Sep 18, 2025 at 12:38 PM IDK – Is He Real? review I went into this album with only a passing awareness of IDK. I’d seen the name around for a while but couldn’t name a single track, so this listen felt like starting from total scratch. That turned out to be a good way to approach the record, because the whole thing feels like it’s is built around uncertainty regarding faith and purpose. The production is probably the first thing that grabbed me. The beats are crisp and layered, they rarely ever feel predictable. Digital has this woozy synth line that really stuck with me and made this song one of my favories, and “December” with its moody, late-night drive feel, gave the project a nice change of pace. The surprise guest spots, Pusha T and JID on Porno in particular, are perfectly placed. The features add personality without hijacking the songs. IDK definitely holds his own ground here. I think Yeez mentioned this already but there are several tracks on the project, like Lily for instance, that feel like sketches rather than complete songs. Their runtimes often come to a halt right when things start getting interesting. This in turn makes the album stumble a bit pacing-wise. It is obvious that IDK is experimenting with brevity, but that also tends to work against him from time to time. While I did like the writing on this album and the concept presented on here, I did feel like this could’ve been fleshed out further. There’s a lack of depth in some of the verses that I’m sure will be improved upon by IDK on his future releases (if this hasn’t been done already). I pretty much liked everything on here to some degree. Even the songs I wasn’t crazy about upon my first listen grew on me later. I appreciate the 35 minute runtime too. I’ll surely return to the project because of how easy to listen to it is. And it doesn’t drag out at all. 8/10 Thank you for the cool pick, @Ripper Roo ! Had a fun time listening to this on my commutes. First time in a while that I was able to listen to the entire album during my drives to work. Usually the length of the projects makes this impossible because of how fragmented my listens are. This one was very digestable and was a great piece of music to be exposed to before being miserable at work this week. @AOTWClub @Justin Trudeau
Sep 18, 2025 at 2:34 PM The way I found out about this news bc I saw a TikTok parody of his song that went “In the back of my car, you died” is insane
Sep 18, 2025 at 4:23 PM Fosho, I was just thinking how I haven’t heard an album with production like this in a while. It really makes itself stand out and is addictive. There’s a reason I remembered this album all these years later. Nice shoutout, I don’t remember a lot of people talking about this one. Yeah there’s a difference between just randomly throwing features on a song and making them fit. He really made them fit. True there’s a universe where this album could’ve been nearly a 10/10 if the songs, lyrics, and concepts were more fleshed out. Thanks for the high rating and nice review! I get what you mean, it can be really nice to finish an album on the car ride instead of having to stop in the middle. I’m glad you could listen to this before work as the music you listen to can really change your day.
Sep 18, 2025 at 4:23 PM Bro heard “nobody writes authentic lyrics anymore” and said “bet.” Now what would be diabolical is if someone in this group picked a d4vd album
Sep 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM IDK - Is He Real? Score: 8.0 I MISS THIS ERA OF MUSIC! This sound brings back such nostalgia for me, and it probably plays that much of a role for me because 2018-2019 is when I finally broke out of that stupid, dismissive "everything modern sucks" shell. Also, anything pre-pandemic always feels like a million years ago blah blah blah things people have said a million times. Regardless, I did enjoy my time with this project! IDK is an artist that I have heard in passing (and I have actually followed him on IG for years, despite not hearing much of his music because he just seems like a cool and down to Earth dude), but I had yet to hear a full album from him. You can really tell he was inspired by this era of music too, something like a "24" reminds me a lot of what Ski Mask was doing around this time and some Juice WRLD songs from around this time too (the beat reminds me a lot of the beat from Juice's leaked song "38 Special"). The features on here were dope, was shocked to hear JID and Pusha T on the project, as well as DMX and Tyler on interludes. Burna Boy was also a good inclusion on "December". Overall, I had a pretty good time with this project! I'll have to check out his more recent stuff for sure. Great pick @Ripper Roo ! @AOTWClub @Justin Trudeau 2025 AOTW Rankings: 1. h--- Hath No Fury - 9.0 2. Let God Sort Em Out - 9.0 3. Norman f---ing Rockwell! - 9.0 4. The Beatles - 9.0 5. I Didn't Mean to Haunt You - 9.0 6. Fantastic Planet - 8.5 7. Is He Real? - 8.0 8. Neon Bible - 8.0 9. Different Class - 8.0 10. It Was Divine - 7.0 11. Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son Of Chico Dusty - 7.0 12. Up to Here - 7.0 13. Based on a True Story - 7.0
Sep 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM @AOTWClub IDK is he real scored a 7.5 Get your reviews in for John Michele- Ego Trippin
Sep 18, 2025 at 7:40 PM I had a feeling you would enjoy this project. 2019 was actually a pretty underrated year for music in my opinion. This album and Young Thug’s So Much Fun were going crazy, same with Lil Nas X who was really starting to get popular at the time. 2020 was a hard reset bro, we went through a portal into a different reality. That’s cool that you’ve followed him on Instagram. Sometimes when you get to know a person more their music can be that much better or on the flip side it could seem worse. Definitely. If X and Juice didn’t die the musical landscape could look so different right now. I feel like some of that legacy still lives on through artists like IDK, Ski Mask, Denzel Curry, glaive, etc. An IDK song with X or Juice would’ve been fire. IDK actually did a song with Ronny J (a producer X worked with) called TOOTH FAIRY Glad you shouted him out, so smooth and wavy Thank you! Glad I finally got you to check him out after following him on IG all this time lol
Sep 19, 2025 at 8:34 AM Hi friends Justin is "sick"(also known as the mods here are stupid af) until October 18th so he asked me to run the @AOTWClub until then, I won't be able to edit the main board but I will be keeping things in order until then Thank you for your attention to this matter
Sep 19, 2025 at 9:27 AM @AOTWClub Anthony James- Ego Trip Shadymademe scoreboard Lowkitz: 10/10 Yeez: 9/10 Ripper: 9/10 Wreckless: 10/10
Sep 20, 2025 at 3:39 AM I can't lie it was a bit of a score whor- pick but I want to show this album to as many people as possible cause even though it has decent traction for what it is I don't think it should still be as under the radar as it is
Sep 20, 2025 at 4:24 AM Some albums leave you wondering why they aren't more popular. I hadn’t heard of this one before, so thanks for picking it.
Sep 20, 2025 at 10:28 AM Hey @Allis Mines are you still posting an album on the 29th? Or are we skipping you?
Sep 20, 2025 at 10:32 AM he hasn’t posted since Sept 3, and he hasn’t reviewed an album since late july, so i’m guessing that he’s not part of the club anymore
Sep 21, 2025 at 5:45 AM Posting my album later today. Got a couple of picks that I’m torn between. Hope you guys enjoy whatever I end up picking!!
