In this day and age almost all barriers have been removed for artists to make music and that is a good thing. Many veteran creatives are navigating the music industry in the wake of the major musical shifts while many artists are wading in for the first time. Fans and consumers are getting the ability to see artists build something out of nothing. Now we have the ability to listen to artists such as Aaron Robinson and his debut project ‘From The Ground Up.‘
On the first song “High Maintenance” we are greeted by some serious bass and some spacey sounds. Aaron started the album off by telling us exactly what he stands for and the vision he has, while on “It’s About Time” Aaron speaks about taking back what the Devil stole from him. He speaks on division in the church and a lot of other good topics. The line “Russian Roulette that’s the life of a thug” stood out on this track. The third track “Exodus” featured Toyalove was a good song about leaving old lusts and ways of thinking. I personally thought the featured artist Toyalove definitely stole the show on this song. The first quarter of the album is rounded out by the track “Chosen.”Aaron jumped into this song with no warning just spitting at a steady cadence over a very smooth beat that had a somber sound to it.
Next we have “365” where for 4 minutes and 12 seconds Robinson rapped about living a life for God 365 days a year. “Blessings in abundance if them prayers is in abundance/ blessings in abundance if your faith is on a hundred” was a dope rhyme from Robinson. Aaron spoke of a “Celebration” featuring Tre Durham. We find Aaron Robinson talking about how the new life Christ gives us should have us feeling celebratory. Tre gave a rather slow verse and in my opinion, this verse could have been left off the song as Aaron really carried this song quite well all by himself.
A few songs later in the album on “Hot Or Cold” Aaron really switched up the flow and cadence on this spacey airy beat. Robinson really brought some heat on this song. On the song “Disciple of Jesus” Aaron tells us that he’s “covered in the blood of Jesus, gon’ and wipe me down.” One of the most interesting songs on Robinson’s project is “Roses and Candles.” Up until now Aaron has been going hard with his rapping about the Christian life, the future glory, just really triumphant music. Then suddenly Aaron switches it up and we greeted by a sample of a woman singing and real slow piano driven instrumental. Aaron switched the script on us and delivered a good love song. Aaron ends his debut effort with “Eternal Life” grabbed Alexis Spight to feature on the hook. On this final song Aaron walked us through his life all the way up to when he accepted Christ and now has “Eternal Life.”
In conclusion, Aaron gave a very solid and lengthy debut studio album for all to enjoy. The album is about sixteen tracks long and because of that I didn’t go track by track with my review. There are some songs I skipped but you should go through and listen to each and every one of them because you may find you like some of them. This album was a little long for me especially since this is Aaron’s first project. It’s a lot to ask for an hour of someone’s time when it’s your first time meeting them, especially when we live in a time when people barely want to give five minutes to those they know. As mentioned earlier Tre could have been left off the album completely as his verse was very lackluster in my opinion. I know artists usually throw all their friends on their first album, but I suggest Aaron be careful of who he features on his next project. I would also like to hear Aaron switch up his cadences and flow patterns a bit more and perhaps he did but the length of the album made it hard to notice such changes. Perhaps the biggest detractor from this project is the production as it all sounds kind of dated. Aaron truly built this from the ground up as he produced each and every song on this album. While some applaud that do it all by yourself attitude, I’ve found that it doesn’t really make for long lasting music. I suggest Robinson reach out to up and coming producers and build with them so they can help upgrade and diversify his sound on future projects. All in all, Aaron has laid a sturdy foundation with this and he is sure to go even harder on the next project. Check him out now so you can say you saw Aaron Robinson build something special ‘From The Ground Up.’
