Daytona is the third studio album by Pusha T, and probably my favorite from him. It was released on May 25, 2018 by GOOD Music. The album features guest appearances from Rick Ross and Kanye West, as well as uncredited additional vocals by Tony Williams and 070 Shake. Kanye West served as the executive producer of the album and produced all of its tracks, with additional production from Andrew Dawson, Mike Dean, and Pi’erre Bourne. To me and many hip-hop fans alike, Daytona was one of the best rap albums of 2018, and remains a solid project today.
Pusha T is renowned by his lyricism, and it’s quickly easy to see why if you’re listening to him for the first time. Pusha T manages to be so lyrical and introspective while retaining a great flow and catchiness. Not to mention the production by Kanye West is just phenomenal on this track. The unique instrumentation he implements and the beautiful sampling he does with his music can only be done by him. It’s safe to say, “If You Know You Know” is a perfect introduction for this short and sweet album.
“The Games We Play” is one of the most interesting and boundary-pushing songs I’ve heard to date. The instrumentation is dark, grimy even, but with the touch of West it sounds jazzy and even groovy at times. All while Pusha T is introspective as ever and delivers his verses beautifully.
It’s easy to say that Pusha T’s performance is consistent throughout the entire project, and he delivers on “Hard Piano” harder than ever. The title of the song matches the hard piano instrumentals in the production. And the hook produced and sampled by West honestly might just be some of the best I have ever laid my ears to. Not to mention the amazing Rick Ross feature stacked on top of this mountain of goodness.
“Come Back Baby” dives much deeper into the lower tones, both in Pusha T’s lyrics and the beat. The 808s from West are clearly present, and this track also features the familiar pattern of “verse-sampled hook-verse-sampled hook” found in “Hard Piano.” Kanye clearly found the formula with this batch of songs and it’s mind-blowing how masterfully he produces these tracks.
“Santeria” shares the formula of the previous two songs, while in review this may sound repetitive and boring, these songs are the opposite. Just take a listen for youself, and you’ll find so much distinction between these tracks all while each one is harder than the next. “Santeria” has to be my favorite of the album, however, as Pusha T delivers probably my favorite verse from him ever accompanied by a perfect beat development from West while Pusha T was going off.
On this track, Kanye, who had only been standing on the production side of the music, finally makes his appearance as a vocal feature, delivering an excellent feature verse. However, I don’t enjoy the production on this beat as much as the others as to me it simply sounds too high-pitched and distracting. Pusha T’s great and consistent performance makes up for this partly however.
“Infared” has probably the most unique and experimental sound of the already boundary pushing, hard-hitting, introspective album. The beat samples a vocal chop of a woman constanly repeating the word “Infared,” bring an almost eerie sound to the song, but the content of Pusha T’s lyricism cancels out this weird uneasiness and instead makes the song motivational and rebellious.
Overall, Daytona is an extremely short album standing at only 21 minutes in runtime, however it is masterfully done by Pusha T lyrically, and Kanye West sonically. It’s clear that although the time is short and the songs are few, that’s all Daytona needs to imprint itself into greatness and become a classic. Surprisingly, the themes and tones of many songs actually remind me of the vibe from To Pimp A Butterfly (2015), by Kendrick Lamar which is objectively the greatest album of all time. Therefore, with all these considerations in mind, Daytona just has to be one of my favorite hip-hop projects of the recent past.
