The Fool

Album #76 (1001 challenge extended): "The Fool" by Bladee (2021) "The Fool" is the fifth studio album by Swedish rapper Bladee (Benjamin Thage Day Reichwald). Cloud rap, pop rap and trap are the Wiki-listed genres. The album explores themes of love, illusions and existentialism. It was mostly produced by Lusi and had mostly positive reviews. The albums opens with "The Fool Intro." A high-powered synth intro. A hip hop electronic beat. Layered rapping. Very poppy. The next song "Let's Ride" is more dreamy with the synths. Bladee singing and rapping and "he knows what he knows." "Hotel Breakfast" has handclap beats and more straight-forward rapping. Hypnotic, eerie and bubbly synths. "Bby" has a ringing synth melody intro. A pumping synth melody and a slow hip hop beat. Layered vocals. A catchy song. "Egobaby" goes back to the dreamy. Female backing vocals and kind of reminded me of the Postal Service. This is an album of short pop songs. Hip hop and electronic beats. Glossy synths and production. Bladee sings and raps. There are vocal effects such as the vocoder, echoing and layering. At its best, the songs approached the quality of the Postal Service. But for the most part, this was modern glossy pop rap which really did nothing for me. Not terrible but just not my style or in the best of its own style. Recommended: go back and listen to the Postal Service album. 2 out of 5

Idk guys, I kinda like it.

One of the worst things I have ever heard.

This is very gen z

I don't like anything about this, but I've heard worse.

I remember not fully hating it but that’s about it.

Not much of a Bladee fan but I do think his influence merits a spot on the list. Also, the current 1.97 average feels unnecessarily harsh in my humble opinion. Keep on drainin’, Swedish boy!

I am not the target audience

Blech. Crappy rap.

Words cannot express how little I enjoyed this album. This particular style of hip-hop holds no appeal to me whatsoever.

I mainly know Bladee* from one song of Oklou's 2025 album Choke Enough (an album that really grew on me, and one I would count in the upper tier of albums released that year) Trap (or, one could say, all hip-hop past 1999) is more or less ignored on this website. Off the top of my head, no one has submitted Dr*ke, Future, Migos, Metro Boomin, 21 Savage, Playboi Carti, Waka Flocka Flame, or Rico Nasty. I would be shocked if this demographic would any time soon. On that basis alone, Bladee is an interesting pick for this list, particularly because it goes further into "cloud rap", a microgenre within trap. Tbh I always thought that was synonymous with "SoundCloud rap" / mumble rap, but Wikipedia defines it as drawing "influences from trap, ambient and new age music to create a hazy, dreamlike, atmospheric and relaxed production style through the extensive use of reverb and ethereal chopped samples". I guess that describes "The Fool" to a T. On one hand, It's kinda samey throughout the mercifully short runtime. On the other, I tend to like melodies and those aren't super common in trap, yet Bladee has 'em in spades. Right now I doubt The Fool will grow on me like Choke Enough did, even though they both occupy this ethereal, melodic, terminally online space. As to what kind of trap I would put here instead... idk. There are very few trap albums in general I loved front to back. *apparently it's pronounced "blade" not "bladey". Like who tf would understand that HL: "Hotel Breakfast", "Desiree", "bby", "Wett" July 13, 2026

My local gym plays this kind of thing in the locker room. Not the kind of music that makes much sense in an album, it's just kind of filler

Not the least pleasant hip-hop record one’s ever heard, not the most grating album on the list, and one can see why kids would connect to it – but it’s generic in the extreme and nothing if not forgettable – hip-hop as audio wallpaper, basically. Also, auto-tune does to music what CGI has done to film and AI threatens to do to literature (and every other art form, come to think of it).

Autotuned mumble rap, complete trash.

This kind of music is so devoid of musicianship and talent. Electronica has bought us wonderful tools for people like this just to push buttons.

Sucesión de canciones con ritmos un tanto techno, algo de rap y algo de chillout. Algo relajado. No es un estilo que me guste especialmente. Como para tener de fondo, no es mala opción.

ChatGPT prompt: Make an album that sounds Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, after he's been in the USA for a few more years, and is laaaaaidback after some of that good good herb, and make the backing tracks like Owl City but on a few too many Ritalin pills. And saturate it in autotune and effects.

Oh, hell naw!

This did not make much of an impression on me. Short and melodic, just kind of feels like a standard and safe mashup of modern hip hop and R&B to me. Meh.

I think I like Bladee when they collaborate with other artists...i think they fall under mumble rap and I'm not a huge fan.

Cloud rap, pop rap, trap. Ni fu ni fa.

oh god no. please no

The Fool is terrible, average trap beats pulled from a stock pile and some shit autotune mumbling over the top. 1.

The cover "art" should've been a clue. The first two seconds should've been a clue. I heard the whine/mumbling and I skipped to the next song. More of the same. Wish I hadn't listened at all. I had plenty of warning. Not worth it.

Perhaps the worst album on both the official and user submitted list.

3/10 what a waste of time

I can only assume that Bladee is pronounced 'Bladdy', as in, 'This is bladdy rubbish!'. It's a rare example of where I'm very grateful for autotune, because it means that Skynet is putting some effort into making this "not monotone". More than can be said for the actual human behind it. Musically, I'm not sure I can describe this as anything other than skittish wodges of bass, accompanied by some soaring synths. It's unimaginative, and just leads me to wonder who on earth put this together. There's been a couple of reviews out there about this being what music is now, and I fundamentally disagree. Another compared it to 100 Gecs and I absolutely disagree with that too. 100 Gecs may use heavy autotune, but their stuff is a grab bag of fun. This is a bag of warm flatulence. At least it's only just over half an hour long.

I vaguely know about Drain Gang, but I've never bothered to check out any of their music. Was expecting something like Viper or some real wacky experimental shit like that, but this just sounded like really mumbly boring nothingness to me. Not for me.

It’s pretty good, though I don’t understand why some people like his music so much

Didn’t do much for me.

You know in a show where somebody's cousin is a SoundCloud rapper?

Maybe giving everyone with a dream the power to write, record, edit, and release their own music was a mistake

Too much autotune.

Draingang represented, although this isn’t album I would have chosen. There’s stronger material out there

Generic. This sounds like a 1000 other things out there. Nothing notable about it. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

What was that ADD autotuned hyperpop album that was already on the list? The 10000gecs? This is virtually identical. 3 minutes of this and I'm good.

The Fool is a rather generic rap/pop album by Swedish rapper Bladee. It is over-produced an is full of auto-tune. All tracks sound simular and as a whole it's just boring.

You guys hate this shit huh? The future is now fellas

Decent emo-ish neo-rap. And enjoyable listen, though lyrically it didn't do a ton for me. I may be irretrievably aged out of its demographic.

Hanging on to the threads of my 20s, but now fully ready to accept old head status if listening to this sterile, mumbling-ass horseshit is what's necessary to stay current.

1) Cover is not indicative of the content 2) Guy really needs to get over himself

Cloud rap, pop rap, trap. Ni fu ni fa.

Not entirely trash As if Pewdiepie made a comedy trap album 3

I liked this okay… kind of mellow rap that wasn’t my favorite thing but not a bad listen.

This didn't click for me. It's not bad, but felt pretty bland

Not for me

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: The fool intro