The SoundCloud description for Atlanta rapper Father's last project, Who's Gonna Get Fucked First, makes no excuses: "32-mins of pure, unfiltered debauchery." His note on its follow-up, I'm a Piece of Shit, is similarly candid, but this is the morning after way too many morning afters and he's full of regrets: "The melancholy result to all my fucked-up decisions."
Molly tracers are still visible on "Up Still," but the party is definitely over. "Everything dies, everything's a lie," he sighs. Only a hater or a sociopath doesn't feel a tweak in his chest when somebody else plops his heart on the table, and the fact that the Awful Records patriarch is not only fully shouldering the blame for the shambles his love life is in, but also shrinking back into self-doubt, elicits even more empathy. That the album is almost chock-full of bangers lends credence to the theory that you create your best art when you're emotionally wrecked.
Accepting responsibility for his actions aside, I'm a Piece of Shit is generally a more mature record than Who's Gonna Get Fucked First. Who's Gonna Get … is druggy and dripping with sex, but the sex is consensual and the attitudes progressive, with Father and friends eschewing tired old slut-shaming in favor of sexual liberty and justice for all. "You call her ass a ho? Please let a player know why you’re such a square, bro," Richposlim asks on "BET Uncut."
I'm a Piece of Shit continues that narrative, but it's "mature" in a more literal way. Even though Father's only in his mid-twenties, he seems to crave the sort of relationship someone a decade older does. And why not? Fame ages you. "I'm tired of looking for love as much as I'm tired of looking for drugs … Been grew tired of all these bitches on my dick like broomsticks," he says on album opener "Why Don't U." This is the kind of record made when the thrill of having a Baskin-Robbins variety of women waiting after every show has dulled and monogamy seems so much sweeter. There's lots of talk about staying the night and wanting a "bitch to come hold me."
In fact, Father's sexual appetites increasingly are Prince-like (as are some of his sounds: the drums on "Spit or Swallow" sound a lot like the Linn LM-1 Drum pattern on "Raspberry Beret"). Both artists are insatiable, and Father, just like the Purple One, knows that real freakery is about diving into the deep end physically and emotionally—and you can only wade so far with a one-night stand. As the production on "Slow Dance 2 [Interlude]" morphs from twinkly to trippy Father murmurs "Until the brink just to see how close it brings us," and it's a disarmingly intimate moment.
On "Party On Me," the tables have turned. "When I'm not around, do you even long for me?" Father asks, wistful. It's one of the album's standout tracks, thanks to iLoveMakonnen's pleading chorus and a longing beat, and the juxtaposition of nursery-rhyme singsong cadences, a tinkly marimba and such despairing, vulnerable lyrics deepen the ache. "Startin' to think these bitches slept with me just for amusement … I wanna die a little, cry a little, get a little high right now," he raps in "Y U Make It Hurt Like This." His nakedness on I'm a Piece of Shit is more shocking than any stripper orgy at the Sheraton, mostly because it refutes the carefree, no-strings-attached clichés that litter rap—after awhile, crew love just ain't no fun.
