YG is a brutish, workmanlike, conversational rapper — not who you expect to make a classic his first time out. But My Krazy Life has so much going for it: Songwriting, momentum, unified production, conceptual cohesion, a sense of place, a sense of personality. DJ Mustard, YG’s chief musical collaborator, uses the album as a chance to explore just how far his signature sound can go. And YG, like Kendrick Lamar before him, gets huge mileage from building a complete narrative around the life of an everyday Compton kid, setting the scene with an eye for detail and a complete sense of character. Every once in a while, an otherwise unremarkable rapper can put everything together just right and walk away with something special. This is one of those cases. –Tom [LISTEN]