MEMORIES DONT DIE

I Told You put Tory Lanez in the Top Five of the Billboard 200 and contained two multi-platinum singles. Rather than rest, the singer and rapper opted to continue saturating the market. A pair of mixtapes and several singles, somewhat obscured by various public and social media conflicts, were released throughout 2017 and early 2018, and led to MEMORIES DONT DIE. Lanez curiously raps here more frequently than he did on the debut, even though that album's biggest hit, "Luv," was nominated for an R&B Grammy. He's certainly less distinctive as a rapper than he is as a singer -- both lyrically and vocally -- original only for the level of his combativeness and the number of times he references his luxury coupe and wrist wear. He does relate specific personal details in tracks such as "Happiness x Tell Me," where he flashes back to the day his mother died, but in its latter half, he bizarrely goes on the defensive about the lack of originality he has been accused of displaying in his output. At least it's a break from the routine content. Like the debut, this set is well over an hour in length and would greatly benefit from some editing and more diversions from prowling trap-styled productions. Judicial trimming still wouldn't prevent it from appealing primarily to the Lanez fans who take the criticisms almost as personally as the artist does.