Grand Hustle rapper and former T.I. sideman Young Dro has been surprisingly good at maintaining relevance in an ever-changing rap landscape. To anyone not paying attention, his return to the mainstream with his viral Vine hit "FDB" in 2013 was probably out of left field, but in truth he's been around the whole time: producing a steady stream of mostly solid mixtapes and using his always slightly-offbeat eccentricity to keep the songs exciting. Da Reality Show, Young Dro's third major-label album, is an acknowledgement of Dro's place in the current rap landscape; it's at once an album that could have easily dropped shortly after 2006's Best Thang Smokin'**, yet still feels refreshingly new without being forced.
Dro has been making music since the early '00s, but we're coming up on 10 years since his first major album, and Da Reality Show is a celebration of and a reflection on a life well-lived, full of goofiness, giddiness and sobering reminiscence. He's feeling himself—"I kilt the streets and made history", he boasts on "Coupe"—and very few are as good at doing that as Dro is, with as many undertones. On the song "Dead", he raps: "Hope yo ass be ready for the fed/Hope yo ass be ready for the lead/Hope you ready for the hospital bed/dopeboy, dopeboy, now the nigga dead" as a way of calling out another dealer as a sucker. It's typical braggadocio, but in it also is a glimmer of awareness about the inevitabilities of trap life.
This introspective honesty carries the back half of the album. "I know how it feel to be numba one/I know how it feel to be numba nothin’”, he raps soberly on “Feeling Myself”. Dro seems comfortable enough with who he is to put his real self on record, and the record carries the gravity that comes with seeing both the highs and lows a long rap career can bring.
He also has a natural sense of how he fits into the sounds of rap radio today without compromising his essence. The album finds Dro perfectly at ease with the sound of current Atlanta and making it work for him instead of the other way around. The Zaytoven-assisted "Ugh" is a melodic and busy hymnal, and amid Zaytoven's menagerie of sounds, Dro's is the best instrument. He glides through it, crooning then rapping like his words are drum kicks to making playful ad-libs and ad-libbing on top of those ad-libs. It's an effortless energy and showmanship that he carries into the next track "Parallel Park". The church organs that surround the song are appropriate; Dro captures your attention and is as theatrical in his style as an Atlanta Megachurch Preacher.
Da Reality Show would have probably been better off holding onto this momentum, because the traditional attempts at inspirational anthems in the back half feel a little forced, and lack the freewheeling excitement of the rest of the album. At the end,however, Dro allows himself to really get sentimental on "Hood Gospel", reflecting on lost love and the murder of his mother. The pain is audible in his voice, but so is the full-hearted joy and wonder at his rise from those traumatic experiences to where he is now. It is a beautiful moment and a reminder that behind all the boasts about exotic-colored cars and women, there is a man who just wants to share his testimony.
