The Earvin Edit

After nearly two years away, 21 Savage returns with a question that feels unavoidable in Atlanta rap right now: What happened to the streets?

Written by Earvin Adjei

Is there anyone better to pose the question, “What happened to the streets?” than 21 Savage? With the snitch conversation in Atlanta dominating a majority of 2025, it’s a fair question to ask and one that many want an answer to. 21 Savage looks to do so on his follow-up to 2024’s American Dream. Let’s discuss.

The Good:

Since the release of his 2018 album I Am > I Was, Savage has shown a tremendous amount of growth lyrically. He can do more than just rap about violence, and this album continues that trend. The outro in particular was a great example of this and an excellent way to end the album. The song sees 21 mournful and reminiscing about friends and fellow artists who lost their lives to violence, addiction, etc. 21 pays homage to deceased rappers by delivering what-if scenarios that mention Young Dolph, Nipsey Hussle, Takeoff, Lil Keed, and XXXTENTACION, among others. 21 acknowledges the grief their absence caused, while Jawan Harris’ chorus emphasizes the song’s theme of lost friends.

The Bad:

The biggest issue with this project is its staleness. The instrumentals are typical trap beats, the bars feel lazy at times, and 21’s trademark monotone delivery doesn’t work in its favor here. All of these factors cause the songs to blend together, resulting in a project where everything sounds the same.

Outside of Jawan Harris, G Herbo, Young Nudy, and Lil Baby, the features are extremely disappointing. Latto and GloRilla make appearances, but their verses don’t add much beyond a female presence. Nothing particularly interesting was said by either, and it felt like what fans describe as “government-mandated features”. The feature that caught everyone’s attention on release night was none other than Drake. 21 and Drake are frequent collaborators and have several amazing tracks together, but MR RECOUP is not one of them. The delivery from both artists on the song is extremely robotic, and the verses sound like they were shoehorned in. Drake was on the losing end of arguably the biggest rap beef ever and has not rapped much since. 21 is a known supporter of Drake and has been vocal about his disdain for rap beef. Both artists could have said something interesting regarding the battle, but they just didn’t do that. That leads to the next issue with the album.

The album title “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS?” is extremely divisive and raises eyebrows. What did 21 mean by this? Could he be referring to the acceptance of what many rappers view as “snitching” in hip-hop? Is he talking about what seemed to have been a 20 v 1 takedown of raps biggest superstar, Drake? Outside of a couple of rat bars sprinkled into tracks and no mentions of Kendrick or any of Drake’s foes, none of these questions were answered. As a matter of fact, 21 had more interesting and thoughtful things to say about these topics in a 3-hour sit-down with Atlanta OG Big Bank. It would have been nice and more fitting to hear 21 address these things on the album. A title that asks such a loaded question should at least attempt to answer it, and here, Savage largely avoids the moment.

Final Verdict:

Unfortunately, this album showcases everything wrong with the current trap scene in hip-hop. The instrumentals are stale, the bars are lackluster, and the projects lack variety. For 21, this is another underwhelming entry in his recent catalog. This album comes at a time when those closest to him are under public scrutiny. Similar to American Dream, the foundation was laid for an album that could have had an extremely interesting narrative, but 21 failed to capitalize on this. 2 out of 5 stars.