CTV3: Stoned Thoughts, Mixed with Even More Stoned Thoughts
Film and television actor, water bottle company entrepreneur, fashion designer, and rapper Jaden Smith released his fifth studio album on September 8th. CTV3: Cool Tapes Vol. 3 is an ambitious attempt at conceptual greatness. The 22-year old has been known for combining chaotic beats with cringe-worthy lyrics in his past works. CTV3 does not reflect much musical growth from Jaden, and he has not really evolved in terms of musical maturity.
While Jaden “cries into (his) guitar” in the song “Bad Connection” I am crying over this album, and not in a good way. His lyrics? Simplistic, to say the least. In the song “Everything”, Jaden mumbles “You’re my everything, you’re my everything, you’re my everything” for a painful total of 2 minutes and 49 seconds. The lyrics throughout CTV3’s tracklist make it seem almost like he came up with the thematic focus for the record when he was sitting at home stoned on a Thursday night.
There are also some evident and alarming topical boundaries that scrape the album. Jaden collaborates with Justin Bieber in “Falling For You”, which comes off as a summery, playful song with a jazz guitar element. However, at one point in the song, Jaden sings “I think I’m falling for you, I think I’m falling for you, if you don’t call me I’ll jump off the roof”, taking a dark turn from the seemingly feel-good nature of the track. While most of Jaden’s lyrics are thematically consistent, the romanticization of suicide in “Falling For You” seems offside and arbitrary.
“Boys and Girls” is perhaps one of the highlights of the record. A poppy track about the societal pressure placed on today’s youth, “Boys and Girls” not only challenges Jaden musically, but thematically as well.
He bites off of his contemporaries throughout much of the album, with clear influence from Frank Ocean, Post Malone, and Kanye West. “LUCY!” sounds like a track straight off of Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. Some of the songs on CTV3 sound more like something you’d expect to find in the depths of Soundcloud, rather than a commercially produced major label record (Jaden’s signed to Jay-Z’s label Rocnation).
Still, he merges moody, broody pop-rap with jazz and bedroom-pop elements in a fairly seamless way. While he remains fairly weak on the vocals and still relies heavily on auto-tune, Jaden’s artistry can be seen in the cohesiveness of the tracklist. The overall aesthetics of the record are quite impressive, as Jaden clearly put a lot of thought into the psychedelic album cover which exhibits his creativity.
In the end, I think Jaden will always be more of an artist than a musician. I was hoping that Cool Tapes Vol. 3 would show a more mature side of Jaden. But folks, we’re 5 albums in, and while he’s heading in the right direction, I think it might be another 5 records before he gets one right.
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