Mixtape Review of Que – Can You Digg It? Courtesy of Luke McCormick
Que is out here trying to not become another one hit wonder statistic. The 24-year-old Atlanta rapper had a certified smash on his hands last year with “OG Bobby Johnson”. The internets, radio, even celebrities couldn’t get the damn hook out of their heads. Lebron James even said it was his pre-game turn up jam.
Not one to be beholden by a singular hit single, Que signed to Atlantic (by freshly minted A&R dude DJ Drama) and pushed out an EP in March of this year. He’s back already with Can You Digg It? It’s a quick shot of a mixtape at only 14 tracks and has a star studded guest roll. He’s got dudes like Trey Songz and 2 Chainz stopping by and gets laced with a DJ Mustard beat. Some heavy hitting shit for a free mixtape. Should make for a compelling listen. Not exactly. The tape is like a tale of two Ques.
The first of half of Can You Digg It? is full of a very confident Que. He’s rapping his ass off and is dead set on letting you know he’s damn good at this rap shit, but it’s really just a hobby to him. “I’m not a rapper I just took a break from ballin’” he spits in his competitor’s faces on the “Intro” in his raspy, choppy drawl of a flow. The tape’s first few tracks also show off Que’s knack for crafting simple, repetitive, can’t deny hooks. The three song suite of “Uno Dos Tres”, “All Y’all” and the 2 Chainz assisted “Rich Problems” orbit the same hook heaven of “OG Bobby Johnson”.
“Rich Problems” could for sure be a problem, this thing is bonafide heater. It’s got a DJ Mustard plink plonk piano beat the kids love and 2 Chainz sliding in to rap about his crib being big as a Wal Mart. He also mentions calling Target “Tarjay”, so the dude has cornered the big ass department store rhymes market.
So that first half of the tape is a butt load of fun with Que getting his rappity rap on and belting out some infectious hooks, then he just decides to ditch that functioning formula for the second half. Now we get Que the crooner. The auto tune gets turned up and Que really, really wants to be Future.
Que starts stretching those vocals on “Keep It Real” which is actually very pleasant. His voice hasn’t been auto tuned out yet and the dude can seriously sing. The Jazz Feezy beat is a spacey, low bpm affair Future would have murked three years ago. Here it just sounds old hat. August Alsina hops on “Diamonds” which Que also sings on. Que could have adopted that first half of the tape raspy flow and made a nice contrast to Alsina’s croon, but this one just floats by unnoticed.
To go along with the second half of this tape poor decision making HUGE guests get shoved at the end of this thing. Que has the aforementioned Alsina, Ty Dolla $ign, and freaking Trey Songz on separate tracks here. These dudes are hitmakers. Space them out throughout the tape so people aren’t just skipping down to the bottom to hear what will assumedly be a banger.
Que definitely has some skills and can be an engaging artist when he’s relying on his strengths. To eclipse just being “that guy who made “OG Bobby Johnson”" he needs to decide what kind of rapper he wants to be. He can’t straddle that line between crooning and spitting like a Future. For new successes the man should keep churning out those mad fun hooks and focus on rapping his raspy ass off.
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