Album Review: Dr*gs R Bad by LUCKI
A Chicago rapper opens his fifth studio album with a spoken definition of heroin nods. Twenty-six songs later he still sounds like he picked up the phone mid-nap.
Twelve years on from Alternative Trap, the Chicago kid once called Lucki Eck$ is still running the same operating system: low vocal mix, smashed plugg pads, an alkaloid intake the rapper memorializes one bar at a time. “I’m on drugs, you already knew it, but sayin’ it fun,” Lucki Camel Jr. confesses on “NUPPY INTRO,” over Bhristo’s hot hi-hats and a sample about heroin nods. Resignation of a man checking the same box he has signed every year since Days B4 III. The first nine entries of Disc 1 earn their keep on that resignation, while six weak songs across the middle waste the runway.
Asked about the title in a June 2025 interview with Kids Take Over, the rapper delineated it as a legal shield: “Cause drugs are bad, and you can’t say I’m glorifying it if I’m telling you drugs are bad.” Yet that shield is the weakest piece of public-facing press copy on the album. An EP called DaysB4Bad* previewed material ahead of the full project, and some of that preview was later slotted onto Disc 2. “Diamond Stitching” still wakes up making $300K, yet the boast lands tired. “Free Mr. Banks” barely rides a black-and-yellow Ferrari truck. A spoken clip about crying when butterflies hit the windshield opens “Not So Virgo of You.” None of that disclaimer survives the first downer on track one.
Partway into “NUPPY INTRO” inside the Booby Trap in Miami, the rapper tells a son he cannot bring himself to discipline: “Don’t post twenty dollar bills and cherish love.” Yet Bhristo’s drums refuse to ease up under the rebuke, and the rebuke earns more than the family flex ever does.
“Few pink 10s today, I’m monotone, she feel a way,” Lucki raps on “Picky Demons :).” Yet three pints of Wockhardt still get poured into a Styrofoam cup. “I got a car seat in the Lam’, I’m scared to hit the brakes,” he admits on the same song, yet the brake never gets pressed. Yet Trackhawks still vroom out of the garage even on the school run. Chanel bought for a woman’s trauma on “Stupid Prizes,” an opioid hot on his face, an outro voice catching the smell. “It smells very strong, holy Jesus,” and the air in the song cracks open. Run-D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky” still gets pulled into “Picky Demons :),” yet the angels on his back never out-balance the demons in his bank account. Across this opening run of Disc 1, every line is itemized at the eye level of a CVS cashier with a long memory. “I’m fadin’ away, I need some shades on my face.”
Once the album reaches the tenth song, “(madness) !” rides a retro arcade synth from Brent Rambo into “That money, the money, it changed me,” with Alexis Chantellé named on the verse like a real woman somebody loves, not another faceless luxury accessory tucked between bars. By “a theme atp...,” Celine and Chanel tissues are threaded through a 580 Maybach coupe whose panoramic roof “don’t mean a thing, it don’t get sunny,” yet that image already did its work eight songs back. The writing has run out of new doorways. “SUPERTUNE!!” is a weak hyperpop detour, with Lucki rapping “I’m geeked, I’m geeked, that don’t scare me, though.” On “rookie 2 barbie” both parts arrive weak, with one part opening “What happens in Vegas, rookie to barbie” over a watery synth. “Roundtripski” is a weak luxury recitation that reaches Pucci skirts and three pints in the back. “AllWay2Space” is a weak repeat that runs “go to the mall, go to the moon” four times. “Keep It 1000, Plz” is a weak dream metaphor closing on “I can never go back home unless I can sneak you in my dreams.” “I Don’t Care...” has a non-distinct Lil Yachty feature where the guest verse and the host verse both check out.
Hovering over “Stupid Prizes,” cold aquatic synth pads dominate while Lucki promises to send his face to South Beach. Veeze still raps about caviar and bone marrow on “Twin Flow/Godfather II,” yet the orchestral string sample DJ Moon and Saint Harri built underneath him swallows the brag. Producer caspr1 sets airy chord pads and snare snaps behind the Maybach line on “AllWay2Space,” and that stillness pushes “go to the moon” past anything a louder mix could have managed. Across most of the project Bhristo with Brent Rambo set dry 808s low under the vocal, never climbing past the lyric. Even that earned policy fails on “Free Mr. Banks,” whose MarkoLenz drum loop speeds the pulse while Lucki slurs underneath, wasting three minutes on a verse that cannot match it.
“I’m richer, but I’ve never had peace, I be lyin’,” Lucki admits on “Brazy Interlude”—the album earns its title’s deflection in that one bar. On “Can’t B Trusted,” Lil Baby opens with “Seen a man get his blood brother whacked, how the fuck I’ma trust somebody?”—a paranoid summit the host then matches across his answering verse. “I’m a loyal nigga, but I’m still a snake,” he announces on “Loyal Snake,” with no softener attached. On “Twin Flow/Godfather II,” “I know I made it, I can tell ‘cause I’m by myself” arrives bare even after sixteen tracks of bravado. Four admissions, none packaged for resale, and they earn the case the title slogan wastes on its own.
Slowing a Rhodes line to a near-stop on “Yesterday On My Face/OUTRO,” Brent Rambo with Carlton McDowell closes Disc 1. The rapper says his heart is in the safe and his ho is in a maze. Steve Earle’s recorded voice arrives from somewhere off Lincoln Road: “I thought I was God’s own drug addict, and if God hadn’t meant for me to get high, he wouldn’t have made being high so much, like, perfect.” Jazzie Redd’s outro lands two minutes later: “I am a dope fiend, and I need drugs, I just bought ‘em from Chico.” Earlier on the same disc, “WAYBetter Dayz” was built into a dirge for Chynna Rogers by Bhristo with Brent Rambo on the boards, and her posthumous intro reads, “I think there’s too many soundtracks to our lives, I need music to die to.” “Music to die to,” Chynna’s posthumous voice reads into the room. Lucki answers her with “I’m so geeked I could die today,” yet his answer cannot pull itself out from under her question.
Solid (★★★½☆)
Favorite Track(s): “Brazy Interlude,” “WAYBetter Dayz,” “Yesterday On My Face/OUTRO”