Dying to Live

Basic Info

Name: Dying to Live

​Artist: Kodak Black

Type: Album

Release Date: December 14th, 2018

Features: Juice WRLD, Lil Pump, Offset, & Travis Scott

​Tracks: 16

​Runtime: 47:53

About "Dying to Live"

"Dying to Live" is the sophomore studio album released by Kodak Black, on December 14th 2018. This 16 song album's tracklist was announced by Kodak Black on December 11th, 2019. This album contains popular tracks like ZEZE, Gnarly, and MoshPit. It was released by Atlantic Records. This album peaked at 1 on the billboard 200. It sold 89,000 first week with 5,000 in pure album sales. This album is certified gold as of November 2019. The album had 6 leading singles before the release on December 11th, 2019.

Tracklist of "Dying to Live"

1) Testimony - By: Kodak Black

2) This Forever - By: Kodak Black

3) Identity Theft - By: Kodak Black

4) Gnarly - By: Kodak Black - Featuring: Lil Pump

5) ZEZE - By: Kodak Black - Featuring: Offset & Travis Scott

6) Take One - By: Kodak Black

7) MoshPit - By: Kodak Black - Featuring: Juice WRLD

8) Transgression - By: Kodak Black

9) Malcolm X.X.X - By: Kodak Black

10) Calling My Spirits - By: Kodak Black

11) In the Flesh - By: Kodak Black

12) Close to the Grave - By: Kodak Black

​13) From the Cradle - By Kodak Black

14) If I'm Lyin, I'm Flyin - By: Kodak Black

15) Needing Something - By: Kodak Black

16) Could of Been Different - By: Kodak Black

Review of "Dying to Live"

Right off the bat of Kodak’s sophomore album, it starts with filler songs. The first three songs are overly produced and whinny songs that honestly shouldn’t be on the album. Once Gnarly comes in the album starts to pickup and delivers more meaningful lyrics, smooth production, creative themes (for Kodak), and a versatile change(for Kodak). From Gnarly to Calling My Spirits the album is delivering, not including Transgression. Than Kodak moves to generic Kodak beats, deliveries, and lyrics. From In The Flesh to Needing Something the songs are either overly produced or under produced (not including if I’m Lyin I’m Flyin) and are just not Kodak’s strong suit. The last track wraps the album up well and provides a closing to the theme. The features were packed into the first half of the album and that only negatively effects it as if there was a differing voice on the second half some of the songs wouldn't seem as repetitive. It’s very hard to tell the theme of the album but it’s what Kodak went through during and after prison. Lyrically this album shows Kodak expanding on tracks like Malcolm X.X.X, but also boxing himself into “generic Kodak” lyrics. For example on Malcolm X.X.X Kodak says, "If I wasn't rich, you wouldn't be pullin' up to my funeral, First they kissin' you, huggin' you, then they suin' you". This song also samples Herman Blake and Malcom X, which shows Kodak actually trying to push a message and a comparison he sees. But on the other hand on songs like In the Flesh Kodak spits "Fresh up outta jail, so I'ma leave it in, Hittin' from the back like I'm gon' leave again, If I die tonight, let's bet I'll resurrect". This is a very prominent example of Kodak using filler bars. The production was good for half the album with the other half being under or over produced like I said before. The album sports trap bangers like ZEZE produced by D.A. Doman and Calling My Spirits produced by Southside. But the album also has songs like Needing Something and Identity Theft produced by Major Nine and Rippa On The Beat respectively. Delivery and flow wise Kodak does give changed flows and more diverse deliveries but still about half the album is one of the generic Kodak sounds that shouldn’t be on the album. The theme was somewhat creative for Kodak and deserves some recognition since this album doesn’t just seem like a compilation of songs. Kodak is versatile but doesn’t do it well. He gives us well structured banging songs but he also gives us whinny ear shattering songs like Transgression. I liked the middle section of the album and feel if it was just the middle section with a few other tracks the album would be pretty good. Overall this was a mixed reception for me, on one hand he is expanding his music and creating good songs but on the other hand he is releasing songs like transgressions and close to the grave. This was a decent album. In the future I would like to see Kodak have a more structured album and expand lyrically. I think he could do this by exploring his childhood and his experiences more in-depth.

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