Dave East “Fortune Favors the Bold” Album Review

Fortune Favors the Bold

Dave East

• Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
• Date: 14 Jul, 2023
• Content: explicit
• Track(s): 24
• ℗ 2023 Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

The long-awaited sophomore album “Fortune Favors the Bold,” the follow-up to 2019’s Survival, from NYC hip-hop mainstay Dave East, has been released. Kid Capri, Cordae, Coi Leray, Ty Dolla $ign, Jadakiss, and Ghostface Killah are among the guests on the 24-song album.

Rza, Mike N Keys, and Mike Will Made-It are some of the producers. Several previously released singles are included on “Fortune Favors the Bold,” including “WDGAF” with G-Eazy, “Rich Problems,” and “Dope Boy.”

Album Cover Art

Dave’s animated headshot is seen among others, but his seems to outshine the rest surrounding him, as his image is the brightest and most vivid while the rest are either half-faded or completely washed.

Tracks and Features

Cool, Dre, and Kid Capri join Dave East for “Come 2 Far,” the album opener. Though not a very interesting start, the rapper talks about his humble beginnings and the impossibly of looking back after making it to this point where he is. The message would’ve still been passed without the all the loud hypeman thing. For “Long Way,” he teams up with the gifted rapper, Cordae, to rap about the tough road to the limelight and the perks of being in it, which includes the cliché fast cash, fast cars and bad bitches.

“Sex So Good” features Coi Leray who freely talks her shit, while Dave raps about intimate moments with his girl and how much of a wonderful time it usually is. Coi’s energy, vocals and rawness makes you get into the vibe, though the entire song doesn’t bang so much because the mood is a bit low vibrational for something that intense and sensual.

“Good Good Good” features Ghostface Killah, Stacy Barthe and Kalyan Arnold, who all seemed to carry the song more than the original act. Sampling Swae Lee from his collaboration with Jhené Aiko in her 2020 classic, “Sativa,” the rappers drop gems about life and doing stuff the right way. The chorus brought life to the track as well.

“Hustlers,” yet another somewhat bland track, featuring Tyga, discusses their doings in the streets, the star life and most importantly, the hustle. The beat is hard and their flows are not terrible, but at the same time, there isn’t anything very remarkable. East goes in on “WDGAF” with G-Eazy, who provides the tune with a catchy chorus. On a beat like this, filling the entire lyrics with slick talk is permissible because this is deffo one for the strippers and twerkulators.

“Million Off Rap” comes on and we hear Dave brag about the wealth he has amassed from making music. He then goes on to zoom in a little on some of the luxuries his rap riches have been able to afford him. The beat with a touch of some old-school production totally smoothened the wave for East to ride on, which he did rather effortlessly.

From that, we move on to “Good Things” featuring the exceptional Ty Dolla $ign, the perfect choice for an R&B beat this calm. East celebrates his baby and says nice things to her, while Dolla $ign comes at the chorus with all the singing finesse. After listening to this track, the saying, “good things come in twos” will never have the same meaning it used to.

On the elite “Weirdos” featuring the OG, Jadakiss, East gets real about the downsides of being the richest dude in the room. Jada echoes East’s ideas with his veteran bars, expressing his distrust in people because some folks would only roll with you because you’re more successful, not necessarily because they like you. The song is basically dedicated to such people with closeted but active jealousy. Weird stuff for sure.

“Hallway Piss” which begins with the sound of pissing, closes the 23-track album. And as impromptu as hallway pisses could be sometimes, the song comes off as a freestyle in which the rapper gives us a little life update before finally signing out with the iconic rap line, “this is bigger than rap.”

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	ARTIST	TIME
1	Here I Go Interlude	Dave East	0:19
2	Come 2 Far (feat. Kid Capri)	Dave East & Cool & Dre	2:41
3	Pops Interlude	Dave East	0:16
4	Still Here	Dave East	3:54
5	Long Way (feat. Cordae)	Dave East	3:49
6	DAMN	Dave East	3:13
7	Sex So Good (feat. Coi Leray)	Dave East	2:32
8	Good Good Good (feat. Ghostface Killah, Stacy Barthe & Kalyan Arnold)	Dave East	4:18
9	Pops Interlude Pt. 2	Dave East	0:18
10	HUSTLERS (feat. Tyga)	Dave East	2:58
11	WDGAF	Dave East & G-Eazy	2:24
12	Kairi Interlude	Dave East	0:04
13	Can’t Make This Up	Dave East	3:03
14	Still Outside Interlude	Dave East	0:06
15	Dope Boy	Dave East	3:10
16	Million Off Rap	Dave East	2:43
17	Good Things (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)	Dave East	2:46
18	Rich Problems	Dave East	3:54
19	Weirdos (feat. Jadakiss)	Dave East	4:30
20	Thru The Mud	Dave East	2:48
21	It’s A Lot	Dave East	3:09
22	Like A Rose	Dave East	3:52
23	Letter 2 Kobi	Dave East	3:22
24	Hallway Piss	Dave East	2:57

Album Theme

East discusses his life and career journey, his success, and dealing with the haters.

Production Credits

1500 or Nothin’, 1OFURFRIENDS, 808-Ray, Amadeus, AraabMUZIK, Avedon, Big Len, Buda & Grandz, bvtman, Coleman, Cool N Dre, Dave East, David Brewster, Sr., DJ Khalil, Don Cannon, James Burns, Jay Townsend, J-Bo and a host of other producers handled the album’s sound engineering.

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