Marvelous: A Yung Gravy Review and a Look at Music Consumption / Criticism

Marvelous album cover, Yung Gravy

Yung Gravy has returned with his third studio album, Marvelous. Matthew Hauri, the man behind Yung Gravy, has maintained a constant presence in the music industry ever since his first SoundCloud hits, along with a steadily growing fanbase thanks to albums such as Gasanova and Sensational as well as singles such as “oops!” Partially thanks to TikTok, his feature single off the album, “Betty (Get Money)”, which samples Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”, landed Gravy his first song on the Billboard Hot 100 as the track became a mainstay in the popular music sphere for a majority of the year. Anthemic, lighthearted, and silly, the song serves as the perfect prelude leading up to Marvelous. With 15 tracks, clocking just over 40 minutes, Marvelous sees Gravy with more confidence than ever before, rapping over some of the most diverse beats he’s had to date. The production is phenomenal, chock full of hard-hitting trap 808s and hi hats along with classically smooth Gravy samples from past decades.

While preparing for this review, I noticed multiple critics comparing Gravy and Marvelous to Lil Dicky and his TV show, Dave, claiming Gravy is nothing more than a cringe, niche meme rapper whose comedy falls flat and music is boring. Strange enough, one article even claims that a song titled “Mozzarella” is included on the album (Yung Gravy has never released a song called “Mozzarella”), which genuinely makes me question whether the reviewer even opened up the track list, let alone listened to the album. Regardless, while Gravy’s sex positive, tongue-in-cheek, overly direct humor can grow a little tiresome and some jokes don’t really land, there are still plenty of funny and entertaining bars. The rapper is also very self-aware when it comes to his music. In an interview with music critic and internet personality Anthony Fantano, Gravy said “When I make a song, I want that shit to sound great. I want to make a hit. The lyrics come after, [they] just come to my mind and it’s what makes me happy, and it’s where I help make other people happy, and uh, I haven’t changed that style because… it’s lighthearted and it makes people happy.”

Gravy fully understands who he is as an artist, and where he wants to exist within the industry, and Marvelous feels like a full realization of who Yung Gravy is sonically. With help from producers including Diamond Pistols, Dwilly, Y2K, and Dillion Francis, every song on the album from the dancy bouncy banger “C’est La Vie”, featuring longtime collaborator bbno$ and Rich Brian, to the dramatic and anthemic “soiree!” Gravy's buttery voice feels right at home. On “Mrs. Worldwide”, Gravy glides over a minimal trap beat with juicy 808 slides and a catchy vocal sample. And while not every song’s lyrical contents blow me away, there are still notable verses and infectious choruses.

It’s my opinion that the best albums are almost exclusively the ones where our favorite artists are doing what they want and having fun with their music. When we, as fans, or as critics, expect artists to conform to our expectations, we are not only discrediting the artist's vision for their project, but also ruining projects for ourselves. If you are looking for witty flows, gritty beats, and some serious word play, go listen to the plethora of underground and abstract hip hop artists who have released albums in the past couple months, including but not limited to: Mavi, Open Mike Eagle, Westside Gunn, Boldly James, Rome Streetz, Billy Woods, Wiki, Cities Aviv, R.A.P. Ferreria, Freddie Gibbs, Pink Siifu, Roc Marciano, and Mach-Hommy. 

In conclusion, do I think Marvelous is a perfect album? Of course not. I would say I don’t even like or listen to at least a third of the songs on the album. However, I think that Yung Gravy is making the music he wants to: it’s fun, catchy, and not too serious. I also think that Marvelous has some of Yung Gravy’s best songs to date, but I have been seeing an annoying amount of unwarranted hate from people online (what’s new?). I do think that many people bring up good points: Gravy’s progression as an artist has stagnated a little, he often works better as a single/EP artist, the comedy runs thin at points, and only one song is longer than three minutes (TikTok’s influence on the music industry). I do not think that these are all bad things. In the same interview with Fantano, Gravy said “I love where I’m at. Being a lot bigger sounds stressful, I kind of would like to, you know, stay in a little window, I dont really want to be like Post Malone level because I already, you know, like, I think where I’m at makes me really happy, and I get recognized enough at the fucking airport.” Gravy has found his niche and wants to stick to it, and that’s not a bad thing. He has a unique brand that he pioneered as well as influential connections across the music industry. Within a five year period, Hauri has gone from a self-made SoundCloud rapper to getting over 140 million streams on Spotify for a single song within 5 months. I really couldn’t care less whether the album is just “TikTok hip hop”; it’s catchy and it brings a smile to my face, and that's really all I ask for out of a Yung Gravy album.

Baby Gravy 3 will be dropping before the end of the year.