Joey Bada$$ plays a game that many hip-hop fans will identify with. He's a throwback to the genre's mid-1990s golden age, when the boom-bap was king. It's a sound and a stance that could be given to nostalgia, but the Brooklyn kid is cute and agile enough to largely avoid that particular cul-de-sac. That said, Joey does doff the baseball cap to the masters with a lovingly rejigged J Dilla beat that underpins Like Me, while DJ Premier joins the team to bring a soulful buzz to Paper Trails. Lyrically, Joey doesn't quite pack the same erudite punch as some of the dons he's so obviously seeking to emulate. At a time when may rappers are airing their concerns about police brutality and institutional racism, the Bada$$ brags about blunts and cash seem, like some of the beats here, just a little bit out of time. facebook.com/fckingbadass