What happens when a talented singer wants to be an Atlanta Rapper? Dem Times.
Everyone knows that one kid that grew up in a gated community with two loving parents and all the resources in the world, but they insist on portraying a street image. If you don't know that one kid, go watch 8 Mile and study Papa Doc a.k.a Clarence.
Roy Woods is Papa Doc.
After dropping a total of three songs since his 2017 debut album Say Less, Roy Woods has returned as a new man. This new man doesn't focus on heavily singing about women; instead, he raps about percs and "street shit".
Spoiler Alert: The Papa Doc persona didn't end too well for Clarence in 8 Mile, and it doesn't fare well for Woods on Dem Times. Luckily for Woods and listeners of Dem Times, Clarence was able to ease some of the pain.
"I Feel It", was the epitome of a double-edged sword for Roy Woods and Dem Times.
On one hand, the song served its purpose as the project's single. It showed off the Roy Woods sound that fans love most, and it reeled his core fanbase back in after three years of essentially nothing. On the other hand, the single was a catfish. The track sounds nothing like the rest of the project, and its use as the single only highlights the shortcomings of the project.
"I Feel It" re-sparks the energy of Exis and Walking at Dawn Roy Woods.
The track reveals lost relationships and lost lives, as Woods sings about understanding his girl's pain in their relationship. Woods mentions his drug use multiple times, but he doesn't make it the main, or even secondary, subject of the song. As a result, the song is relatable, sounds on-brand and is easily one of the two standout tracks of the six-song EP.
A project's top song being the single/outro isn't necessarily a bad sign, but when the next best song is the intro, the sequencing feels intentional.
I have two theories.
Theory one, the most likely theory, Woods knew tracks two through five were experimental(nice way of saying bad) songs, so he chose to pad them with two can't miss standouts.
Theory two is the JaMarcus Russell film theory.
For those who don't know or didn't click the hyperlink, there's a story about Raiders coaches giving quarterback JaMarcus Russell blank film one day to see if he watched the film. When the coaches asked Russell what he watched on the film, Russell lied and responded, "blitz packages".
Theory two is that "Dem Times" was Roy Woods' way of testing whoever listens to his music before release(i.e. OVO higherups, his inner circle, etc.). Woods knew if they signed off on it, they only listened to the intro and the outro.
Theory two has a .001 probability of being real, but it's the only explanation I can think of for what occurred in between "2 Me" and "I Feel It".
From "Neva Your Way" to "Cool J" to "Like Pascal", Woods devolves from a singer/rapper to a rapper to a Playboi Carti/Lil Keed impersonator.
To add to the confusion, this devolution occurs in a 10-minute span and is ironically capped off with a track named after the NBA's reigning Most Improved Player Pascal Siakam.
The lyircs of "Like Pascal" are exactly what you would expect from a rap impersonator—Birkin bag references, Percocet shoutouts and flexing about women.
This seems to be Woods' go-to subject matter when rapping, as he sticks to the same subjects on "Neva Your Way". As if he's rushing to complete some Atlanta rapper checklist, within the opening lines alone he raps, "How the fuck I fall asleep off Percocet?/Gotta fly even though I don't like turbulence/Took her to Europe, she know what Birkin is".
As basic as the lyrics to "Neva Your Way" and "Like Pascal" are, neither is as bad as "Cool J".
"Cool J" had to be a one-take freestyle. There's no way the same person that wrote the lyrics to "What We Did" writes lyrics like "I'ma mash up the pussy like potatoes (Mash it up)" and "Her mama's getting fucked up like it's the Super Bowl (She a MILF)" on the same project.
The difference in lyrics between deliveries is the most damning evidence that rapper Roy Woods is an act.
Other singers/rappers like Tory Lanez, Bryson Tiller and 6Lack use the increased lyrical real estate of rapping to tell more in-depth stories about their lives. Roy Woods used rapping on Dem Tapes to scribble a picture that several rappers have already painted and mastered.
Final Score: Papa Doc/10
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