The Alchemist & Oh No - The Alchemist & Oh No Present: Welcome to Los Santos (2015)

Welcome To Los Santos is a collection of new songs created by hip-hop producers The Alchemist and Oh No and inspired by the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V — Los Santos being the fictional setting of the gangster-fantasy adventure. Its release comes as part of the promotion for a new PC version of the game out on April 14, and while it sprawls, with 14 songs and more than two dozen vocal acts, it holds together as a modern West Coast rap album, complete with heavy rock, electro and funk influences — as well as the requisite three Freddie Gibbs features.
Alchemist and Oh No worked on the original score to Grand Theft Auto V. On the new album, they produced beats inspired by that earlier work and, as on "Play it Cool," rap alongside Earl Sweatshirt and singer Samuel T. Herring from the band Future Islands. The constituent pieces work sonically: the "Nautilus"-esque beat, Herring's low hook, Sweatshirt's dextrous rap. But what mysterious stuff is Herring singing about? And why is Earl saying the track is like a bike seat? The content seems unconsidered, and the song never jells as a result.
A different weird-on-paper song fares far better: "California" features a veteran rapper who's never fallen off, E-40, with boogie purveyor Dam-Funk and underground pop eccentric Ariel Pink. A grand, spacious piano-rap ballad, it sounds like three people in the same room, on the same laid-back page, smoking the same weed.