that obviously doesn’t match his typical flow pattern since it’s phoned in. It’s difficult to disagree when “They can’t shut me up”‘s chorus starts, but not in the way that this pair anticipated.

Even just being associated with a hack like G-Eazy makes East appear very out of touch. East’s terrible verse from G-Eazy is enough to make him sound like a generational rapper. Rapper Eazy says, “If I want a bad one, get a bad bitch right away/ If she actin’ up, she not the only bitch I know.” If that weren’t so unimaginative, it would be offensive.

Fortune Favors the Bold is quite a difficult and inconsistent listen because of the indications of brilliance, especially since East frequently shown his talent in previous works, when he was more ambitious, unsuccessful, and unable to attract A-list talent.

When compared to “WDGAF,” the rhythm selection on “Weirdos,” which features Jadakiss and comes right after it, makes the The Lox legend seem like Biggie. It’s interesting to hear East on this song compared to the one before because his voice has a greater sense of danger, as if he would be ashamed to rap next to a legend like Jadakiss as he did with G-Eazy.

However, it’s possible that they are only the breaks in a big label deal. A musician like East, who has such a strong connection to the neighborhoods where he grew up, isn’t interested in these studio-produced choruses and clichéd pop raps. It doesn’t matter whether Def Jam insisted on these tracks because East’s personality is strongly influenced by his ethics as an MC. Look at the album’s closing track, “Letter 2 Kobi,” which is a dedication to his youngest daughter.

He performs with the utmost intensity and raps his ass off. It would be great to have this as a complete album. Although the streams would likely be lesser, East must eventually decide whether 1.5 million streams are worthwhile if they came with working with G-Eazy. It’s unfortunate that Dave East abandons his daring and boldness more frequently than he lives up to the distinction, as seen throughout his new album, which shows how these qualities have made his career what it is.