★★★★★
With his first major label release, issued via Interscope alongside Top Dawg, Los Angeles rapper ScHoolboy Q (real name Quincy Hanley) proves to the mainstream that TDE's success extends beyond Kendrick Lamar. Following a model that is traced back to Motown, the label reportedly only allows a track to be released if everyone involved is 100% in approval, and this is reflected on 'Oxymoron', Q's third album overall and the follow-up to 2012's celebrated 'Habits & Contradictions'...
- www.clashmusic.com
2014-03-20
★★★★★
Available on: Top Dawg / Interscope Black Hippy is one of the most innovative and exciting collectives to happen to rap in the last few years,and ScHoolboy Q, in many respects, is its most unadventurous member. In the context of Kendrick's knotty dramatizations, Jay Rock's thug boasts or Ab-Soul's paranoid, insular meanderings, his druggy gangsta rap feels almost old school, his formula - street raps smoothly delivered over top-of-the-range beats - giving execution precedence over original...
- www.factmag.com
2014-03-13
★★★★★
Oxymoron is the newest album to come from TDE's quest to dominate the rap game in 2014. While also being a play on oxycontin, Q said the title comes from having to do bad to do good, namely selling crack/whatever to look after his daughter. Drugs and his daughter largely perforate the subject matter of Oxymoron with the theme being as prevalent as bucket hats in Q's wardrobe...
- www.beat.com.au
2014-03-11
★★★★★
The anticipation for ScHoolboy Q's latest album has been rumbling on since the critical praise levelled at its 2011 forerunner, Habits & Contradictions. Couple that with a close association with Kendrick Lamar through shared label Top Dawg Entertainment, as well as some particularly savvy marketing and press coverage, and it looks like Oxymoron is set to become one of the more significant hip hop records of this year...
- thequietus.com
2014-03-08
★★★★★
With all the hype building around the release of Schoolboy Q's major label debut, he couldn't help but bow down to gangsta rap peer pressure. A year-and-a-half after his Black Hippy companion Kendrick Lamar's socially conscious Compton memoir Good Kid, M.A.A.d. City, Q has no problem playing the bad guy...
- www.state.ie
2014-03-08
★★★★★
Schoolboy Q is a tad late with this debut major label album assignment; originally due in November 2013, it was moved back to this February after difficulties with sample clearance. It's been much hyped due to the quality of preceding singles such as Man Of The Year and Q's various guest appearances, with some even suggesting it could meet or even exceed the standard of Kendrick Lamar's 2012 masterpiece Good Kid, M.A.A.D City...
- www.noripcord.com
2014-03-04
★★★★★
The Jamaican-tinged bounce of single 'Collard Greens' is the perfect example of the variety and playfulness of ScHoolboy Q's major label debut Oxymoron. The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper is poised to speed straight into the spotlight that labelmate Kendrick Lamar has been baking in for over a year now. In perfect clique-takeover fashion, Black Hippy are slowly unleashing their roster on the charts with tracks which nimbly run the fine line between commercial and authentic...
- www.theaureview.com
2014-03-03
★★★★★
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No one has rated this album. You can be the first. Schoolboy Q - OxymoronSchoolboy Q - OxymoronRecord Label: Interscope
Release Date: February 25, 2014
At this point in the game, if you aren't familiar with the acronym TDE, you simply haven't been paying attention...
- www.absolutepunk.net
2014-03-01
★★★★★
Two years into Black Hippy's mainstream rap takeover the efficacy of TDE's hit factory is still a marvel to watch. As a group, pensive Compton good guy Kendrick Lamar, gang-affiliated L.A. street rap classicist Jay Rock, suburban psychotropic-loving conspiracy theorist Ab-Soul and drug dealing party animal Schoolboy Q unite to offer a panoramic view of Southern Californian inner city rot...
- pitchfork.com
2014-02-28