Pusha T has finally released Daytona, a lyrically engaging and concise seven song magnum opus in 2018 when albums filled with nearly twenty generic songs is what is expected. Haphazardly bending genres is the tsunami to ride, while every new guy in the game loves to say, “I’m not a rapper.” and it all can be so eye-roll inducing. Everyone wants a hit and they will stoop to any new low to get it in an era where mass consumption is encouraged. No time for curation or care when it’ll inevitably be followed with just a collective, “What’s next?” There is great music being buried by a massive amount of sub-par product and going forward we need to understand how the music industry got here, how does Daytona set a new standard, and can GOOD Music keep up the energy?

In 2016 Views premiered on Apple Music Radio and the world tuned in to buy what Aubrey was selling. Nineteen well-crafted tracks anchored by “Hotline Bling” and a meme-able cover proceeded to set the internet on fire and destroy streaming numbers. Then adopting a “playlist” approach on 2017’s More Life to excuse a release with an uneven mismatched collection of still well crafted songs with low aspirations. These two set an ugly precedent going forward and artists have bastardized either the Views or More Life formula. It seems the current project cycle predictably begins with a few singles in hopes of a hit. The strongest single is allowed to meander around for a few months. Eventually this oft-delayed project comes out and to no surprise, they gave you the best stuff a year ago. A whole bunch of people stream the inflated twenty-two track project on day one and that technically counts as two sales to beat the system.

No more provocative artistry just talented think tanks taking shots at the Hot 100 or Spotify’s Rap Caviar in the service of a platinum plaque. It’s the world we live in yet GOOD Music has decided to steer into a hard U-turn and in the process created lightning in a bottle. If rap is the NBA then everyone else is waiting for the All-Star game to put on a little show and flex some skill. Now it’s a hard road and it’s well deserved but there are no more stakes in the game. Just a bunch of stat padding, alley oops, and shots from too deep with no consequences because the check has already been cut. Daytona on the other hand, conjures feelings of Lebron Vs Celtics, 2012 Game 6 and he’s down 3–2 on the road. There’s something to prove here and there are no smiles just a showcase of technical ability and raw talent. A living legend demanding his earned respect with a forceful hand. It’s not every day this level of greatness is witnessed and the standards have been elevated.

First off, Kanye West on the day before release personally paid eighty-five thousand dollars to use a photo of the late Whitney Houston’s bathroom riddled with crack paraphernalia as the cover of Daytona. It’s become a conversation topic on wether this was morally the right the thing to exploit and juxtapose against the music but, these are the very consequences of the actions Pusha T has been rapping about throughout his career. Authenticity is in short supply today and by showing the harsh reality of his words it prepares the listener that this is in fact real. The album is raw and unforgiving with Push sounding his hungriest and meanest in his whole career.

There’s a sense of urgency in these bars. Post-Clipse this has been a long time coming for the Virginia native. My Name Is My Name and Darkest Before Dawn, the projects preluding Daytona, came close to matching the intensity displayed on here except falling short and acting as serviceable exercise for Push to jog and run before this full sprint. Now with Mr.West fully producing coupled with the shortened track list has put Push in a box with a wolf and forced him to rap his way out. You can feel the muscles flexing in Pusha’s voice as he spits over insane Ye production as they both come out swinging with unrelenting power from beginning to end. It’s these parameters that have allowed them both to stretch their legs and reach new heights.

Kanye West the producer ironically has room to breathe again on Daytona. The Louis Vuitton Don has had to relegate production as he’s taken more and more on in the fashion world this past decade. Though staying true to his trendsetter ways he dropped his twenty track Life of Pablo February 2016 as a sort of preview pre-Views of the overstuffed album template. The music on TLOP works but the seams show. On Daytona he tightens things up and drops the excess weight as he presses his foot down on the pedal. Soulful samples put up against brooding beats paint sonic pictures conjuring images of crime, fame, culture, and religion that Pusha wears effortlessly. He continues to bend the zeitgeist to his will. He doesn’t just have his finger on the pulse he’s the damn heart. The GOOD Music duo have created a moment for the culture.

A mic drop while everyone else is looking for the venue. There were no singles for this album to the absolute benefit of this project. It’s all fresh and it’s over in an instant yet it manages to stick because it’s timeless. Pusha T doesn’t ask for your attention he grabs you by the throat. With not a second to spare he holds nothing back on here, shooting shots at Drake and in the process poking the dragon. In fact Drizzy took no time responding with the seething one-off Duppy Freestyle ripping into both Push and Kanye. Dropping the very next day was I’m Upset, a single off of the upcoming Scorpion, which was thematically very similar but it just seemed to lack the same bite or venom. Showing us what heat Daytona had inspired in Drake, who is the very man responsible for the current culture in which GOOD has chosen to rebel against.

Now with all eyes on them, King Push and Kanye West should stand proudly in front of their product knowing that it has generated genuine electricity in the air. There isn’t any radio bait or pandering to the streams on this one. Just Seven succinct songs to out rap everyone on the most innovative production today. It’s a risk in the age of streaming but it’s refreshing to have an itch scratched that you didn’t even know was there. It’s a cold glass of water in the market of flashy, too sweet and over-sized sodas fighting for your attention. This is now the GOOD Music mold for the upcoming weeks. A show of great confidence in the proper curation of art in the hopes that it makes for more meaningful music. They’re batting a thousand at the time of writing with four more up to the plate. Kanye West is up next and it’s going to be a whirlwind if he has half as much to say as Pusha T did on Daytona.