On Oct. 28, 2022, Detroit rapper James Johnson III, better known as Babytron, released his second album and twelfth project, “Bin Reaper 3 : Old Testament”. This is his third Halloween themed project,  following “Bin Reaper” and “Bin Reaper 2″. 

As a rapper with a very distinctive style, Babytron is known for his quick bars, constant sports and pop culture references, and his ability to rap on basically any beat (like his song “King of the Galaxy”, where he rapped over 21 beats in less than 5 minutes). “Bin Reaper 3” contains much of the same, with perhaps even more references. However, the album is far from perfect, facing some issues with energy.

To start with the positives: “Bin Reaper 3” is wholly a Babytron album. None of his distinctive style is lost in its 40-minute runtime. Songs like “Drake and Josh”, “15 ’16’ Curry”, and “Airtron” are highlights, featuring the same kind of production and flow that made others and me start listening to him in the first place. 

Although he strays from his usual  electronic-sounding production with “Drake and Josh” – with a much more New York inspired drill beat, and a feature from NY rapper Dougie B– it works. He interestingly blends his rapping style with a completely different type of beat. 

Basketball fans will love “Airtron”, where he references a whopping 15 NBA players/coaches, including some obscure players like Alex English and Peta Stojaković. For the most part, the songs on this album really deliver.

Longtime Babytron fan Cole Morgan, Junior at State High, was less impressed with “Bin Reaper 3″. Acknowledging that Babytron is “the Shakespeare of the rap rhyme game,” he remained unimpressed with the “pretty low energy” and saw it as “kinda repetitive”. These faults led to him to only rate the album a 6.8/10, lower than the other two Bin Reapers, and some of Babytron’s other projects.

While I would personally have to rate the album a bit higher, Cole’s criticism is valid. One of the major issues I had with the album was the lack of higher-energy songs which so often showed up in Babytron’s earlier projects. Songs such as “Top 2 Not 2″, “Myspace”, and “Can You Swim?”, while not objectively bad songs, are a far cry from the songs that made him famous. The lack of energy is disappointing considering this quality in his music is what made so many into fans. So, although the songs aren’t terrible, they don’t compare to the rest of his discography.

Another State High Junior and Babytron fan, Yannick Habiyaremye, had slightly more positive things to say about “Bin Reaper 3″.  “It’s not perfect, but it’s still really good, and I’m gonna be listening to it a lot,” he said. Habiyaremye noted the issues with energy, but his overall rating for the album was an 8/10.

For the final review, I have particular mixed feelings about “Bin Reaper 3″. Although it was overall a fun album to listen to, it certainly ran into some issues, and some songs (looking at you “Myspace”) will not be going on my playlist. It certainly didn’t rank higher than his other projects such as Bin Reapers 1 and 2, or “Megatron”. Nonetheless, the highs of the album outweighed the lows, and it had notably more good songs than bad ones. For this, it deserves an 8/10.