Judging from my previous posts about them, I appear to be a pretty big fan of the Virginia rap duo Clipse, or at least I'm not completely sick of their dependence on cocaine raps just yet. So while it makes sense that I'm taking my time getting through their many mixtapes (as Hip Hop Isn't Dead hasn't reviewed that many mixtapes to begin with), you may still be wondering why it took me so long to write about their third album, Til The Casket Drops.
I have a couple of reasons, actually.
First of all, I wasn't very thrilled when Pusha T and Malice announced that their third album would not be fully produced by their friends The Neptunes. As their previous two efforts (and their unreleased album, Exclusive Audio Footage) had only featured beats by the Neptunes, this wasn't welcoming news. I pride myself in being able to roll with the punches and adapt very easily, but this move didn't sound like a very fruitful one for the brothers Thornton. It's kind of like how Wu stans still wish that The RZA would get behind the boards and produce for his crew: I accept that things change, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't prefer for them not to. Pharrell and Chad still receive eight production credits on Til The Casket Drops, which leaves only five remaining tracks to parcel out to outside help, but it's still not the same.
Secondly, I wasn't at all thrilled with the lead-off singles. While the rest of the blogging world thrust their arms upward and swung them about as if they were unaffected by any of their cares or concerns at the mere idea of a collaboration between the Clipse and Kanye West, I remained neutral, as, for some strange reason, I had convinced myself that it wouldn't make the proper album anyway. (Irrational, I know, but it is what it is.) And the first actual single, "I'm Good", fucking sucked. Oh my God, it was awful. Pusha and Malice (with an assist from Pharrell) attempted to craft the feel-good single of the year, and it failed miserably for me. Aside from the fact that the track itself sounded forced, the actual music lacked the traits that the duo's previous singles, such as "Grindin'" and "Mr. Me Too", printed like counterfeit money in the basement: namely, those two songs were fucking catchy, whereas "I'm Good" was not. This turned me off from the project in its entirety...until now, as I noticed that my local library actually had a copy of Til The Casket Drops in stock.
Maybe this will all sound better when heard within its intended context.
1. FREEDOM
Jay-Z's American Gangster producers Sean C & LV's beat informs listeners that Til The Casket Drops won't sound anything like Lord Willin' or Hell Hath No Fury, and if you're still not yet convinced, Pusha T's opening verse is far more lyrical than the standard coke raps that you have been expecting. Although Pusha T and Malice have never been slouches in the writing department, they are consistently overlooked because of their usual subject matter. “Freedom” seems to showcase the brothers Thornton proclaiming their, well, freedom from being pigeonholed, and they do very well at establishing mic dominance, even if the beat itself is counter-intuitive.
2. POPULAR DEMAND (POPEYE'S) (FEAT CAM'RON & PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
Blogs also threw their nonexistent arms up in praise when this Neptunes-produced track, featuring a cameo from Killa Cam, was originally announced. The question is: why? Who exactly was fiending for the Clipse to appear alongside an artist who was best known (at that point) for beefing with Curtis Jackson and then promptly vanishing from the game for an extended period of time? Huh? This song doesn't hit as hard as the duo's other collaborations with the Neptunes; as such, this merely sounds alright. Pusha T's first verse is funny, but the rest of this is only serviceable. Also, why hasn't anybody talked about how Pharrell's non-sequitur-filled chorus sounds like it was inspired by the notebooks of "Kool" Keith Thornton (no relation to the Clipse)?
3. KINDA LIKE A BIG DEAL (FEAT KANYE WEST)
So far, Til The Casket Drops isn't having much of an impact on my subconscious, and a collaboration with Kanye West probably won't change my mind, especially since I'm one of those purists that looked at the project warily when Pusha T and Malice announced that Pharrell and Chad would not be handling all of the beats. (DJ Khalil supplies background duty on here.) I'm willing to bet that 'Ye, huge Will Ferrell fan that he is (have you ever paid attention to some of his lyrics?), probably gave the song its Anchorman-inspired title. Yeezy turns on the charm (in a performance recorded long before he needed to start apologizing to Taylor Swift) and walks away with the track, while Pusha and Malice deliver slightly off-kilter bars close enough together to constitute verses. Still, this was much better than the Popeye's commercial masquerading as the previous song.
4. SHOWING OUT (FEAT YO GOTTI & PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
There aren't many rappers who would dare to throw references to both Lady Gaga and David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button within a few bars of each other, but there also aren't many rappers named Pusha T who can pull it off swimmingly. The Neptunes beat annoys at first, with its record-being-spun-backward effect distracting the listener (think Ghostface's “Stroke of Death”, but more carefree), but when the hook begins, so do some hard drums, waking you the fuck up. Guest star Yo Gotti, who spends a chunk of his verse explaining how he ended up on a Clipse song in the first place, sounds too much like Young Jeezy for him to ever have much of an impact on hip hop. However, his line about joining the “millionaire boys club” (he should have said “billionaire”, as that is/was what Pharrell calls his crew) and being issued “a box of baking soda and a skateboard” was fucking hilarious.
5. I'M GOOD (FEAT PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
For someone who isn't producing every song on Til The Casket Drops, Pharrell sure does pop up a lot on the project, doesn't he? Turns out I was right: even when heard within its proper context, "I'm Good" still sounds as underwhelming today as it did when it first hit the blogs. I'm not against the brothers Thornton branching out and having a positive outlook on life for once, but this was not the best vehicle for such forced optimism. Skateboard P sticks with providing vocals (it's arguable whether this is preferable to him rapping an actual verse). While there is nothing technically wrong with this track, I was left feeling hollow, as if the Clipse played the song as a diversion while they stole my kidneys. No thanks, guys; “I'm Good” just isn't any good.
6. THERE WAS A MURDER (FEAT KOBE)
The first minute and eighteen seconds of this, the ultimate no-snitching anthem, is devoted to the vocals of Kobe, who adequately sets the unapologetic tone: things are most certainly not good anymore. Both Pusha and Malice adopt mild Jamaican accents for their crime tale, which concentrates more on the aftermath than the actual act, and they somehow make it work. DJ Khalil's beat keeps the train moving along steadily as well. This was unexpected, although the Clipse have done much better in the past; this won't be blasting out of my car stereos anytime soon.
7. DOOR MAN
Anyone who has enough money to pile it upon the roof of a building, in hopes of toppling said building, has way too much time on their hands, as they're obviously daydreaming about revenge fantasies that stopped making sense three exits prior. So yeah, the hook on here is pretty stupid. This shit was also far too long for me to continue giving a damn. However, I am glad that the Clipse didn't take the easy way out by sampling Leslie Mann's dialogue with Craig Robinson from Knocked Up.
8. NEVER WILL IT STOP (FEAT AB LIVA)
The brothers Thornton graciously invite the only other guy in the Re-Up Gang that they're still on speaking terms with, using a Sean C & LV instrumental as their neutral territory. Ab Liva definitely made the right choice: although I can understand Sandman's position, he won't be going anywhere with his career, whereas Liva will at least be guaranteed a guest verse here and there (and, of course, occasional paychecks) on any Clipse project. It's too bad that this song was pedestrian at best.
9. ALL EYES ON ME (FEAT KERI HILSON)
The Clipse try to return to the clubs after the success of their “When The Last Time”, a song that they don't even like to perform anymore (as is my understanding). Anyway, this Neptunes beat goes a long way toward making this shit mildly entertaining, but the words used to form the sentences make Pusha and Malice sound like every other rapper in existence. Keri Hilson's cameo on the hook, recorded when the music industry seemed to believe her to be the next big thing (although that hasn't panned out yet, she'll probably get more than a few second chances, given that she's cute and all), was also unnecessary: they could have gotten absolutely anybody else to perform her part without altering the flow of the song. Points deducted for trying to inadvertently remind listeners of a certain 2Pac double album with the title. The instrumental may be interesting to track down on its own, but this shit sucked otherwise.
10. COUNSELING (FEAT NICOLE HURST & PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
I wish they stuck with the coke raps. At least I wouldn't have been subjected to this shit, which sounds like a Kanye West outtake as filtered through our hosts. Moving on...
11. CHAMPION
Will forever be known as the point where Max lost his faith in Til The Casket Drops. The Clipse have done a great job acclimating to hip hop as it sounds today, but they've blended in too well, and now they sound just like the bullshit they're rallying against.
12. FOOTSTEPS (FEAT KOBE)
The marriage between DJ Khalil's beat and the lyrics was a move in the right direction, as this was fairly enjoyable, but then the Auto-Tuned Kobe hook kicks in, having an adverse effect. It actually took me out of the song, making me realize that the track itself was constructed in such a paint-by-numbers manner that there was no way it could ever truly entertain anybody. Of course, most music recorded today is like that, but it depressed me more coming from the Clipse.
13. LIFE CHANGE (FEAT PHARRELL WILLIAMS & KENNA)
I hated this song, too. Man, I'm glad this exercise in futility is finally over. (Side note: I understand that Chad's apprentice Kenna apparently appears on this song, so it's a testament to the overt awfulness of this track that I didn't give much of a damn.)
THE LAST WORD: Even though it's only thirteen tracks long (with no skits, thankfully), Til The Casket Drops seems to last at least four times as long. For the first time, the Clipse have turned the act of listening to their music into a fucking chore, as nothing on here jumps out at you like even the worst songs on the previous two (or three, depending on how you're counting) albums. (I'm thinking specifically of “Trill” from Hell Hath No Fury, which sounded awful, but at least Pusha and Malice seemed to have a specific direction in mind when they recorded it.) The shift away from the Neptunes songs would be one of my major complaints, had the Neptunes contributions that actually made the album sounded any good, but the fact that there were other cooks in the kitchen force the obvious criticism: Til The Casket Drops doesn't sound anywhere near cohesive. Pusha T and Malice appear to feel that they don't have to put in much effort anymore, and more often than not they're simply treading lyrical water. Why critics heaped praise upon Til The Casket Drops is a mystery to me: nothing on here will give new listeners a reason to give a rat's ass about the Clipse. Which is a fucking shame, as they're usually really good. Usually. Everyone has an off day, I guess, but another release such as this one will put the nail into the titular casket containing their career. Artistic growth is acceptable when done naturally: you can't go from cocaine raps straight to “I'm Good” and “All Eyes On Me” without fucking up somewhere. (And yes, I realize that those tracks also reference cocaine, but compare those two songs to their earlier catalog and tell me I'm wrong.) Consider Til The Casket Drops their huge misstep that can be ignored without regret.
-Max
RELATED POSTS:
Catch up on the Clipse by clicking here.
Business Never Personal was the fourth full-length album from Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith, doing business as EPMD (along with their deejay, DJ Scratch). It would ultimately be the duo's undoing, as EPMD disbanded shortly after the disc hit store shelves. While they ultimately ended up back together (unlike many of their hip hop peers, such as Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Eric B. & Rakim, and Gang Starr (R.I.P. Guru)), back in 1992 fans accepted this news with a heavy heart.
My understanding of the situation is as follows: during the recording of Business Never Personal (which was intended as a response to the crappy reviews received by their previous effort, Business As Usual), PMD's house was broken in to, and through a series of unfortunate coincidences, he started to believe that Erick Sermon orchestrated the robbery (as one of the thieves dropped Sermon's name to police upon his arrest, which could just mean that he was cognizant of whose home he was invading). E Double, for his part, denied it, but started complaining of EPMD's financial mismanagement anyway, which only made him look even more guilty. Things even got heated on the set while they were shooting a video for their single "Head Banger". As a result, Erick and Parrish ceased making dollars together, and they both went their solo and separate ways.
But before all of that could happen, Business Never Personal (a title that could be taken as a sly dig from one member to the other, and it works in either direction) had to be mastered and released. Erick and Parrish used this project to get back to the basics, something that they had managed to avoid after dropping their debut, Strictly Business. This time around, they elected to hone their combined musical talents, mixing samples together and creating never-before-heard sounds for their rhymes to make sweet buttery love to. For his part, PMD built upon his past efforts and amped up his writing game, while Erick Sermon stuck to the status quo, which wasn't as big of a deal, since people actually liked the status quo.
Business Never Personal was also designed to boost the careers of the members of their Hit Squad, a loose collective of rappers who all fell under the general EPMD umbrella. K-Solo, he who still doesn't know how to spell the word "bird", had actually dropped two solo albums (with production handled by both Sermon and PMD) before Business Never Personal hit the stores, and PMD's boys Das EFX saw their Dead Serious rise on the Billboard charts about three months prior to this release. Future contender for one of the best who ever did it, Redman, turned in a classic performance that led directly into his Def Jam debut, Whut? Thee Album, which came out two months afterward. (The Hit Squad also consisted of such names as Hurricane G (Sermon's baby's mother) and the Knucklehedz, an unfortunate casualty of the EPMD breakup who saw their debut album shelved indefinitely. But neither of those names appear on Business Never Personal, so that's that.)
Business Never Personal earned Def Jam Records yet another golden plaque, but its success was overshadowed by the public breakup of its parents. That's a story that I plan on getting into another time, though. For today, it's time to focus on the business at hand.
1. BOON DOX
Business Never Personal kicks off with an immediately engaging hardcore instrumental, and Parrish launches into an aggressive missive that forgets that the previous three EPMD albums ever fucking happened. E Double's verse is much more nostalgic, in that elements from a couple of their previous hits sneak their way into the beat for cameo appearances. Combined with the scratching from, um, DJ Scratch, “Boon Dox” makes for a pitch-perfect way to reintroduce EPMD back into the hip hop fold. It's almost good enough to make me forget about their excursions into shitty house music.
2. NOBODY'S SAFE CHUMP
This track lasts just long enough for both Erick and Parrish to spit out one verse apiece. The instrumental wasn't bad at all, and this exercise in minimalism plays out much better than the bloated affairs that threaten to take over EPMD's back catalog. P's hardcore delivery combined with Erick Sermon's stoner attitude provide the perfect contract for one another.
3. CAN'T HEAR NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC
During his first verse, Parrish Smith sounds like a fucking psychopath, but that isn't a compliment: his rhymes don't have much going for them, given that he seems to be reciting unrelated sentences in the style of an Ultramagnetic MC, which doesn't suit him. E Double also sounds bored as fuck over this weak, incomplete-sounding beat. Well, it didn't take long for Business Never Personal to take a nosedive.
4. CHILL
Oh wait, I spoke too soon. The beat on “Chill” is fucking amazing: E and PMD manipulate the samples so that the end result sounds like the theme music for one of those science modules that you had to watch back in junior high. (Speaking of which, have the two of you in the States ever watched the British series Look Around You? It's fucking hilarious.) Thankfully, this is not a direct sequel to the EPMD standard “You Gots Too Chill”: this is its own man, and both Erick and Parrish sound like the veterans that they truly were at this point, delivering pointed rhymes and exerting dominance over a genre that was sorely lacking direction at this point. This was pretty amazing.
5. HEAD BANGER (FEAT K-SOLO & REDMAN)
Quite possibly The best posse cut EPMD has ever been a part of, thanks to the brilliant guest appearance of a young Reggie Noble at the end. The instrumental is a masterpiece (even if its potency has been diluted by the Ruff Ryders and their obvious homage “Ryde Or Die”, which uses the same beat and a similar chorus), and both Erick and Parrish sound refreshed making their dollars alongside two of their weed carriers (which they technically were at the time). EPMD have been using Business Never Personal to forcefully snatch hip hop out of its nightmare, and this song is the chocolate icing on the yellow cake of awesomeness, even if Redman's verse is partially censored in a curious manner (the selective censorship issue is actually prevalent throughout the entire album). This shit is great.
6. SCRATCH BRING IT BACK, PT. 2 - MIC DOC
Although the title would lead listeners to believe otherwise, this isn't a deejay cut: this proves to be more of a showcase for PMD, although the Green Eyed Bandit gets to spit the first verse. DJ Scratch, who produces, gets an opportunity to shine toward the end, but the fact that PMD pops up to spit some truly shitty lyrics (by design) before Erick convinces him to bring it over a much harder instrumental (the overused-but-still-hot Melvin Bliss (R.I.P.) track “Synthetic Substitution” comes into play) leaves no room for misunderstanding whose showcase this is. (For those of you who are wondering whatever happened to Part 1 of this apparent series, it appears as the B-side on the twelve-inch single for “Head Banger”.)
7. CROSSOVER
This song, which is an attack on rappers who deliberately sell out to gain a pop audience and sell more copies of their shitty albums, actually was a crossover hit in its own right. In fact, according to the Interweb, this song was the biggest of EPMD's career. Which would be ironic if this song were any good. It isn't bad by any means: the beat itself is pretty head nod-inducing, and neither E nor PMD compromise their integrity to do what the title suggests. No, for me it's the sampled hook, which, under normal non-reviewing circumstances, I can never sit through, as my immediate gut reaction is to hit the 'next' button, I hate it that fucking much. It is what it is.
8. CUMMIN' AT CHA (FEAT DAS EFX)
Technically, this song isn't terrible either, but it still feels hollow. Building its chorus off of a Sen Dog sound bite (from Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill A Man"), this track rides along a dull thump of an instrumental for E, PMD, and Hit Squad affiliates Das EFX to spit uninspired rhymes to, boring their audience into an early grave. That's all I got, folks. Moving on...
9. PLAY THE NEXT MAN
EPMD win back their audience with this sleeper agent of a banger, which is so good that I can actually look past Erick Sermon's New Kids On The Block reference during his first verse. The instrumental is engaging as fuck, and both E and PMD revive their playful-yet-menacing flows that made Strictly Business so goddamn entertaining. A nice surprise.
10. IT'S GOING DOWN
Meh.
11. WHO KILLED JANE?
Business Never Personal ends with the inferior fourth installment in the "Jane" series of songs. The lyrics on here are almost laughably poor (PMD: “Slow down...something's missing, where's my lawyer? / Cop grilled me and said, 'There's your lawyer'”, with Erick playing the cop. Really, guys?), but kudos to these two for consistency and at least trying to take the story down the road less traveled, even though this particular chapter goes nowhere. You never get to find out who killed Jane anyway, so you don't ever need to actually listen to this track, even though Parrish Smith shoots the police officer that's been harassing him at the end. Given the fact that Erick Sermon plays the crooked cop and that EPMD broke up shortly after the release of this album, ego trip's Big Book of Rap Lists speculated that this song was foreshadowing for the duo's split. They probably weren't that far off the mark.
FINAL THOUGHTS: It's a shame that EMPD ended the recording sessions of Business Never Personal not trusting each other, because this is their best and most consistent effort since their debut. There are no excursions into hip-house or ridiculous public service announcements on here: instead, Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith focus on keeping their hardcore fans satiated while helping build the careers of a few of their close friends. The beats on Business Never Personal are almost unflinchingly engaging, encompassing the very idea of what EPMD stands for with each drum hit. The creative use of samples proves that E and PMD have only gotten better since their debut: I'm now convinced that the direction the previous two albums took was dictated by the label. Business Never Personal sees Erick and Parrish leaving on a high note, although there aren't any real hints on here of any pending separation (save for the final seconds of the last track, perhaps?), so their eventual reunion was actually highly anticipated, as opposed to existing just so Erick and Parrish could rewrite their own history. To put it succinctly: this shit was nice.
BUY OR BURN? While I think you should absolutely buy this shit, it can be hard to come across: it's currently out or print, and there are no plans for a re-release. However, EPMD was at the top of their game on here, a height that they have yet to achieve in the current phase of their career. So if you happen upon it, don't forget that it is your duty to buy this shit: you will enjoy it.
BEST TRACKS: “Head Banger”; “Chill”; “Boon Dox”; “Nobody's Safe Chump”; “Play The Next Man”
-Max
RELATED POSTS:
Catch up on EPMD's catalog by clicking here.
Troubled young rapper Jayceon Taylor, who used to be known as The Game until he dropped the article recently, released what was to be his third and final major label album LAX in 2008. But in order to understand the project on its own terms, it's best to rewind a bit.
After signing to Interscope Records and lucking into a contract with Dr. Dre's Aftermath vanity label (an agreement that only happened after Interscope head Jimmy Iovine was debating whether to drop the young upstart or keep him, ultimately convincing Curtis Jackson to take him under his wing in an effort to guarantee record sales), The Game alienated damn near every single person that had ever worked with him, as he has a tendency to take even the smallest petty beefs seriously. His debut, The Documentary, sounded entirely different from his follow-up, The Doctor's Advocate, and that not just because Dr. Dre had nothing to do with the latter project: as he gained more experience in our chosen genre, he tried his hand at actually writing songs, as opposed to the simple shit-talking that became more and more prevalent on his mixtapes. Failing that, though, Jayceon resorted to what he knew best: dropping pop culture references within a sea of insults and threats, and wrapping those elements around a poorly-conceived hook.
LAX was to be Game's final contribution to the cause merely because he felt that he had nothing more to say, so if you could please ignore his multiple mixtapes after the fact and the upcoming The RED Album, he would appreciate it, thanks. In that respect, he pulled out all the stops, doing his best to gather an all-star motley crew of collaborators from all over the hip hop spectrum (but not those from his past: although they garner many a mention on LAX, neither Dr. Dre nor anybody from G-Unit make appearances, which isn't all that surprising). He even managed to score a minor hit and move some units. However, LAX was poorly received from critics and most of Jayceon's own fans, who used LAX as their reason to stop following their hero, who was supposed to be bringing West Coast gangsta rap into the new millennium.
So why is this a Gut Reaction post and not a regular review? The easy answer is that I didn't care about LAX when it dropped. I followed Game's career via his mixtapes (which, at this point, were winding down from the numerous attacks on G-Unit and Curtis Jackson specifically), but the songs that actually hit radio airwaves were not very interesting to me. The fact that the overexposed Lil' Wayne, who still garners approximately seventy-six blog posts a day even though he's in prison, appeared on the hit song "My Life" was probably also a factor, if I'm being honest with you two: the moment his Auto-Tuned voice hit the chorus, I changed the channel with a quickness.
As such, this is the first time I've ever listened to LAX. Am I going to like it? It's too soon to tell, but odds are that you two will already know my answer.
1. INTRO (FEAT DMX)
You know what's a fantastic idea? Taking an obsolete rapper, placing him up front, and forcing him to spout religious bullshit that could potentially alienate a good chunk of your audience. Great work, Earl. You can crawl back into your cave now.
2. LAX FILES
Jayceon leads listeners to believe that LAX Starts off with a sobering meditation on death, even going so far as to ask everyone to imagine how he felt when he was in his coma (the one from which he woke up and decided to rap, without any consideration for that career choice occurring beforehand). J.R. Rotem's slow-rolling beat even adds to that imagery (save for the air horn). But then The Game threatens anybody and everybody who even thinks about going into his hood. Mixed messages are common in Jayceon's work, but this is one of the most blatant examples. It appears as though he even threatens Larenz Tate at one point. And then he calls himself Starface, in a reference to the tattoos he has on his face. In the words of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers: really?
3. STATE OF EMERGENCY (FEAT ICE CUBE)
Game spins a yarn about “a hood n---a with no direction”, but that description also applies to this J.R. Rotem-produced track, which is so aimless with its narrative that it might as well be Richard Linklater's Slacker. (Although I like Slacker, so that comparison doesn't really work for me.) I see that Jayceon invited one of the godfathers of West Coast rap to the party and then immediately assigned him coat check duites: Ice Cube only provides half of a hook (half!), and he has to suffer the dual indignities of Game disrespecting his “Once Upon A Time In The Projects” for personal gain and the shout-outs to his former Westside Connection coworker-turned-sworn enemy Mack 10. This was pretty forgettable.
4. BULLETPROOF DIARIES (FEAT RAEKWON)
Wins the award of the most surprising and yet most pointless collaborative effort on LAX. (I'll try not to get started on the fact that the “bulletproof” half of the title should actually apply to Ghostface Killah and not Raekwon, thanks to Bulletproof Wallets.) Unlike poor Doughboy on the previous song, the Chef actually gets to spit a verse, one which sounds decent enough but would come across clearer with better production. The Game is obviously thankful that Rae returned his calls, as he spends his first verse referencing random Wu-Tang Clan trivia (his mention of The RZA's pointy rings made me laugh), but ultimately this song should have been a lot more interesting. This doesn't bode well for the rest of LAX.
5. MY LIFE (FEAT LIL' WAYNE)
This song, which was one of the singles, begins with a violent thirty-second skit that obviously wouldn't make it to radio airwaves. Two things that annoy me about this song: guest Lil' Wayne's overuse of Auto-Tune on the chorus, and The Game's heavy use of pop culture references that make up the majority of his verses. (“I ain't no preacher, but here's my Erick Sermon”? That shit doesn't even make sense, son!) The original version of the song, readily available on the Interweb, featured a second verse that many interpreted as a direct shot at Eminem. He should have left it in: I don't think The Game would ever win any sort of battle with Marshall, but that would have made the track (which was a hit, sadly) far more fascinating than what we ended up with. Also, we wouldn't have ended up with the Erick Sermon line, as that was a last-minute switch-up.
6. MONEY
The Game turns in his attempt at providing the theme song for Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (my God is that a goofy title), failing to understand that Wall Street is located in New York and not California. Foiled again! Jayceon's ode to the almighty dollar can't help but sound hopelessly generic: there are only so many ways to talk about money without coming across as derivative. Cool & Dre's beat (those guys are still around?) wasn't completely horrible, although the vocal sample repeating the song's title straddles the line between passable and grating, but Game wasn't even trying to come up with anything clever. Hell, even the song's fucking title is nondescript.
7. CALI SUNSHINE (FEAT BILAL)
I get it: Game really loves his home state. But so do a lot of people, such as Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg (also known today as the King of the Gummi Bears). Why hasn't there ever been an ode to fucking North Dakota? You guys need to get on that shit. As to why Jayceon chose to kick off a California anthem with some facts about Jazze Pha and Curtis Jackson, two artists (using that term loosely here) who have no Cali ties, I'm not sure, but he ends his second verse promising to help any rapper (that he actually likes) get their chain back after they are inevitably robbed underneath all of that California sunshine. Bilal, who contributes only the poorly-written hook, fails to convince anybody to hop on a plane and visit the Golden State.
8. YA HEARD (FEAT LUDACRIS)
The goofy beat, which I imagine came to fruition after one of the engineers accidentally spilled his Shasta on the equipment, and the guest appearance from Ludacris help “Ya Heard” establish itself as both the best song on LAX. Thus far, and as completely and entirely disconnected from the rest of the album as humanly possible. Jayceon still hasn't figured out how to write a verse without the crutch of name-dropping, which means these songs will sound even more dated next year than they do today during my first listen, two years removed from its original release date. But this could have been worse, although I'm still convinced that Game has lost his way since The Documentary.
9. HARD LIQUOR (INTERLUDE)
Didn't Game have an unreleased Dr. Dre-produced song called “Hard” or “Hard Liquor” hit the Interweb around the time The Documentary dropped? Because I'm almost certain that he uses that exact song in the background during this useless skit (that also seems to feature Nas for some reason). I hope Andre received some royalties for this shit...oh wait, nobody really bought LAX. Oh well, carry on.
10. HOUSE OF PAIN
Game sounds like both Dre and Nas on this track. Considering the fact that Dre and Esco don't really sound anything alike, this was quite the feat in the art of mimicry, no matter how inadvertent it may be on Jayceon's part. DJ Toomp's beat isn't bad at all: a better rapper (for instance, Xzibit) could have turned this shit into something good. Game manages a decent enough performance, but I'm growing tired of him hitting all of the exact same points on every fucking song.
11. GENTLEMAN”S AFFAIR (FEAT NE-YO)
The Game's requisite “song for the ladies”, in that he spends the track's duration describing various sex acts he would like to perform on your girl and her friends, pretty please? Crooner Ne-Yo gets more screen time than one would anticipate, but that isn't any sort of endorsement: other artists have made far better sex raps. J.R. Rotem's beat is par for the course, in that it sounds as plain as the rest of LAX thus far. Jayceon should have his ear for beats checked.
12. LET US LIVE (FEAT CHRISETTE MICHELE)
At this point, Jayceon seems to have realized that he has come nowhere near providing the audience with anything resembling an entertaining album, so to rectify this, Game hires Chrisette Michele, the go-to R&B hook singer of the week, and utterly wastes her. The lyrics on here are all ugly, causing the audience to desert, and the Scott Storch (that guy's still around?) , among his worst ever, doesn't help much. At least Game explains why he isn't actually upset with Mobb Deep and M.O.P., even though they got lumped into his tirade against G-Unit because they were, well, a part of G-Unit at the time. That was oddly mature of him.
13. TOUCHDOWN (FEAT RAHEEM DEVAUGHN)
“Radio” Raheem turns this sexual excursion of a song into his own effort: The Game's gimmicky verses (which are decidedly not about football, although Eli Manning scores a mention for some reason) are quickly forgotten with the passage of time. Actually, everything about this song sucks, so I'm surprised that I've used so many words on it. Moving on...
14. ANGEL (FEAT COMMON)
Not many albums would have the balls to feature both Ice Cube and Common in cameo roles, mainly because those two artists play to wildly different audiences. (I'm sure the past beef between those two had nothing to do with it.) Lonnie Lynn actually gets a verse, though, so he wins again! His inclusion only seems to occur so Jayceon has an excuse to branch out and talk about Chicago instead of California, but this Kanye West-helmed track isn't that bad, mostly because Common goes out of his way to adapt to his host's surroundings.
15. NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE (FEAT LATOYA WILLIAMS)
AN artistic gamble that blows up in our host 's face. After a heavy-handed explanation as to what the song is about (the deaths of 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eazy-E), The Game uses one verse for each late rapper, pretending to actually be those guys during their last moments of life. Bonus points for sticking with the theme, as his random name-dropping actually makes sense on here, and it helps set the scene accordingly. The song was ultimately too creepy to work for me (and Game's Biggie imitation was appalling, especially as he chooses not to mimic 2Pac and Eazy: is this the beginning of the second phase in the East Coast/West Coast war?), and I feel it will sound polarizing for the two of you, as well.
16. DOPE BOYS (FEAT TRAVIS BARKER)
This appears to be the only track on LAX with a sound that grabs you immediately. I anticipate the instrumental (crafted by a committee featuring 1500 or Nothin', DJ Quik, and Travis Barker himself) eventually being uses to score movie trailers and sporting events, Fort Minor-style. Lyrically, however, the song is an incoherent mess, as the topics range wildly from taking a sly potshot at Dr. Dre (this man absolutely knows how to hold a grudge) to, if taken literally, fucking a girl through her bellybutton, Tommy Wiseau-style. (Because rap lyrics are always supposed to be taken literally.) The hook is also not very well thought out: it's obvious that Jay-Z's “Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...)” was the main inspiration, but Jayceon and Barker (hip hop's second drummer of choice, the first one being ?uestlove) only half-remembered the opening line of the chorus and Sweded the rest.
17. GAME'S PAIN (FEAT KEYSHIA COLE)
The first single, I think: it may have also been called just “Pain” before Game's narcissistic urges took over. There isn't much talk of any sort of pain, though: “Game's Pain” touches only on the history of hip hop as viewed through our host's limited perspective. Keyshia Cole's chorus is technically proficient, but terrible nonetheless, mainly because there is no soul behind her vocals: she was merely a singer-for-hire on here. Actually, the more I think about this shit, the more it pisses me off: what the fuck is with the misleading title, Jayceon? I knew he was an asshole, but resorting to such misdirection was a low blow. (Of course, I fully admit that I may have missed the lone mention of a scuffed knee or something.)
18. LETTER TO THE KING (FEAT NAS)
For the final song on LAX, The Game ditches any idea of subtlety and speaks directly to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in an attempt to be serious, a tactic that sounds false coming from the same guy who spent the rest of the album threatening to kill his enemies, rape their women, and partake of their foodstuffs. This kind of song works much better for guest star Nas, who seems to be embarrassed to be in the same musical category as our host, but he does what he can. I don't know what caused Game to turn all socially conscious all of a sudden, but I trust that this probably won't be happening much in the future.
19. OUTRO (FEAT DMX)
Hey, DMX collected two paychecks for his work on LAX. I hope that money goes to good use, and not to cocaine or pocket-sized pit bulls or some shit.
There is a deluxe version of LAX that features a few extra songs, one of which was even released as a single (“Camera Phone”, featuring Ne-Yo once again), but I don't have that one, nor do I care to. I think what I listened to was plenty.
THE LAST WORD: Much of LAX sounds so vapid, empty, and soulless that it's hard to tell if The Game was simply fucking with us or not. LAX is a study of disconnection: specifically between the different tracks themselves and between Jayceon and reality. He claims to be widely hated in hip hop and lashes out at anybody who he believes to have wronged him, although (a) he has not reached the same levels of success after burning bridges with Dr. Dre and Curtis Jackson (although he has started the reconciliation process with the former, I understand), and (b) for someone who claims to have no friends, a whole lot of motherfuckers sure made it a point to make guest appearances on here. It's actually quite amazing how much these songs fail to mesh with one another, considering that he's saying the exact same bullshit on nearly every track. The Game is a competent enough rapper, one who I enjoy listening to on occasion, but on LAX he puts almost zero effort into his rhymes, letting his pop culture references and random threats speak for him like an unnecessarily gangsta episode of VH1's I Love The '80s. Musically, he needs to gain the confidence needed to tell his producers “no”, as most of the beats fail to leave a mark, even while the song is still playing. Game is capable of writing interesting verses, but that isn't evident on LAX. I almost wish this really was his final album, just so he would go the fuck away, but alas, we aren't that lucky. Pass.
-Max
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If you really want to read more of my thoughts on The Game, click here to proceed.
Full disclosure: this is my Gut Reaction to Washington DC-area rapper Wale's debut album, Attention Deficit, but I did not come across this album recently. I've had it in my possession for quite a while. I just never bothered to listen to it until now.
Wale, born Olubowale Folarin, is a perennial blogger favorite, and his branch of the hip hop tree, which combined our chosen genre with the go-go music (a harsher avenue of disco, I understand) prevalent in his area, supplied him with inspiration for numerous mixtapes, including one entitled The Mixtape About Nothing, which was based around his love of the television show Seinfeld and garnered him national attention. (That particular project was met with such universal acclaim that he has recently dropped a sequel, More About Nothing, exclusively in Blogland.) And since he was giving all of these mixtapes away for free, I have all of those somewhere on my hard drive as well. But I've never really listened to those, either. In fact, I'm only really aware of two Wale songs as of this writing: his debut single "Chillin'", whose video hit MTV thanks to the guest appearance by Lady Gaga on the hook, and Wale's own guest performance on "Rising Up" by The Roots. And I received a lot of shit for the latter track because I panned it, as I couldn't see any spark of promise in Wale based on that song. (Then again, I felt that Rising Down, the album that collaboration appeared on, was half brilliant and half awful, which is an entirely different matter.)
So I'm going into Attention Deficit as a virtual Wale virgin. Some of you two may be wondering how, as a hip hop blogger, I managed to avoid hearing most of the man's output. It's simple, really: at any given point, there are waaaaaaaaaaay too many newer artists fighting for the attention of the audience, which forces people to pick and choose at will. I don't regret any of my choices, especially since most of the reviews of Attention Deficit were, I gather, from sources who were familiar with his earlier work. So at least my point of view will be unique.
Of course, that means that I had to research Wale thoroughly before I could write about him. Wale, who is apparently the cousin of actor Gbenga Akinnagbe (who played Chris Bartlow on The Wire), defended himself from the national attention his numerous mixtapes received by partnering up with his friend Mark Ronson, with whom he had an extensive working relationship, and his Allido Records. Through a distribution deal with Interscope Records, Wale attempted to capitalize on his popularity by dropping Attention Deficit, and although critical reviews were generally positive, he only managed to sell 28,000 copies in his first week. Those numbers look awful, until you realize that Interscope severely miscalculated Wale's audience, as they only shipped thirty thousand units anyway. So was Attention Deficit a hit or a flop? Based on the new information, it appears to be a fucking blockbuster amongst people that cared enough to grab it on opening day. But nobody else owns the album, so yeah, it was a commercial flop.
Since that disappointment, Wale has been seen randomly submitting cutting room floor tracks to various blogs, recording more mixtapes (I guess he's retreated from the major label game with his tail between his legs while he gets his shit together), and generally acting like a rapper usually does when they're struggling.
Now that I've written all of that, I don't understand exactly how that's supposed to help anybody that isn't already familiar with Wale. So I'm just going to give up on these introductory paragraphs and listen to the goddamn album already.
1. TRIUMPH
I guess it is a small triumph that Wale actually convinced a record label that he could make them some money, but there is nothing celebratory about this track. Emile's beat is a fucking mess, switching moods as often as your bipolar ex-girlfriend who would blow you and threaten to cut your dick off within the same breath. Wale's constant punchlines are funny and consistent, which was nice, but he just couldn't work with this crappy instrumental. This probably isn't the best of signs.
2. MAMA TOLD ME
Starts off horribly (“Mama told me there'd be days like this / But I ain't never think there'd be a day like this”? The hell? Did you not listen to your mother?), but Wale redirects the song's focus to how he refuses to conform to hip hop's ideals. So he pulls it out of his ass, thanks to some clever wordplay and two legitimately interesting verses, but Best Kept Secret's beat isn't very engaging, and that hook...man, don't even get me started on that hook. But hey, The Dap Kings supplied some of the horns, so that's um, something.
3. MIRRORS (FEAT BUN B)
Bun B is doing a fantastic job aligning himself with hip hop's next generation of artists (Drake, Termanology, Wale on here, and...well, I know there are other examples, but I'm too lazy to look them up right now). Over a guitar-shaped Mark Ronson beat, the elder statesman complements the rookie beautifully, creating an entertaining-as-hell track that deserves a lot more attention than what it actually received when Attention Deficit dropped. This shit was fucking good.
4. PRETTY GIRLS (FEAT GUCCI MANE & WEENSEY OF BACKYARD BAND)
A guest appearance from Gucci Mane? Um, yay? I remember Wale catching a lot of flack for this track when it was first announced; he insisted that, once the haters actually listened to the song, they would change their minds. Well, the day of reckoning has come, and “Pretty Girls” still would have sounded a hell of a lot better had a certain cameo been left on the cutting room floor. Strange that Wale would stoop to including one of the shittiest (and yet, one of the most inexplicably popular) rappers in recent memory on a track just to appeal to an entire region. I just can't imagine him sitting around his efficiency blasting Gucci Mane. Maybe I'm in the minority on this one. Then again, maybe the label forced the collaboration in the hope that Attention Deficit would recoup their investment. (If that's true, the tactic didn't work.) Anyway, save for the guest, this wasn't all that bad for a club track.
5. WORLD TOUR (FEAT JAZMINE SULLIVAN)
I first heard Wale perform this song when he was the resident “house musician” at last year's MTV Video Music Awards (I didn't mention this above, because I figured that, as a live song, it would probably be altered significantly for the album), and I dismissed it immediately, since the hook sounded like a blatant ripoff of A Tribe Called Quest's “Award Tour”. Then Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's moment of glory and everyone stopped caring anyway. (I may be getting the order of those two events wrong.) But in hearing the final product today, I'm happy to report that it isn't a blatant theft of a classic track. It isn't all that great, but Wale sounds poised and confident enough to pull off a reference to MILFs without embarrassing himself. I thought R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan was wasted until the final minute of the song, though. Not bad, really.
6. LET IT LOOSE (FEAT PHARRELL)
Pharrell Williams continues his current hobby of sullying the Neptunes name by providing Wale with a weak sauce instrumental and some lame vocals focused almost exclusively on throwing your hard-earned money into the air. Wale adapts well enough, and although I'm not a fan of this type of rap song (crafted for the radio first and the fans second), Wale proves to be versatile enough to switch his flow and matches the beat. But yeah, this shit still sucked.
7. 90210
Wale's precautionary tale to young potential starlets in Beverly Hills (hence the clever song title). Most rap songs aren't anti-bulimia, anti-cocaine, or anti-fellatio, and this will probably be the only one to be against all three (at least on a major label, anyway), but even though this story is well-worn territory for other mediums, it's nice to hear that a rapper has also been paying attention. (One could also stretch this into a mataphor for hip hop a la Common, but I think that would be pushing it, as hip hop has never been anti-fellatio.) Mark Ronson's beat (co-produced with Deijon) is minimal and perfect for Wale to structure his bars, making “90210” an unexpected highlight.
8. SHADES (FEAT CHRISETTE MICHELE)
Wale tackles racism in a way that most wouldn't expect from hip hop: he explores the unfair advantages that light-skinned African Americans have versus their darker-skinned counterparts. True, he's mainly using this theme to vent his frustration about not getting much play from the female gender in high school, but he still makes a valid point. Hip hop's go-to songstress Chrisette Michele provides her usual contribution, which is decent but also instantly forgettable: there's something about her voice that sounds fantastic, but it also fails to stick to anything in your mind, causing your synapses to fire blanks whenever her name pops up in an album's credits.
9. CHILLIN' (FEAT LADY GAGA)
The first single, which causes such an uproar from Wale's fan base that Attention Deficit was doomed from the jump, thanks to the Lady Gaga cameo, which was recorded before she became the global hypermegasuperstar she is now. Here's the thing, though: this is actually a really good song. The samples from Steam's “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” are kind of useless today (thanks to Kristinia DeBarge's similar-sounding “Goodbye”, which was on the radio around the same time), but Wale's verses ride the Cool & Dre beat (which reminds me of Rufus and Chaka Khan's “Ain't Nobody”) without missing a step, and Gaga, humbly playing the role of studio singer, provides the hook and a few extra bars that don't intrude on the actual party. Maybe I liked it simply because I don't mind Gaga for the most part. This shit gets a bad rap, but if you listen to it again today, you'll just simply enjoy its pop leanings.
10. TV IN THE RADIO (FEAT K'NAAN)
TV On The Radio, whose Dave Sitek produced and probably titled this track in an overly clever fashion involving a supreme lack of effort (what happened to that Aziz Ansari mixtape, Dave?), always struck me as one of those “cool” bands that hipsters fucking love and nobody else gives a good goddamn about, like Vampire Weekend or the fucking Strokes back in the day. The work behind the boards is much more big-band than I had expected, sounding like an outtake from the Tribe album recorded in between The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders that doesn't exist, and the performances of both Wale and K'nann are entertaining. The hook is stupid, but if that's my only complaint, I'll take it.
11. CONTEMPLATE (FEAT RIHANNA)
On which Wale uses a Syience instrumental to wonder about just what the fuck he's doing living life in the first place. The chorus is heavy-handed, beating the listener to within an inch of his life with the theme of the track, but aside from that misstep, the song works, even if Wale approaches Aubrey “Drake” Graham-levels of naval gazing at times.
12. DIARY (FEAT MARSHA AMBROSIUS)
I didn't care for this one. I'm also thinking that the next Floetry album will be released on Neveruary 31st of next year. I hops you're still financially supporting your former singing partner, Marsha.
13. BEAUTIFUL BLISS (FEAT MELANIE RUTHERFORD & J. COLE)
Melanie Rutherford seems to be slowly approaching Chrisette Michele/Marsha Ambrosious-levels of popularity as a go-to R&B hook singer for rap songs: not for nothing do both Chrisette and Marsha also appear on Attention Deficit. J. Cole, poised to become the next big thing in hip hop is Jay-Z (his label's boss) has anything to do with it (read: I'm not expecting much) turns in a pretty fucking impressive guest turn, but this is Wale's show, and he gives listeners two polished verses and a goofy failed attempt at singing, played more for laughs than anything else.
14. PRESCRIPTION
A low-key, freeform, and ultimately ineffective way to end one's debut album. Wale may as well be rhyming over the opening theme music to some boring 1970's romantic dramedy, it's that dull. He then takes on an inappropriately aggressive tone toward the end, so I guess “Prescription” was intended to showcase the dual nature of Wale: instead, it makes him sound kind of like a douche. Oh well, at least the majority of Attention Deficit was pretty good.
THE LAST WORD: Wale's debut, Attention Deficit, may not have been as critically acclaimed as his multiple mixtapes leading up to it, but it's surprisingly entertaining nonetheless. With his first effort, Wale seems to have already mastered the art of straddling the line between hardcore and commercial, turning in fourteen tracks that aim for (and connect with, more often than not) both the radio audience and his already-established fanbase. Most criticisms of Attention Deficit claimed it to be underwhelming, but I feel that Wale comes through as a savvy artist whose every move is calculated enough to sound spontaneous. Maybe the bar was set too high originally, but with the passage of time, Attention Deficit works a lot better than most of the hip hop albums I've listened to this year. Not every bit of it works, of course: I could have done without Gucci Mane (in the entire hip hop genre, not just on this album), and I'm sure a good number of you will bitch about Lady Gaga's cameo (another calculated move to get people talking, although Gaga has obviously garnered more ink lately). But I enjoyed Attention Deficit a great deal, so much so that I would name it one of the better debut albums in recent memory. So yeah, that just happened. If you were nonplussed by this back in 2009, you should give it a spin with some new ears. You may be pleasantly surprised.
-Max
Whew! For a split second, I thought Xzibit was holding the same stupid face mask-slash-helmet thing that Dr. Dre wears in that Hewlitt Packard commercial that pimps out his inferior new single, "Under Pressure". Instead, it turns out that Alvin Joyner had simply been watching Breaking Bad before anybody else knew it even existed, and that includes the stars, the producers, and the creator of the show.
Anyway, Man Vs. Machine is the Pimp My Ride host's fourth solo album, coming two years after his mainstream breakthrough Restless, and by "breakthrough", I only mean "this was the point where Dr. Dre started paying attention to him", because Xzibit unleashed two really fucking good albums before joining up with Dre's camp. Restless moved more than one million units, probably because of Dre's name brand endorsement, but hopefully because people realized that Alvin Joyner is simply a good rapper.
Man Vs. Machine was Xzibit's attempt to expand upon the themes presented on Restless. For the most part, he didn't change the recipe any: the project features guest appearances from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Ras Kass and Saafir (under the guise The Golden State Project, Xzibit's group that had to change its name from the Golden State Warriors after the NBA caught wind of their efforts), and Eminem (but, strangely, not King Tee nor Tha Alkaholiks, who actually put Xzibit on in the first place). Production was handled by Dr. Dre, Jelly Roll, Rick Rock, Eminem, Erick Sermon, and others, all shooting for the West Coast sound that has been Alvin's bread and butter ever since At The Speed Of Life.
My curiosity for Man Vs. Machine perked up when Xzibit announced that he was going to branch out of his comfort zone and record a track with DJ Premier, a legandary producer who, nevertheless, always exudes an East Coast temperament with his work. The fact that their collaboration, "What A Mess", failed to make the proper album pisses me off, but at least X was smart enough to still unleash the track for his fans; early pressings of Man Vs. Machine in the United States featured two discs, one for the actual album and the other for three additional tracks. (Overseas readers may wonder what I'm talking about, as your versions of Man Vs. Machine should include all of the songs I write about below. All I have to say is, stop showing off.)
Man Vs. Machine wasn't as successful as its Dre-handled predecessor, only managing to sell five hundred thousand units, which is still a ton, especially when you look at record sales today. This is probably because the lead-off single, "Multiply", didn't click as well as Xzibit's other first singles had. And sure, this would end up being the final album that Xzibit would release while under the loving care of the Andre Young money machine: his follow-up projects pretend as though Restless and Man Vs. Machine never existed.
Let's not let that discourage us, though.
1. RELEASE DATE
Instead of going the Kool Keith route and whining about how his album needs a release date, Xzibit reintroduces himself as a rapper whose prison sentence ends tomorrow. This is not your typical rap album intro: X takes to the mic to deliver one long-ass, hyper-descriptive verse, without the aid of a chorus, and it is pretty fucking great. A lot of folks forget that Xzibit can be pretty goddamn good with a pen, and Rockwilder's uncharacteristic minimalist backdrop only enhances the dark-yet-hopeful mood. Huh.
2. SYMPHONY IN X MAJOR (FEAT DR. DRE)
And then we're presented with this shit. I shouldn't hate this song so much, since it actually features the good Doctor in a co-starring role (if not behind the boards, because then, where would Rick Rock sit?), but I do: the chorus is truly godawful, adhering to the title's concept in only the most indirect of ways (as listening to this shit is akin to watching an opera more so than hearing a symphony perform), and Xzibit adopts a calm, restrained demeanor that doesn't fit his needs, as he still rhymes about the same abrasive shit as he usually does. For his part, Andre quickly leaves after delivering his verse, which adds nothing to the proceedings.
3. MULTIPLY (FEAT NATE DOGG)
This was the song unleashed for radio consumption: Mr. Porter's beat, tailor-made to score a night at the club or a drive to the grocery store, and the Nate Dogg-assisted hook practically shout “mainstream”. However, a good number of you two may have forgotten about this Xzibit single, mainly because it really sucks. Alvin spits his catchphrases with the conviction of a gangsta rap robot preacher, programmed by the music industry to make money, and the end result sounds so dead and empty that the fade-out at the end should signify the end of Man Vs. Machine. Alas, it does not. There is really no need to ever listen to this wack shit.
4. BREAK YOURSELF (FEAT RAS KASS)
This was one of the biggest wastes of Ras Kass that I have ever seen in hip hop: who thought it would be a good idea for him to only provide a chorus? And a shitty one too, at that. X-Z is in full-on mainstream mode here, aiming for a club audience that normally could give a fuck about the dude riding shotgun. I get the feeling that X simply wanted to help his friend pay rent that month, doing so by forcing him onto a Rick Rock beat that didn't make much sense for him, and I appreciate the show of loyalty, but this was neither the time nor the place. Because the song sucked, you see.
5. HEART OF MAN (FEAT JELLY ROLL)
Sampling music from the 1980s isn't a bad thing: longtime readers will know that I love the songs from that decade unabashedly. However, even I draw the line at stealing Toto's “Africa”, which turns “Heart Of Man” into one of the corniest concepts Alvin has ever created. Lyrically, the man sounds fine, even though he takes a brief ride through the “rap game equals crack game” cliché. But the underlying music, manhandled by Jelly Roll, distracts from the experience, and the hook is just awful. Maybe this should have been reconsidered before mastering Man Vs. Machine, eh?
6. HARDER (FEAT THE GOLDEN STATE PROJECT)
Jelly Roll's instrumental is easily the most commercial beat the artists formerly known as the Golden State Warriors have ever utilized, but I understand: they were using this as a demo tape, trying to sell the idea of a future Golden State Project album, one which has failed to materialize thus far. It's too bad that everyone is completely wasted on here: although I found Rassy's opening reference to Buffy The Vampire Slayer hilarious, his verse was weak overall, and Saafir, who only seems to leave the house to pick up diapers and tampons whenever he isn't invited out to record alongside Ras Kass and Xzibit, is ineffective. The only guy who can walk away with his head held high is Alvin himself, and even his verse leaves much to be desired. I think I'll pass on caring about the Golden State Project for now, at least until they get their shit together.
7. PAUL (INTERLUDE) (FEAT PAUL ROSENBERG)
Getting Paul Rosenberg to perform essentially the same interlude as he would on Eminem's albums is ridiculously useless. This skit does manage to make me want to go back to Las Vegas as soon as possible, though.
8. CHOKE ME SPANK ME (PULL MY HAIR) (FEAT TRACI NELSON)
Wow. There is a lot to hate about this song: the contribution from Traci Nelson on the hook (which is just the title of the song repeated ad nauseum), the Dr. Dre beat that is simply looped the fuck up with no deviation whatsoever, and even the trite subject matter (this is just a sex rap). However, what makes this not a complete waste of your time is Alvin's playfulness behind the mic: he adopts a sing-songy flow that actually makes this track sound much better than it has any right to. The song still sucks, but less so, thanks to Xzibit simply playing the game.
9. LOSIN' YOUR MIND (FEAT SNOOP DOGG)
The unspoken promise whenever Snoop and Xzibit work together is that the song will recapture the chemistry that their previous “Bitch Please” managed, but that has never happened, so I don't understand why that is still the unspoken promise. Snoop Dogg barely registers here anyway, providing the hook and trying his hand at Flavor Flav duties during Alvin's verses. But this song still sounded pretty good; although Dre's beat was lacking that special something to push this over the top, X proves himself to be a lyricist that has actually improved since his “Paparazzi” days. And for you younger readers, yes, I am referring to that time when Xzibit covered the Lady Gaga hit.
10. BK TO LA (FEAT M.O.P.)
While this East/West Coast connection isn't that farfetched, the players involved try to force it down the throats of the listeners anyway, as Billy Danze spends a good chunk of his verse (when he finally gets around to it) telling us how much M.O.P. loves Xzibit. Alvin, for his part, seems to be having a panic attack, as he inserts himself into random places on the track (including within the verses of the other participants), as if to remind us that this is actually his song, as if we had somehow forgotten that we're listening to it on an Xzibit album. Fizzy Womack is the only man to survive unscathed, especially with his line about his guns suffering from cancer, which was both goofy and incredibly to-the-point. Overall, this Ty Fyffe-produced effort was middling at best.
11. SAY MY NAME (FEAT EMINEM & NATE DOGG))
Okay, I'm confused, but maybe I'm just hearing things wrong. I'm fairly certain that Xzibit throws shots at “Billy Danze, Dupri, or anybody” who dares fuck with his family tree, but I don't remember reading about any beef between M.O.P. and Xzibit, and even if it was true, why would this song appear immediately after the Mash Out collaboration? I have to have misunderstood. Guest star Marshall Mathers, who does a somewhat credible Andre Young impersonation with the instrumental, takes more swipes at Moby and Canibus before devoting his entire second verse to destroying Jermaine Dupri, which was one of his most useless beefs ever. This track wasn't that bad, but it wasn't very memorable, either. And why would you get Nate Dogg to not sing on your hook? What was the point of that shit?
12. THE GAMBLER (FEAT ANTHONY HAMILTON)
Technically, none of Alvin's lyrics have anything to do with either gambling or Kenny Rogers, but this song still works, thanks to the Bink! beat, which fits jazzy excess into the constructs of a hip hop instrumental, and Anthony Hamilton's out-of-left-field hook, which is so out of place that it forces itself into your subconscious, making it hard to imagine this track playing out in any other fashion. This was pretty good, I have to admit.
13. MISSIN' U (FEAT ANDRE “DRE BOOGIE” WILSON)
Alvin's ode to his late mother is both touching and interesting, because he reveals that he has since replaced his mother's unconditional love with the security provided by his gun whenever he goes to sleep. That was actually pretty deep, which is something that I can't say about the rest of this track. X's lyrics are just fine, but Dre Boogie's crooning on the hook is cornball and without class, turning this dedication into just another song that you'll want to skip. Nice work, buddy.
14. RIGHT ON
X experiments with multiple flows on here, but the end product isn't something that I cared for. The entire song sounds like a gimmick, a sales pitch even, and Erick Sermon's perky instrumental does nothing to detract from my argument. Also, portions of the hook sound as though Xzibit is playing both sides of the final round on the $25,000 Pyramid. Moving on...
15. BITCH ASS N----S (FEAT EDDIE GRIFFITH)
A mean-spirited interlude performed by Double Team's Eddie Griffin, one which you can skip without an ounce of regret. Man, I hope he doesn't score a cameo on Detox: his time is pretty much up. (And I say that as a huge fan of Undercover Brother. That shit is underrated.)
16. ENEMIES
J-Beats uses drums similar to those from Naughty By Nature's “Hip Hop Hooray” for an awfully powerful album closer, which features one of Xzibit's best performances behind the mic, even though the hook is all kinds of terrible. Seemingly inspired by the instrumental, Alvin takes on all comers, lending credence to the thought that he is, in fact, one of the best West Coast rappers ever. This was a pretty interesting way to cap off Man Vs. Machine.
Ah, if only we were actually finished. As I mentioned above, limited edition copies of Man Vs. Machine came with a bonus disc consisting of three tracks that failed to make the proper album.
BONUS DISC:
1. MY LIFE, MY WORLD (FEAT TRACI NELSON)
Of the two tracks that Traci Nelson participated in for possible inclusion on Man Vs. Machine (or, at least of the two that she played a huge role in), X elected to use the one where she appears to be enjoying sadomasochistic rough sex on the actual album. Good call: her chorus on this track is weak, but then again, that could be said about the entire song. Bink!'s beat sounds incomplete, and although I liked X's line, “What's my anti-drug? Drugs!”, there isn't anything to recommend here. Rightfully dropped from the final product for a reason.
2. WHAT A MESS
I remember being shocked that a DJ Premier production failed to make the final cut of Man Vs. Machine, but today that decision makes perfect sense: “What A Mess” doesn't fit in with the sound prevalent on the rest of the project. However, this song serves as the best possible argument for Alvin to broaden his musical horizons, as he sounds pretty fucking brilliant over a decidedly non-West Coast beat. X's boasts over Primo's boom-bap (which, admittedly, could sound a bit better) make for one of those unconventional marriages that lasts longer that every other couple around them, it's that good.
3. (HIT U) WHERE IT HURTS
I'm going to start the rumor that “(Hit U) Where It Hurts” is the first volley in the war of words between Xzibit and the Black Eyed Peas, as X poses the question, “What's really behind the front?”, during the second verse, and Behind The Front was the first album from those sellout fucks. Looking at this Rockwilder-produced trifle with those glasses makes the song more interesting to me, anyway, because otherwise I would be left with a pretty useless relic from the cutting-room floor. Sigh. At least you can sit back and wonder why X thought it was important to start and end Man Vs. Machine with a Rockwilder beat.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Man Vs. Machine is Xzibit's worst album thus far, and that being said, it's still pretty good, even though the missteps happen much more frequently than I would like. X is coasting a bit too much on his previous success, completely ignoring his old friends Tha Alkaholiks and King Tee (who are missed), and some of his beat choices appear to have been made with the aid of earplugs, a blindfold, and a lottery system not unlike Ticketmaster, but Xzibit's lyrics, for the most part, remain intact. He toys with his flow a few too many times for my liking, but when all of the ingredients blend together properly, Man Vs. Machine is fucking delicious. It just doesn't taste as good as his other albums, so consider yourselves forewarned.
BUY OR BURN? There's enough good on here to warrant a purchase, but you don't have to go out of your way to pick up the limited edition model, as two of the three tracks on the bonus disc suck. Search the Interweb for “What A Mess”, but pick up the rest of Xzibit's fourth album: you'll find plenty to like on here. Besides, just look at the price at the Amazon ad below. You can't possibly pass that deal up.
B-SIDE TO HUNT DOWN: “Multiply (Remix)” featuring Busta Rhymes – This promo-only remix blows the original take out of the frame, thanks to Just Blaze's instrumental and the animated deliveries of both X and his invited guest Busta Rhymes. The only version of this song I could find is the radio edit, though: if any of you two happen to have the uncensored track, hit me up at the e-mail address in the sidebar.
BEST TRACKS: “Enemies”; “Losin' Your Mind”; “Release Date”; “The Gambler”; “What A Mess” (bonus disc only)
-Max
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