Rocky fares better with fewer distractions, but some of his best performances come on songs that lack hooks or structure. ‘Canal St’ is a moody, New York throwback, and he nails the mood on ‘JD’, which could use another verse in exchange for a weird James Franco cameo. Similarly, he sounds great over the sinister bassline of ‘M’$’, a song that might go off in a club if the hook came more than once. Things seem to turn around with ‘Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2’, the hypnotic, siren-driven song previewed in the ‘Multiply’ video, and ‘Electric Body’, a digitally-warped sleazefest (Schoolboy Q continues to be lazily misogynistic, but we can probably blame Jay Z for his abhorrent “I could whip that bitch like Ike” line). The high is short-lived, unfortunately, as the next suite of songs highlights another of the album’s problems, one that also plagued YG and Kendrick Lamar’s album, to varying degrees: the sense that with the right references, tributes and features, an album can catapult itself to legendary status.

Rocky nods to Kanye’s flow throughout, and he teams with him for ‘Jukebox Joints’, a soul-sampling medley that doesn’t land (apart from Ye, of course: “Man, everything basic to Ye Guevara / That means Saint Laurent is my Zara”). ‘Max B’ is a rappin’-ass rap tribute to the New York legend powered by a classic Bob James sample - but there’s Joe Fox again (“Did I fuck it up?” Yes.).

At long last asap zip m4a