December Album of The Month

A Great Chaos by Ken Carson

The official name of Ken Carson’s genre of music is “Hip-Hop Trap Rage”. While listening to his third album, A Great Chaos, there is no doubt that it overachieves in every aspect of Hip-Hop, trap, and most definitely rage. A Great Chaos accomplishes exactly what it was made for, combining bass-boosted beats with blended words and heavy filters to create a mixtape likely to leave any listener in shock. Ken Carson continues to innovate in one of the most popular subgenres of Hip-Hop, and with three albums dropped in three years, he doesn’t plan on going anywhere.

Debuting at #11 on the Billboard 200, Carson earned the first top 20 album of his career. Some St. Joe students are optimistic about Carson’s future, like Henry Staple (12), who thinks Ken Carson will soon be a household name: “I think he’s definitely in my top ten [artists] right now.” Henry said, “If he’s not one of your favorites, he will be soon.” In addition, Henry attributes a lot of Carson’s success to his intricate beats, saying: “There’s no rapper besides Playboi Carti with beats like Ken’s…When I hear the intro to one of his songs, I know it's him.” 

While the quality of Carson’s production can be debated, there is no doubt that he heavily invests in his beats. On average, a song on A Great Chaos has over three credited producers, with songs like It’s Over having six. In my opinion, while the higher-quality beats in this album give us amazing songs, this album’s highs don’t match earlier projects by Carson like Project X on Teen X. I think Carson has a bright future as a rapper and pioneer of a new rap genre, but when it's all said and done, A Great Chaos won’t stand out in Carson’s discography.