The April Fools’ mixtape, “Watch the Stove” by Hamburger Helper fooled us all, garnering four million plays on Soundcloud in its first three days. And for good reason – it’s surprisingly alright.

The title of the mixtape parodies Kanye and Jay-Z’s  “Watch the Thrown.”  

The album is accompanied by several music videos that mimic big names in hip-hop, such as Drake.

One video features a scene with a TV screen flashing the ad: “1-800-HOTLEANBEEF.”  

Each track was written by a different up-and-coming Minneapolis artist that was challenged
with writing a song about Hamburger Helper. The result? Five distinct sounds in one mixtape.

The first song, “Feed the Streets,” is a hype song. In fact, I would recommend it for a gym playlist were it not rapping about the pasta from last night you’re trying to work off with your cardio session.

ELISE MITCHELLIts gritty vocals and clever lines are reminiscent of Future, if he only rapped about cooking for his family.

But
 before you dismiss this as “mom rap,” think again. The “parental advisory: delicious content” label on the front guarantees it’s pretty hardcore.

The last song, “In Love with the Glove,” is a mellow track with heavily autotuned lyrics and high reverb, creating an echoed effect that is pretty soothing. If anything, Hamburger Helper did well in catering to a large audience.

However, the middle three tracks: “Crazy,” “Hamburger Helper” and “Food for the Soul,” are sub-par to the high standards set by the first song.

They have generic beats and confusing, irrelevant lyrics.

For example, the song “Hamburger Helper” has a verse that goes: “ Always gotta keep it real/ Never ever kept it fake/ Every year I have a birthday/ Every year I get a cake/ I don’t have to eat it all/ I just have to eat some/ Night time you see the moon/ Daytime you see the sun.”

For a packaged food product, they produced two decent tracks. It’s important to remember this whole album is a marketing tactic attempting to  attract college kids to their product.