NBA YOUNGBOY ‘DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME’ OVERSTAYS ITS WELCOME

The Horace Wilkinson Bridge in Baton Rouge is in the background as YoungBoy Never Broke Again stands on a boat covered in pleated American flags. Sunlight pouring through the light gray clouds, the lake murky-brown, and his expression stern. This is YoungBoy’s spring album.

Don’t Try This At Home, YoungBoy’s sixth studio album, sharpens the already-tight sound of his Baton Rouge-inspired yelps of resistance and stands as the year’s most reflective YB project. The album, which was recorded at his Utah home, is a return to the style that has come to characterize Kentrell Gaulden, sometimes known as “Mr. Gaulden” since he repeats on the self-titled track, “Don’t say Kentrell.”

Don’t Try This At Home portrays NBA YoungBoy’s idealization of Baton Rouge and Louisiana culture, painted in isolation, limited to memories of his teenage years, as it immediately springs into the beats’ upbeat yet discordant notes. The album carries no risk. The thirty-three song project is overstaying its welcome at an hour and twenty-five minutes, more music than a CD can hold. It was lost in a stream of three releases in the previous six months.

Don’t Try This At Home feels like the premature release of a studio album that was once shelved because YoungBoy just months earlier had shifted to fury rhythms with I Rest My Case and promised Billboard to preach a message of anti-violence. “Another Dead” is unnecessary, “Morning” is identical to any other YB song you would hear on shuffle, and “No Rubber” has to be looked into as a potential AI-generated Kevin Gates track.

The album is neither memorable nor forgettable, despite the sincerity of the music, which features wildly oscillating croons over an arranged jumble of dispersed piano keys, light 808s, and half-time bass drum kicks. Don’t Try This At Home is YB-core, churning with Motown’s links to the business giving way to unimpressive appearances from Mariah the Scientist, Post Malone, and The Kid LAROI — a bunch of artists who have little in common with YoungBoy except from seismic streaming figures.

YoungBoy, though, sounds strong and ambitious when left alone, as on the song “Hustle,” turning up confessionals with impeccable flow.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again adapts to a diverse cast of producers (such as DRoc, Yo Benji, Cheese, etc.) whose work often revolves around the same common suspects as Lil Tjay, NLE Choppa, and Lil Baby. The beats are as boisterous as you might imagine, but whenever appropriate, melody is almost always matched with the beat. When he’s not yelling, he’s singing, and when he’s not going crazy, he’s longing. He’s a modern-day Lil Wayne from the Hot Boys era who gives fans as much songs as they want without ever seriously compromising the caliber of his record.

The project’s outstanding YB song “War” closes it out. Warped and layered guitars are artfully arranged to give the state of Baton Rouge credibility. The midsummer etude beat strums, but YoungBoy juxtaposes them with a gut-wrenching admission of worry: “It’s cold-blooded war out in Baton Rouge.” YoungBoy is so desensitized to the culture of his city.

Even at the tape’s worst, NBA YoungBoy only sounds derivative of himself, relying on his own signatures like guitar strings that sing wah and YB-isms created in isolation, like “Baby, I can’t even leave the crib, but I’m flossing,” on “Mr. Gaulden.” It’s a challenging undertaking, but cohesiveness doesn’t seem to be the main concern. Don’t Try This At Home wants to showcase YB’s capacity to produce exhilarating, chaotic, and intoxicating musical moments on record, even if just for a few tracks at a time.