Review:

on 2011-09-16 CharlesMartel Said:

Yet more glorification of drugs and drug dealing. In the world of gangsta hip-hop, this is all there is, it would appear. Smacking up your bitch, dealing the dope and hangin with the n*****. What a wonderful theme to write music about again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and a-f*****g-gain! I have been told that these themes are not glorification but commentary. OK, assuming that is true for one second, how many commentaries on this sort of low life lowlife do you need, and how long is it going to take to make them all?

Musically, this has nothing to offer and is just standard rap fare. Rip-offs of others' music (euphemistically called sampling) replaces the tiresome need to learn to play a musical instrument and instead reduces the musician to level of computer programmer. As a result, there is a limited use of instruments, and then in an overly repetitive manner and above all an over-reliance on programmed drum machines. Yep, this is the sort of rap which gives the whole genre a bad name in some quarters. This is the reason why I have struggled long and hard to find anything worthy of praise in the whole damn scene. It has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

As if the music (beats to give it its proper name) were not shallow enough, there is the dreadful mangling of language still to contend with. There is a persistent inability to identify the natural flow and stress of language and incorporate it into the rhythm of the song. Instead, the rhythm and stress of language is ignored when necessary and forced, artificially, into a pre-defined beat which bears no relation to it. The result is a truly dreadful sound, devoid of any lyrical merit whatsoever. The wrong syllables are stressed; breaths are taken at inappropriate moments; consonants are omitted; vowels are lengthened or shortened as and when necessary (imagine listening to an album of verbal manglings like "I am an anarchiste"). Add that fact to the apparent absence of any musical talent and one is left wondering how this can be listened to.

Ultimately, it all comes back to the message. Like so much gangsta, that message is all about the laudable aim in life of two low lives to score big on the drug trade while making sure their woman is treated as little better than a chattel. What a wonderful ideal to look up to! The result is revolting and should leave a sour taste in anyone's mouth. Why anyone thinks that the message, as conveyed in the story of this album, is worthy of anything except a footnote in a prison record is beyond the thought of rational man. If this is truly the future of black musical culture (and I doubt it), if this is what the music of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Smokey Robinson, Jimi Hendrix must be compared with, then there is truly no hope for humanity.
Rating: 1/10

Review:

on 2007-08-01 SunglassesAtNight Said:

if you like this, check out his da vinci album
Rating: 10/10