ALBUM REVIEW: FLAWLESS LIKE ME by LUCKI

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WRITTEN BY: Dylan Stevens

It has been almost a decade since LUCKI released Alternative Trap in 2013. Since then, the 26-year-old Chicago rapper has undergone an artistic metamorphosis
across 10 projects that has polarized fans across the internet. Gone are the psychedelic indie samples and boyish voice, and in its place now stands a man whose artistic maturity allows him to craft a sound that is so familiar yet fundamentally different. On September 23, 2022, LUCKI released his much anticipated debut album, FLAWLESS LIKE ME.

Among years of loosies and untethered tracks, LUCKI delivered two singles
shortly before the album’s release. The first, “COINCIDENCE,” was attached to a visual directed by Cole Bennett depicting LUCKI gliding through an urban European landscape to the score of an ethereal trap anthem. The track barely inches past the two minute mark following a subdued but vulnerable performance from the rapper—a style that has since become a trademark.

The second single proved to be a bit more telling. “GEEKED N BLESSED” finds LUCKI exercising the spirit of 2012 Chief Keef on an instrumental littered with midi horns and rapid snare fills. Lyrically, LUCKI spins a tale of high-class taste mixed with low-class sensibilities, a common theme centered in much of his recent catalog and best exemplified by the refrain of, “Giving luxury but junky,” from the intro track.

This sentiment reverberates further throughout FLAWLESS LIKE ME. Much of LUCKI’s music can be boiled down to a few things: drugs, love, and money—in that order. At first glance, this feels par for the course when it comes to popular trap music, but with LUCKI, his music often feels more refined than some of his contemporaries. Maybe it’s his uniquely mesmerizing beat selection, or maybe it’s the fact that he actually jots down his lyrics before spitting them—something of a lost art in trap music.

LUCKI reveals his keen ear for beats throughout the album, tapping producers like BRENTRAMBO and Tay Keith to create a nostalgic, glistening array of tracks. “ARCHIVE CELINE” and “ON POINT” each feature those kitschy midi horns, evoking hazy memories of a simpler time, a time in which an artist formerly known as Lucki Eck$ was just a teenager molding his style and coming of age one track at a time.

And all this reminiscing is not limited to the beats. It is hard not to recognize the
journey LUCKI has been on. Whether it’s a “college town market…paying like New York” or “Britain across the country,” the performances have grown with the music. Seldom is this more apparent than on the aptly titled, “BEEN A MINUTE.” Here, LUCKI solemnly recollects his quest so far; over some crunching Tay Keith 808s, he raps, “Been a minute since I been in the maze/Been a minute since I hopped out in traffic/I been thinking ’bout this sh*t on stage.” As fans squeeze into the venues, LUCKI cannot help but remember the risks and sacrifices required to be a star.

The brooding doesn’t end there. More than ever before, many of these tracks find LUCKI in a state of paranoia. Some days he’s worrying about just who might be approaching his car, and other days he’s concealing an opioid dependency. This, compounded with his insatiable lust for women (who’ve been won and lost), begins to paint the portrait of a man blessed with cash but burdened by convictions. This dilemma rears its head on the standout track, “13,” where he raps, “I get so high, I hide it from the camera, so smart / My favorite one gets jealous, but you got my whole heart.” Over top some longing synthetic BRENTRAMBO production, LUCKI slides effortlessly. Relaying more woeful bars, he publicizes the incessant tug-of-war waging in his heart between the drugs he misses and the love that he depends on.

This kind of indulgent lyrical trauma dumping is only possible because of LUCKI’s
preference for freeform songwriting structures facilitated by beats consisting mostly of short, quaint synth loops mixed with crisp claps and hi hats. Quotable choruses blend into amorphous verses seamlessly. The beats loop and loop with some time to improvise and breathe in between soul crushing 808 patterns. Even in the midst of a banger, that familiar specter of addiction looms in lines like, “I was popping Xans, like twenty a week/Mama just praying I’m somewhere asleep.”

Evidently, LUCKI delivers the perfect album just in time for Sad Boy Fall.
FLAWLESS LIKE ME is a peek behind the curtain into the murky realities of what fame and fortune can bring you. From one angle, this lifestyle of euphoric ditties and city girls feels too good to be true. Tilt your head to the side and reveal a world of excess where the drug-induced shivers prove too haunting to shake off.