Earlier this week, Maino invited AllHipHop.com to an intimate gathering at Skyline Studios in Manhattan, New York City, to preview his new album, The Day After Tomorrow.
While his first album, 2009’s If Tomorrow Comes, was about Maino’s struggle from the streets to success, The Day After Tomorrow, focuses on handling success once you’ve left the streets but are still tied to your roots. In the words of Maino, “I’m going through sh*t, but I’m making money.”
The The Day After Tomorrow listening session began almost immediately, kicking off with a narration from Maino, who returns throughout the album, between several tracks and on the interlude, to add a more conversational aspect to his story.
On tracks like “Never Gon Stop” and “Unstoppable,” two of the albums more up-tempo records with single potential, Maino delivers lines like “critics said I flopped but my single sold a million,” “I’m a freight train on a collision course with success,” and “I’m living proof anything can happen if you dream.” In other words, haters gon’ hate and Maino’s gon’ keep getting rich.
One of the album’s standout tracks is the Buckwild produced “Nino Brown.” Maino has created a soulful, feel-good, “West Side Highway jam”, backed by flutes and good vibes where he proclaims “look at me, I’m bigger than Nino Brown.”
Another standout from the album is “Gangstas Ain’t Dead” which features Push Montana and Mouse on an old-west influenced beat produced by A-Squared which has major potential to be considered at the very least, a street single for the album. All of the lyricists do their thing, but Maino’s child-hood friend Mouse really shines brightest out of the three on the track.
The singles, which you’ve almost certainly heard. “Cream” with T.I. and Meek Mill, “Let It Fly,” and the Robbie Nova assisted “That Could Be Us,” come one after the other during the album’s second-half. And while the album bounces back and forth between records about living lavish and struggling to find your path and feed your daughter, the conclusion of The Day After Tomorrow packs some heavy punches with some of the Maino’s most introspective songs to date: “Messiah,” “Glad To Be Alive,” and “Day After Tomorrow.”
Overall, Maino has created a mostly well-rounded sophomore album that showcases his maturing as both a man and an artist; two characteristics that are very much present on The Day After Tomorrow. He has certainly prevailed within the lane he’s created with a more narrative approach to rapping then one filled with metaphors and punchlines that many listeners gravitate towards.
After the listening session, Maino sat down with AllHipHop.com to speak on a number of topics. In the first video below, Maino talks to us about his maturing state of mind and the different recording processes he experienced between his first and second albums:
In part two of our interview, Maino talks about the difference between his recently released mixtape, I Am Who I Am, and the album, The Day After Tomorrow, how critical mixtapes can be to an artists’s success, and what he plans on naming his third studio album:
Maino’s The Day After Tomorrow will be in stores on February 28!