Dezzy Yates does not fit in and he’s ok with that. He is both a talented dancer and a skillful emcee. Oh and he’s a huge nerd, and fully embraces it (see if you can catch all his Pokemon references). Yates’ project takes us on a trip through his life via a time machine. This time machine is the checkered back pack located on the album cover.Speaking of album covers, why does a Christian artist have an explicit album? Yates is not following the trend of Christian artists opting to use strong language to communicate their truth. When questioned about this, Yates said it was his conviction. Dezzy talks about his issues with lust, masturbation, pornography, and sexual abuse. He felt that he should put the warning on his album, so children won’t download it and parents would know what they were getting into it.
In album review, The track “Tales” sets the tone for the project and let’s the listener know exactly what Dezzy will be talking about. The soundscape for the track provided by Lexi Banks, gives Yates the room he needs to come right out the gate spitting with passion and aggression about his life story. The second track “Pallet Town,” is a soulful southern banger about a young dreamer yearning to go out into the world and still represent his hometown. The horns on the track, produced by UK, really set this song off and Yates does a superb job of drawing a parallel between his town and Pallet Town (the hometown of the main character from the Pokemon games).
The album goes to a slower tempo with “Just another night” and “Step daddy’s Altima.” It then goes on to make the system bop with “Sonic Boom.” Yates said he made that track specifically to slap in the trunk, and it does just that. The next song “Bottle Fulla Jones” produced by Lexi Banks, is fun track where Dezzy talks about dancing and having fun all whilst sipping on a bottle of Jones Soda.
These last few tracks make up the meat of the album as they come with the heaviest of topics and Yates reveals some of the most intimate parts of himself on these tracks. Track number 7 “One Day” features PM Lowe, speaks about a day that many loving children often dream about. Namely, being able to make money off their passion and to provide for their parents. Dezzy then goes into how he felt as a young boy on the song “Kid in the Crowd.” Lexi Banks has another production on the album with this song and creates the perfect opportunity to vent about wanting to be known. Yates ends the song at his lowest point finding solace in pornography and masturbation.
We all know that when we are at our lowest is when we are the most vulnerable to “Temptation.” This song paints a picture of a depressed Yates who has gotten a call from an old love telling him to come through. Yates is very open on the track and doesn’t back out near the end as we’ve seen in other Christian songs that touch on this subject. Even after getting a call from his pastor while putting on a rubber and feeling convicted, he still went and had sex. He thought about how it could send him to Hell after the fact.
Misguided Youth comes from a hurt and broken Yates looking for purpose, healing and disillusioned with the church. Yates doesn’t just end there but goes on to say how Jesus heals and forgives us on the song “FRGVN.” Once again Yates talks about how sex influenced his life and how sick he feels but speaks about the freedom found in Christ. The last song “INFTY & BYND,” is Dezzy getting ready to shoot off into the distance on his rocket ship telling the listener he’s headed out.
This project had many highs and took the listener on a ride, but there were a few missteps along the way. Features are important because they add a unique flavor to a song and are supposed to take help and elevate it. A couple of the featured artists didn’t deliver as strong as Dezzy and it negatively impacted the listening experience. I hope on future projects Dezzy Yates takes into consideration how important features are and chooses them accordingly.
In conclusion, Tales From The Checkered Backpack is a very solid project. This is a free album full of story, substance, and excellent production. Yates re-purposed 3 instrumentals from Big K.R.I.T. And made them his own on this album. This is an awesome album and according to Dezzy’s social media, this is Yates’ last pure hip hop album (for a while at least). While we don’t know what Mr. Yates has planned next, he gave us an album to listen to over and over again, and for that all we can do is say thank you.
Head over to Dezzy Yates’ website www.dezzyyates.com to download the album when it drops.
