Devin the Dude is of a rare breed: An avid storyteller with a pension for the extremely surreal. His imagery? Vivid. His references? Interesting. His stories? Strangely gripping. But Devin falters at exactly what should set him apart. His freakishly outlandish tales of sexual deviance and rampant drug use are exceedingly disturbing rather than quirky and unique. And because of this, Devin sounds more like an Ol’ Dirty Bastard redux than a genuinely intriguing MC.Stemming from the dogma of the late Wu-Tang enigma, Devin’s lines are often strangely reminiscent of ODB’s signature style.

Rapping almost exclusively about money, sex, and weed, Devin embodies the worst of his predecessor’s style without the one-of-a-kind pizzazz.But what can one come to expect from an artist who releases an album entitled Waitin’ to Inhale? Devin has always been known as the cannabis-toting MC, loaded with metaphors and images for his drug of choice. Not only his lyrics but also his quick-witted yet ploddingly slow lines embody his obsession. As he casually trots through each track, the smoke in the studio is almost palpable, coming through the speakers, while his lyrics run as rampant as his sky-high mind.With Devin’s constant buzz though, he lets his mind roam free. The sticky green is simply the catalyst for his rhymes of love lost and sex to be had. “She Want That Money” is an awkwardly smooth track about Devin insisting that he not pay for intercourse while “She Useta Be” is his ironic retribution on a girl who rejected him in high school: “She useta be/ So fine to me/ Now she’s fat as a motherucker.”

Devin allows his childish mockery to sear through his off-kilter rhymes, mockingly crooning, “from elegant to elephant.”It’s not until the spastic cries of “Broccoli & Cheese” that we truly learn how deranged Devin really is. He intricately details a date between himself and a random girl after which he attempts to force her to give him oral sex while he’s driving. Trying to convince her, Devin insists, “This dick is so clean/ It’ll probably go good with your broccoli and cheese.” The sentiment of the track isn’t anything uncommon but the actual execution (continuing to argue that you can “boil it in some collared greens” and “serve it with some lima beans”) creates an unthinkably odd situation, making Devin sound more crazed than anything.Ironically, the only skit that perpetuates the album is the “Boom” series in which a crank call to a music store emphasizes that Devin needs a “boom” for his album, something to “make your trunk rattle.”

Unfortunately, Waitin’ to Inhale never finds that boom. It simply drags along as Devin’s high dies out, leaving its listeners waiting.As the album anti-climactically dies out with “Nothin’ to Roll With,” Devin emotes that he has weed but nothing to “wrap it in.” Easily one of the album’s weakest tracks, it becomes apparent that he truly does need cannabis to flow. At the end of the song, Devin decides to use his bong to regain his high and ultimately lyrical prowess. The disc’s closer “Til It’s All Gone” follows and shows Devin, rejuvenated, as he rips through the track with his quickest raps on the record.The production and flows are all there on Waitin’ to Inhale, but Devin’s deviance and eccentric stories eventually bring it down to the most base level. Ol’ Dirty Bastard was one of a kind. And against Devin’s greatest attempts, it’s going to stay that way.

by Chris Gaerig

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