UNLOCKED is a heavily explicit album with many mature themes.

UNLOCKED is the first major collaboration between producer Kenny Beats and rapper Denzel Curry. Kenny’s diverse instrumentals and thumping drums complemented by Curry’s wordplay and braggadocious flow make for a wildly entertaining album. 

Curry and Kenny have always been known to put effort into their craft and produce quality work. UNLOCKED is the next step up in a concept album. Leaked songs have plagued rap and music in general since the internet became the main platform for uploading and listening to music. UNLOCKED plays with this concept, as Kenny and Curry release their album as a ‘leak.’ Songs were named as if they were pirated straight off the computer and released by a third party, such as So.Incredible.pkg or Take_It_Back_v2, and they make the album feel like an actual leak. 

Not only does the name of their songs contribute to the concept, but the way that Kenny and Curry treated the album does as well . There was no anticipation for UNLOCKED, as Kenny and Curry didn’t talk about it until they released it. Not only was the naming of the album conceptual, but the way Curry and Kenny treated it helped it to fit into this complex idea.

To add to this arcane concept, Curry and Kenny released a twenty-three-minute long album-spanning music video. This music video adds to the concept of the album even more. In it, Curry and Kenny travel through the world of the internet to retrieve the eight songs they lost to leaks. Traveling through worlds based on Japanese horror and Central American architecture, they slowly retrieve the eight tracks they lost to the digital world. With elements of both a dark comedy and a fight scene-packed action movie, the album-spanning music video transforms UNLOCKED from a brag-rap album to a meticulously scored soundtrack.

Both Curry and Kenny have standout qualities that raise this project to a higher level. For Curry, this is his flow. The emcee from South Florida can ride a beat and can slow down or speed up his cadence to make sure his punchline is matched with the best delivery possible.

For Kenny, the standout production in the album is the sampling. Each sample adds to the Mortal Kombat-esque fight scene, accentuating the bounce of the heavy-banging beats on show. A good producer doesn’t just make beats, they make music and that’s exactly what Kenny did on UNLOCKED.

UNLOCKED is a collaboration album that is well worth the wait. Although there are only eight songs with two interludes on the album, each song was made with a focus on quality and the effort lead to a highly entertaining and acoustically-pleasing finished product.