By Breanna Bonslater

Saba’s The Bucket List Project, while highly successful,may not be as much of a breakout as his first album ComfortZone. Comparing the two albums the growth sonically is apparent as well as the maturity that can be seen through the difference in themes. ComfortZone theme revolved more around the idea of accepting one’s self. Several songs on the album talk about how Saba felt different from the people he was around, how he dealt with that feeling, and how he changed as he got older. The Bucket List Project reflects on all the things Saba has learned since ComfortZone in a political and personal aspect.

With the song “Stoney” Saba reminisces about his teen years and the earlier years of his rap career. Saba talks about those years as precious memories and how his attitude and personality hasn’t changed since then: “Pull up in my bucket and I’m feeling like ‘fuck it’. Felt the same way when I ain’t pull up in nothing. CTA shorty, balling on a budget.” You skip ahead one song to the songs “Church/Liquor Store” and “Westside Bound 3” and Saba turns the tables from a reminiscent story to more serious issues, expanding on his experiences growing up and telling a story that describes a new side of him as he talks about the issues around the westside and his unwavering love for it.

“Church/Liquor Store” focuses more on the stereotypes and injustices placed on his neighborhood and its residents. “My genetics is felony.” “I was fifteen, they was fucking with me. There’s no logic in love, but there’s no love in the street.” These lyrics refer to the stereotype of black people, especially the youth, being criminal. Many Chicago teens are criminalized and harassed by the police on a daily basis. Saba brings awareness to this injustice. But Saba doesn’t just stop there. Saba then goes on to talk about overall violence of the city and the lack of resources in the black communities. “He can save Chicago from the demons and the decans.” “It look like funeral home, church, church, liquor store, corner store…” The demons Saba mentions could be the police that harass young black men, or the drug dealers that commit unspeakable violence to one another as he lives through it, watching from a place he thought was safe but truly isn’t, the demons could very well be the supposed angels. His music slips in messages about love and how his neighborhood truly had to struggle and live with everyday challenges as he experiences the social injustices and violence of popular misconceptions.

Following “Church/Liquor Store” is “Westside Bound 3.” While “Church/Liquor Store” talks about the issues and injustices Chicagoans face, “Westside Bound 3” talks about the love Saba and many other inner city residents felt about their neighborhood. These two songs juxtapose each other with one song talking about how bad the westside is and the other talking about how beautiful the westside is, as in showing multiple standpoints and how his home could be trash to one person but a paradise to him and his neighbors.

The beginning of the album was very specific to Saba and Chicago. Most of the songs were reminiscent of his teenage years as he talked about his love for the westside and the issues of the westside. The songs at the end of the album focus on social issues on a larger scale. Saba is more focused on issues that are affecting impoverished across America and not just Chicago. In his song “MOST” Saba says, “Most of the youth don’t wanna be youth,” as he refers to how most young people think they are a subject of a discrimination. Black youth feel as though they have a target on their back and the youth of America in general feel they are often hated, or looked down upon by the older generations. Saba then has songs like “Photosynthesis” and “California” that have melodic tone that relax the listener, but slips small messages of love and peace. These two serve as songs to calm the listener and serve as a small escape from the bombardment of political standpoints that are thrown at you from the other songs. The Bucket List Project was more upbeat than ComfortZone, but still had the overall chill, controversial, and realness to it that makes Saba rap style so unique as he raps about himself and others that made him into who he is, in this age of rap where the current vision of rich is distorted and where real struggles are never truly expressed through the rap song.