Heavy Hedonism and Four Other Takeaways From Offset’s ‘Set It Off’ – Rolling Stone

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Since mid-2022, heavy news and speculation have followed Offset. Rumblings of tension among his rap group Migos began when Quavo and Takeoff set off as a duo that May and continued even after Takeoff was tragically murdered last November. In recent months, things began to look lighter: He and Quavo reunited for a tribute to Takeoff at the BET Awards in June; in July, he dropped “Jealousy,” a jolting single with his wife, Cardi B, and released a cinematic self-directed video along with it; and in September, he joined Twitch streamer Kai Cenat for wacky antics on camera for 24 hours. “Thank you bro I haven’t had fun like this in life in a long time bro I needed that in my life,” Offset told Cenat after their weekend together. “Been so serious for so long.”

“Jealousy” and the Cenat stream were part of the lead-up to Set It Off, Offset’s first solo album since 2019’s Father of 4. Its 21 tracks are often disparate, with production from Southside, ChaseTheMoney, Boi-1da, Metro Boomin, and a score of other beatsmiths. Though the album sounds piecemeal, it’s united by themes of solitude, sex, and friction. 

Offset Is Embracing Solo Status

From the album intro onward, Offset does not just assert his lone-wolfdom, he champions it. “I’m telling the truth, I became the one when I got out the group,” he raps swiftly on “On the River.” Though in contract disputes, Offset has indicated that he bought the rights to his solo music from Migos label Quality Control, leading to legal and public spats with the label leadership (Set It Off is released by Offset and Motown, according to label copy documents shared with Rolling Stone), Quavo hinted that their divide was more personal. “We stand on real deal, real-deal loyalty, and sometimes that shit ain’t displayed,” Quavo said on Revolt TV’s Big Facts podcast. “This ain’t got nothing to do with no label, no paperwork, no QC, nothing. This got something to do with the three brothers.” 

There’s also often a dark side to being alone — loneliness — that seems to rear its head on songs like “Don’t You Lie,” “I’m On,” and perhaps most viscerally, on the album’s penultimate and final tracks, “Upside Down” and “Healthy.” “Fuck it I’m by myself,” he relents on the former. “Wasn’t expecting a handout, I wanted some help/They gotta know how I felt.”

The Vibes Are Confrontational

“Upside Down,” a particularly vulnerable song, also wrestles with anger that may be manifesting as bloodlust across the album. In a hushed but frantic refrain, Offset tries to calm himself: “Don’t do it do him,” he repeats with interjections of “Fuck it do it to him!” There are ever-present motifs of violence and vengeance, with songs like “Big Dawg” and “Skyami” as block-spinning soundtracks. The threats on “Night Vision” might be boldest and also the most pointed, where Offset admits to missing the Migos days and how his strife in the face of Takeoff’s death feeds his brutality: “Nights I wanted to cry why them niggas blaming me,” he raps at one point. “Thinking bout spinnin’ bout my brotha Take that shit been eating me/I can’t get no peace when I be sleep, be seeing demons,” he adds shortly after. 

Takeoff nor Quavo Appear on the Album, but a Host of Others Do

Offset’s album is two years in the making, according to representatives. His Migos bandmates aren’t featured on it, though there are bars in tribute to Takeoff, including one by Travis Scott on “Say My Grace.” In recent days, Offset has said a musical reunion with Quavo is possible and that the two are on good terms. “That’s my brother at the end of the day,” he told The Breakfast Club. “We be talking because we be going through little emotions with this shit, and it don’t be for the public. Everything ain’t for the public to be kiki-ing. We still gotta move in our own worlds. It’s all love at the end of the day. We lost a brother; we can’t rock out.” He also emphasized the importance of him making his own name in music.

Still, he’s accompanied by five fellow Atlantans (Future, Latto, Yung Nudy, Chlöe Bailey, and the lesser-known Mango Foo, a Quality Control signee) as well Don Toliver and Cardi B. Chlöe on her gangster shit here is particularly surprising and enjoyable, as is Mango Foo’s urgent seek-and-destroy bars on “Skyami.”

The Hedonism Is Heavy

About a third of the album’s 21 tracks range from romantic to pseudo-romantic to freaky with one aptly titled as such. Set It Off is steeped with songs about women, most often as sources of challenge and pleasure. “Worth It” and “Dissolve” lean more on the loving side, though “Worth It” especially treads deep into money-can-buy-love territory. There’s also tricking galore on “Fine as Can Be” with Latto, where she takes it to another level when she raps, “Already bought me every color Birkin, now I want the stocks and properties.” “Princess Cut” with Chlöe Bailey is a standout among these, blending love and lust thoroughly and making the singer just as gritty as Offset as she coos his hook herself the third time it comes around.

This Is Another Kind of Family Affair
The Migos ethos was one of family, with Offset treated like a cousin to blood relatives Quavo and Takeoff and often referred to as such. And as happens in families, the mechanics of the relationships got muddied in tragedy. Offset has always emphasized his enthrallment with his immediate family too, which includes five children and wife Cardi. His first album was even named for his fatherhood. While Offset’s raps on Set It Off drip with paranoia and feelings of desertion, he conveys a feeling of loyalty when talking about a romantic partner, assumedly Cardi, on “Dissolve.” “You had my back with them n–s had turned on me, Something I never forget,” he says in one verse. Its nice to hear him at ease. “Let’s have a bite and move around the world,” he says later. “Still a little sweet ol’ girl.” Cardi appears on both “Freaky” and “Jealousy,” along with their children in the music video.