From Day 1

Travis Porter’s latest release, From Day 1, is a 12 track release that features some of the groups biggest hits as well as special guests like Tyga, 2 Chainz, Jeremih and Mike Posner, along with production by Diplo, Justice League and more. Porter has been on a hot streak with their underground sound helped even more so by controversy through the years. So how good is this album?

Going into this album I wasn’t instantly impressed with the group. The first two or three songs sounded dated to me and the lyrical content, well pretty much through the entire album, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a whole lot of boasting about cash flow, women, and game. Sadly it’s a side of hip hop that’s all to familiar and when your album is loaded with nothing but it drops the intelligence of the album down a few notches. There’s got to be more to life, more that the rap trio have to talk about, but no, the majority of the album save for maybe one or two songs, if that, deviate from this repetitive cliché.

I wasn’t a big fan of the beat’s being laid down on the album for the first few songs. They were alright but not much to get excited about, more so it felt like maybe the group wasn’t that excited about them either, lazily laying down their lyrical flow a bit lax. Pussy Real Good is probably the lowest point before the album makes its break into more impressive territory.

Wobble is the first really infectious beat driven song on the track. Lyrically it’s still stuck in the same old, same old, but it’s here that the flow kicks in and the beats start to mesh a bit better with the execution. Ride like that is another best of from the album. Okay, yes it does have a heavy dose of autotune and you all know how much I hate that, but Ride Like That makes it work with a smooth flow combined with some smooth R&B breakdown tossed into the mix and a very infectious beat. Ballin is the next impressive track containing that perfect combination of music and flow. That Feeling, Ayy Ladies, and Bring It Back help close out the album on a positive note.

The back end of the album is great but there are some tracks that I passed over. The albums closer, Make It Rain, was a bit repetitive and like the opening track just dips into unintelligible lyrics that play into the whole hip hop stereotype of cash flow and what not. Party Time was an interesting track. It felt like the group was attempting to enter that big electro indie sound that was big a couple of years ago, think Passion Pit or MGMT. What killed it for me was the chorus on the track which reminded me of Donald Glover’s spoof vocals in the Derrick Comedy skit Emo Song. Other then that the lyrical content on the album leaves a lot to be desired. As nothing but a club album it’s pretty good but if your looking for something with a bit more substance your out of luck. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.