East Atlanta rapper Young Nudy makes street-rap albums intended to soundtrack all-night gaming sessions and riding ‘round town, smoked out with nothing to do. He has a few important qualities that elevate him among the street-rap chaff: his cousin is platinum-certified star 21 Savage, and he has a strong ear for beats that makes his material listenable, even when his vocal performance can’t quite match them. He’s also authored a handful of classic moments, like the mythical 2019 internet leak “Pissy Pamper” with Playboi Carti, and 8-bit bangers like 2017’s “EA” and “Hell Shell.” Nudy’s work doesn’t promise conceptual transcendence. Instead, one waits for a handful of moments when his casually menacing persona clicks with a memorable bop, resulting in a few minutes of earworm ecstasy.
On Paradise, those moments arrive in “What’s Happenin’,” where Nudy lifts the hook from Trap Squad’s mid-Aughts snap-music gem of the same name, and which features a sharp cameo from Latto. “Fuck Donald Trump, I ain’t vote for this presi,” she charges. Then there’s “Iced Tea,” which finds Nudy trading bars with 21 Savage and Project Pat. The latter is one of the great originals of the Dirty South, and a new verse from him is always welcome.
At some point, Paradise’s 14 tracks begin to blur together. Nudy has a decent sense of wordplay, but it usually falls into the category of boasts like “Your bitch, I’m on her mind, you can hear that shit/I screen-record her all the time when she suck my dick” on “17” and “Pussy juicy, baby, like it’s cantaloupe” from “Chains On.” He often sounds like other, more compelling rappers like Gucci Mane (the strip-club excursion “BTA”). Still, Nudy’s commitment to a gruff, whispery flow, and the way he nods to old-school ATL trappers like Jeezy and the late Shawty Lo, help make threats like “I’m from East Atlanta, bitch, don’t get your shit popped/We ain’t do it for the camera, this shit ain’t TikTok” from the title track believable. As a result, Paradise is a disjointed but not entirely unsuccessful 45-minute affair. As he claims on “4 God,” “I talk this shit ‘cause you niggas notice me.”
