DJ Khaled - Major Key

Have you ever wanted to listen to a meme? DJ Khaled has you covered. His new album, coincidentally titled Major Key is exactly that: one giant meme. So unless you're going into this album wanting that, you won't be happy.

You can tell an album is destined for failure when Future is featured on three tracks. That's three tracks too many. Opinions aside, Future isn't the worst part about this record. He's pretty good on it, honestly - he's finally improving. His bars actually have some emotion in them. The intro is a banger - 'I Got The Keys' features him, and while his chorus is nothing more than saying the title of the song over and over again, his voice sounds more (unnecessarily?) urgent than usual, which is nice and refreshing. Jay-Z features on the track as well - as the instrumental suggests - and brings the song a step further.

Other features are hit or miss. Drake doesn't shine here; his usual subtlety is gone and instead, he delivers a very, very blatant verse about sex in 'For Free' that kills the entire track (though all of the Khaled interjections of "ANOTHER ONE" didn't leave for much to be appreciated). Nicki Minaj is as annoying as typical, but when she come in on 'Do You Mind', it gives the album a fresh voice. The song itself, however, outstays its welcome by being far too long than it needs to be. Meghan Trainor is the other prominent female voice on the album in 'Forgive Me Father', though this doesn't mean much since you can barely understand what she is saying half of the time as she slurs her way through the verse. This song ends DJ Khaled's portion of his own album (you read that right), since a track by Mavado (which is in Spanish?) concludes it. 'Nas Album Done' featuring - you guessed it - Nas continues a repetitive album with another repetitive instrumental (while the verses themselves aren't as dull).

While a lot of the features aren't top notch, there are some good ones. The aforementioned features on the first track with Jay-Z and Future are pretty good. Future shows up on two other tracks - 'Fuck Up The Club', where he's just plain annoying, and 'Ima Be Alright', which is sweet and melodic. 'Holy Key' is a big track, Big Sean going big on his verse, and Kendrick Lamar of course being nothing short of legendary. J. Cole also has a good verse on 'Jermaine's Interlude', but the song itself is fairly boring.

Instrumentally, there's nothing special to find either in many tracks. Some standouts include 'I Got The Keys', 'Holy Key', and 'Don't Ever Play Yourself' - the latter of which isn't as meme-worthy as you'd expect. It can't be praised lyrically (then again, neither can a lot of this record; "She so weird I made her pussy fart" in 'Pick These Hoes Apart' is by far the worst thing I've heard this entire year), but it has some good sounds in it, including the piano.

The self-proclaimed Snapchat king has taken his memes and put it to music. Major Key isn't much to tackle. It almost feels like one big joke. There's little interesting development within in and too few great moments for its execution. Perhaps DJ Khaled needs to have a reality check before his next release.

Favorite Tracks: Holy Key, I Got The Keys, Ima Be Alright

Least Favorite Tracks: Pick These Hoes Apart, Tourist, Fuck Up The Club

Rating: 58 / 100