After just a short three months, Memphis rapper “NLE Choppa” releases his fourth project, “Me vs. Me,” and the title implies that there is conflict within himself, but there is little here. This album is a tribute to Choppa’s sharp rhyming powers and he sets the tone quickly on the first track of the album. 

Many artists will wait months or even over a year to release an album, but not Choppa. Choppa recently released an album titled “From Dark to Light” in November of 2021, and within a few months, his next studio album was published. With the lack of time in between his two albums, I feel as if it was very rushed, and he proves that point by adding songs that have already been released prior to “Me vs. Me.”

The first song is “Shotta Flow 6,” and it sounds more like screaming than rapping. The genre Rap is very special in the fact that it sounds more like fast-talking, rather than singing, but this doesn’t sound like rap. Choppa has released multiple songs called “Shotta Flow” and he claims that this track is “six times as sharp” as they’ve ever been. If this is six times better and I don’t really like it, I couldn’t imagine how the original sounded. I feel as if the song was everywhere, with the lyrics having no central meaning and the instrumentals jammed into the three-minute track. The song was filled with adlibs (sound effects made by the rapper), and I feel as if they never fit. For being “six times better,” this song was not it.

The next track is the first song with a feature, Atlanta rapper “Young Thug.” The song name “Push It” was probably the most annoying song I have ever heard, which is a bold statement as “Baby Shark” is a pretty repetitive song. The phrase “Push it” was said 54 times throughout the three and half minute song; that means on average, every four seconds the words “push it” were being said. There isn’t much going for this song and I despised it. With the annoying phrase and offbeat rapping, it wasn’t a good combination at all. 

“Trap Phone” is the first song that I enjoyed. NLE speaks about heavy gunplay with a very peaceful beat in the background. He raps about his past and how he is paving the way for generations to come, which I disagree with since he is a negative influence to all. NLE Choppa’s rhymes are off the charts; he manages to find ways to rhyme “bail” with “Denzel,” and “Shotta” with “hakuna matata.” He finds a way to rhyme throughout the entirety of the song, which is very impressive. He raps with the beat, which he has struggled with in the past, so this is by far the best song in the album. 

“I.Y.B” and “Final Warning” have a very deep bass at the beginning of the songs but they begin to fade throughout the song. Once again, both these songs are more of screaming than they are rapping. Both of these songs just feel loud, and it just seems as if it is too much for my ears. It is also very hard to keep up as he raps very quickly, so I feel as if I would never be able to remember the lyrics even if I tried. I did not like either of these songs. 

The next song, “Ima Dog,” began with a voicemail from one of his exes who speaks about how disrespectful NLE Choppa is. I don’t understand why he would put that as it shows a poor image towards him, but it may also show that he doesn’t care about how others view him. After the 30 second voicemail he continues to talk trash on her, and continues to state “I’m a dog” 10 times in a row; clearly, repeating lyrics is his style. For the rest of the song, Choppa raps about how bad he treats everyone, and with that, he lost my vote on this song. 

In my opinion, continuing on after the past few songs is very tough. The last song is “Mmm Hmm,” and I love the flow of this song. This song was already released in August of 2021, and it surprised me to see it being put in an album six months later. It was very rewarding to hear a quiet song when the last couple of songs has been yelling into my eardrums. “Mmm Hmm” is a fast-paced song again, but this time he controls the flow so it doesn’t constantly move fast. He gives me time to comprehend what I just listened to before moving on. This track is in the running for the best in the album. 

Overall, I did not like “Me vs. Me” because of the loud sounds, repetitive lyrics and excessive adlibs. I also had an odd feeling when he degraded his ex-girlfriends and put their voicemails in his song. I will admit that his rhyming technique is better than average, but his ability to produce a good-sounding song is worse than other artists. I give the album a 2/10, and I think it is the worst album produced this year.