Philosophers, scientists and
theorists have long debated the question: Is God real? Now, Maryland rapper IDK
has decided to weigh in with his view on the matter.
Who is IDK? Honest answer: IDK. I only
listened to this record because the album cover looked funny. According to his Wikipedia Page, his name actually stands for Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge
(which perfectly sums up my style of reviewing, while also perfectly summing up
the problem with this album).
Is He Real? starts with a
seemingly innocent skit of a kid describing what he thinks heaven is like,
which involves going through the pearly gates and joining a long queue around
the mountain. We then get to the front of the queue only for our cute narrator
to suddenly adopt a deep voice and brusquely declare ‘you wake up from your
dream because God isn’t fucking real!’.
Pretty provocative stuff! I can
just imagine the hundreds of Christian listeners around the world having a
heart attack. Even as someone who isn’t religious, I was sweating at the
prospect of what was going to come next. Was this going to be an entire album
fiercely denouncing the existence of God?
Not exactly. In fact, for the next
few tracks, IDK decides to sweep the question of ‘is he real?’ under the rug,
choosing instead to rap about gang culture and sex. Admittedly, he does try to
keep it topical by lacing in lots of religious symbolism - ‘42 Hundred Choices’
is reference to how many religions there are in the world and ‘24’ is a
reference to a bible verse – but even so, I felt clickbaited. I wanted a hip
hop album questioning God’s existence. If I wanted an album about gang culture or
sex, well… I may as well have listened to any other rap album.
Despite not addressing the central
topic, IDK is a distractingly talented and creative musician, which meant that
I did still find myself enjoying the tracks that followed. Not only can he rap
like Kanye, but he can sing like Frank Ocean. The beats are all dynamic and he
adapts to each one like a chameleon – he sounds bouncy over the spiky piano of ‘24’
and he sounds contrastingly smooth over the Nandos-flavoured beat of ‘December’.
By the time IDK finally returns to
the topic of ‘is God real?’, you almost wish he hadn’t bothered. IDK shoehorns
in an interview with Tyler, the Creator about his atheist views – which isn’t particularly
insightful and only serves to interrupt the fun momentum of the album. ‘European
Skies’ feels like a much better attempt to address the question, which sees IDK
running through the contradictions in the Bible and seemingly wanting to
believe in God. The fact that it’s accompanied by beautifully cavernous synths
and rapped so well also makes it enjoyable as a song. But immediately after,
IDK takes a detour into a song about the media ‘No Cable’, abandoning the theme
yet again.
Last track ‘Julia’ may well be the
best track on the record and equally the most frustrating because it offers a
glimpse of what the album could have been. We learn about the tragic death of IDK’s
mother, which has clearly fuelled him to have doubts in his religion. The track
almost brought a tear to my eye. But then he ruins it all by trying to bring
the album’s ‘Is he real?’ theme too a nonsensical conclusion, going into some
strange colour analogy before summing up ‘how can we say there is no God?’.
The closer made me wish that this
was an album centred around IDK’s personal struggles and not God. The question
of ‘Is he real’ wants to be the big pull factor of this album, but it ended up
pushing me away by being shoddily executed. IDK is an incredible rapper with
fantastic production behind him and he clearly has the potential to write poignant personal
lyrics. He is not a philosopher – in fact, I doubt any rapper could take on
this topic with the nuance that it deserves.
★★★☆☆
TRACK TASTER: