Few rising hip-hop stars are as polarizing as Jaden Smith. Although he now is known by the moniker ‘Jaden’, the son of Will and Jada Smith has been making waves in the genre ever since his guest appearances on Childish Gambino’s Kauai project back in 2014, and some could argue earlier. In 2019, gone is the young and rebellious kid making music with Ta-Ku, or hip-hop remixes to Foster The Peoples’ hit “Pumped Up Kicks”. Today Jaden is a figure in hip-hop whose discography contains appearances on tracks by A$AP Rocky, Brockhampton, Tyler the Creator, and even Young Thug. While many were quick to write him off as the pseudo-intellectual spouting platitudes from his twitter account for years, many people started to change their minds after the release of Smith’s conceptual album SYRE in the fourth quarter of 2017. The top-heavy album received generally positive reviews, with many praising the young artist’s versatility, originality, and passion for the music he was putting forth.

Over the next year and a half Jaden would release a few singles, most notably the single “GHOST” featuring production from Christian Rich, and a performance of incredibly skilled and infectiously intense rapping. In 2018 his mixtape ‘The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story’ released, and although the project was received warmly, some fans were hesitant to accept the more intense and abrasive style of some of its tracks, though the majority of them were still adjacent to the melancholic and calculated style that Jaden had been previously known for. Half a year later in early 2019, Smith released the ERYS Is Coming EP which at only three tracks long, still contained a hefty amount of abrasion and a far more intense style than his previous works. This musical profile is essentially what is present on Jaden Smith’s sophomore album ERYS, the conceptual follow up to SYRE.

The dichotomy between these two musical styles is representative of the two SYRE and ERYS characters. While the former’s style is top-heavy, relaxed, melancholic, and confident, the other’s is bottom-heavy, energetic, and aggressive. Despite being two characters within the same narrative, the two albums are not as similar as one may be led to believe. While certainly ERYS is has many similarities when compared to SYRE, ERYS is much more more intense and trap influenced. Both albums start out with a four-track mega composition, and while SYRE’s is spelled out as “B-L-U-E”, ERYS instead opt’s for “P-I-N-K”. The chord progressions found in these tracks are intentionally similar, and despite the fact that “BLUE” has many emotional ranges, meandering from flourishing romanticism, to intense feelings of urgency and catharsis, “PINK” starts as the melodic sibling - and with few moments of exception - gets more and more hectic as it progresses.

ERYS is a 17-track long (21 if you count the deluxe version) project that features artists like Trinidad James, A$AP Rocky, Tyler the Creator, Willow, and Kid Cudi. While many of the songs are energetic in fun, many of them do little to avoid them being confused with the track that followed it. Tracks like “i-drip-or-is”, “Got it”, “Chateau”, and the first act of “Again” feature Smith aggressively adopting the trap persona, abandoning the casual and melancholic sunset-vibes of SYRE in favor of a much angrier and maximized sound. Smith’s rapping no longer rides on top of the beats, his lyrics no longer being on the center stage. Now his rapping almost acts as just another instrument in the arrangement, his lyrics being obscured in his strange ERYSian delivery that is vaguely reminiscent of when Kanye West’s jaw was wired shut in 2006’s “Through the Wire”.

This is the style that dominates the album, though there are brief moments of punk-rock sonics that Jaden does not pair too well with. I admire his desire to add some variety to the album, but tracks like “Blackout” and “Fire Dept” seem much more like detours than meaningful stops in the narrative of ERYS. The album’s intense tracks are fun to listen to individually, but as a collective they do little more than contribute to an album that feels bloated. ERYS’s saving grace however are the brief moment of soft vulnerability, where Jaden returns to sing and remind his audience that he can write a fucking good melody.

“Summertime In Paris” with Willow is one such moment like this. Acting as an oasis in the desert of ERYS, moments like these are rare. The track contains a vintage guitar track with punchy drums and beautiful singing from Jaden and his sister. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but they are genuine and they are sweet, and I believe in Jaden enough as an artist to validate his feelings of romance that are largely obscured by many other moments on this album. Another such moment is in the tail end of “Again”, which may possibly be my favorite moment in a Jaden song yet. The lyrics are accessible but the message is there. The melody is forlorn and almost akin to an elegy, but it is saccharine and it is a nice way to end the song before ERYS cuts back in, complaining about how the song wasn’t as hard as the one’s before it. It’s almost as if the album is about ERYS as an obstacle in SYRE’s path. Other songs like “On My Own” with Kid Cudi try to emulate this moment again, but Jaden’s Kid Cudi impression makes him sound much more like a discount Joji.

This contrast between the two Jaden albums is one that persists almost constantly through ERYS’s 80 minute runtime, and this is a very great source of tension for both fans and critics of Jaden alike. While the Jaden we see on SYRE is unpolished and sometimes unfocused, the space in which he occupies is solely his own. His rap style is unique, and his brief moments of confidence are so powerful and casual that some may even interpret them as telling signs of Smith’s unenthused laziness. There are moments of hype and excitement, but there is an overwhelming presence of intentional and articulate arrangement, an emphasis on melodies and a constant harmonic conversation that persists from start to finish. While his songwriting and lyricism can be painfully cringe-inducing and surface level at points, it is clear that Jaden is not the shallow thinker people may assume him to be. Like other hip-hop artists that strive in the pursuit of intentional and authentic “art”, he is a lightning rod for unjust criticism and skepticism. While this can take away from the enjoyment of the album for some, for many others this makes Jaden Smith a much more endearing character.

The problem is - that this is not the Jaden that we see on ERYS.

ERYS is the perfect example of the abrasive album that comes close to going the distance, but falls short through no fault of its own. While listening to ERYS, I could not help but grow tired of the very direction that I originally praised Jaden for pursuing. Think back to Vince Staples’ 2017 LP Big Fish Theory. While the album impressed many upon its release, many of the songs were unable to age well because the aural profiles of the majority of the project’s songs did not do enough to deviate away from just ‘bass and hi-hats’. Very few abrasive hip-hop albums are able to withstand this test of time, even Kanye West’s 2013 masterpiece Yeezus is still a source of discourse for many of his most devote fans. Though one could draw many parallels between West and Smith, it is frankly quite unlikely that ERYS will age as well as Yeezus will.

Between the painfully unfinished remix of “GHOST” that A$AP Rocky sadly struggles through, and the melodic euphoria of Jaden’s singing on “Again”, ERYS is an inconsistent lover. Though ERYS may be enjoyable as small doses, the lack of engaging variety prevents one from loving it the same way SYRE was two years ago. Moving forward, it will be interesting seeing where Jaden goes with his musical style, but for everyone’s sake, lets hope he finds a happy medium between the sunset-inspired melancholy, and the trap bangers we were given this year.