Ol' Dirty Bastard - O.D.B.E.P. (1996)

In 1996, Elektra Records capitalized on the success of the Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard's first solo album, Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, by combining the single releases for his hits ("Brooklyn Zoo" and "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"), deleting all of the stuff that was already available on the album, and sequencing it all onto one shiny compact disc. A couple of unreleased tracks from the vault were tossed in, and O.D.B.E.P. was born.

Now, the two of you may be asking yourself: "What the fuck is Max talking about? There is no such thing as O.D.B.E.P.!" Well, that's where you're wrong, kids. O.D.B.E.P. was released exclusively to the Japanese market only, for reasons that I'm pretty sure the Japanese public aren't aware of, either. I obtained this disc back in the late 1990s through a website called CD Japan, which may or may not be around anymore, and was stunned to realize that it was not a bootleg, but an official Elektra Records release. (As for the cost of this thing, well, apparently back then I had money to fucking burn. Sure would be nice to have some of those funds back now...)

The album cover contains tiny type that implies that O.D.B.E.P. was for promotional use only, but that's complete bullshit. What isn't bullshit, however, is the scarcity of a few of these songs, some of which were only made available here (or, if you're familiar with the Interweb, you may have downloaded them already, rendering this sentence moot).

I'm going to tell you up front: there is no recommendation to purchase this album at the end of the write-up. Especially in the current economy, I can't justify asking readers to spend upwards of fifty bucks on a fucking compact disc with only thirteen songs on it. (I didn't pay quite that much for it, but the disc is now out or print, so people can basically charge whatever they think they can get for it.) So the real question of the O.D.B.E.P. write-up is: should you even bother trying to find it?

Well?

1. BROOKLYN ZOO (CLEAN LORD DIGGA REMIX)
This remix has an alright-sounding beat, but part of the charm of the original "Brooklyn Zoo" was the confrontational nature of the instrumental (which you'll hear on the next track). The lyrics, as such, don't mesh well with the calm Lord Digga beat, and that makes this song a failure for me.

2. BROOKLYN ZOO (LP INSTRUMENTAL)
Plays exactly as it reads, but it still sounds really fucking good. Fun fact: while the liner notes of O.D.B.E.P. name The Rza as the producer, most Wu-Tang stans are keenly aware that "Brooklyn Zoo" was actually produced by both True Master and Dirt McGirt himself. You may have already known this, but I felt like filling up the empty space.

3. BROOKLYN ZOO (LORD DIGGA REMIX INSTRUMENTAL)
Plays exactly as it reads.

4. GET IT TO YA RAW (LP VERSION)
For some reason, Japanese consumers know the Ol' Dirty Bastard track "Give It To Ya Raw" as "Get It To Ya Raw". Whatever. The phrase "LP version" is misleading, as this song never appeared on any ODB album. However, this track is pretty fucking awful, thanks to The Rza's non-beat, which is migraine-inducing.

5. GET IT TO YA RAW (SD50 REMIX)
Conversely, over some tweaked drums (reprogrammed by SD50, also known as the Stimulated Dummies), "Get/Give It To Ya Raw" now completely works. This particular version of the song is among my favorite Big Baby Osirus b-sides. This is a pretty good illustration of the importance of the backing music in determining if a song is any good, although I'll be the first to point out that Russell Jones is in no way, shape, or form any sort of competition for the likes of a Ras Kass. But, once again, if lyrics were all that were necessary to create a good song, then we'd all be listening to spoken word poetry.

6. SHIMMY SHIMMY YA (EXTENDED VERSION)
This version includes a verse that was left off of the album (Return To The 36 Chambers: The DIrty Version, for those of you keeping score), but was used in the video version of "Shimmy Shimmy Ya", which is weird, considering that the video version actually had to condense the track in order to tack on a verse of "Baby C'mon" at the end. Strange. This longer version is okay, but, to me, it's the exact same song as the original, so I have no differing opinion on it.

7. SHIMMY SHIMMY YA (STUDIO TON REMIX) (FEAT MC EIHT & E-40)
The Wu-Tang Clan has always had a fascination with the West Coast, and this song was one of their first recorded attempts to branch out. Sadly, it appears in a censored form, which renders MC Eiht entirely unnecessary, as you can toss a football back and forth with your father through the empty spots in his verse. Russell also sounds creepy as hell with his new slow flow, which, thankfully, is reciting some freshly written lyrics for the occasion. Studio Ton, a Bay area producer, provides an instrumental that isn't completely horrible, but it isn't good enough to warrant more than just the cursory one-time listen.

8. SHIMMY SHIMMY YA (EXTENDED ACAPELLA)
Come on, you fuckers already know what this will sound like.

9. SHIMMY SHIMMY YA (EXTENDED INSTRUMENTAL)
Plays exactly as it reads, only longer.

10. SHIMMY SHIMMY YA (STUDIO TON REMIX INSTRUMENTAL)
Plays exactly as it reads.

11. DON'T U KNOW, PART II
A sequel to an album track from Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which originally featured Killah Priest alongside Dirty, but is now one hundred percent Osirus. While I remember liking the original song a lot, for the sequel, Russell's sex rap takes routes that nobody needed to ever travel on. Ultimately, this just made me miss the original. Maybe I'll put that disc back into the rotation.

12. BABY C'MON (LP INSTRUMENTAL)
Plays exactly as it reads, but still remains a great example of one of The Rza's crazier beats.

13. OL' DIRTY'S BACK (LP VERSION) (FEAT 12 O'CLOCK)
Some rappers are known for their stream-of-consciousness rhymes. This entire song seems to have been constructed in a similar fashion, as there is little to no structure to be found, just as you would expect from an Ol' Dirty Bastard album. However, Cherokee Chief's beat includes some dusty-ass Wu-Tang drums, and both Dirt McGirt and his brother, 12 O'Clock (who is credited as Dirty's "baby brother" in the liner notes - hilarious!) work shit out just fine, thanks very much. Looking past the fact that Russell's lyrics fade out prematurely (although the beat continues on: that pisses me off even more so than when a song just abruptly fades out mid-verse), this isn't bad, in a buried-treasure sort of way.

FINAL THOUGHTS: O.D.B.E.P. is obviously a fans-only disc, as its appeal to anybody outside of the Wu-Tang spectrum is essentially zero. Most of the songs that appear here are available on maxi-singles that most Wu fans may already own, but there are a few unreleased gems that never found their way stateside. The presentation is goofy, but the end result is a bit grating: honestly, does anybody really need to sit through five versions of "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" in a row?

BUY OR BURN? Nobody needs to buy this, although you probably won't be able to find it anyway. For Wu stans, a burn is sufficient, and for everyone else, we'll see you next post, when maybe I'll write about something that isn't quite so esoteric.

BEST TRACKS: "Ol' Dirty's Back"; "Get/Give It To Ya Raw (SD50 Mix)"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
More Ol' Dirty Bastard for you, you, and possibly you.

My Gut Reaction: Common - Universal Mind Control (December 9, 2008)

I realize that this write-up is about a month late, but thanks to a number of outside factors, I just recently got a hold of this album, so there you go.

Chicago rapper Common, who is probably best known now for his acting in such classic films as Smokin' Aces (and, also, who could forget the goofy-ass Street Kings? Not me!), released his eighth solo album, Universal Mind Control, in December of 2008. This was after many delays: it was originally supposed to hit store shelves in the summer months, and was even once titled Invincible Summer, but that name went out the fucking window while Common allowed his newfound day job to monopolize his time.

Universal Mind Control is notable in that Lonnie Lynn himself has described the disc as the "feel good" music that he believed to be missing from his catalog. As such, this ten-track disc is chock-full of allegedly danceable songs, almost all of which were produced by The Neptunes. It shouldn't be surprising to read that Universal Mind Control is also notable because almost every blogger in existence hates the fuck out of this album. Most of the critiques have dissected the project's sudden left turn from the road Common had been travelling on, and a lot of folks were upset when they found out that The Neptunes, who had already fucked Common's career up when they provided two songs for Electric Circus (the other Common album that people seem to uniformly hate), were running things this go round.

Hell, early buzz on this disc was so bad that Common, his friend/producer Kanye West, and his other friend/producer No I.D., went on record to announce that the three of them would begin work on Common's next album, thereby lifting the spirits of Common's dedicated fans who believed that their hero and club bangers shouldn't mix. And this was before Universal Mind Control even fucking dropped.

Well, that can't be good.

1. INTRO / UNIVERSAL MIND CONTROL (UMC) (FEAT PHARRELL)
After an incredibly pretentious intro, given in French by Joelle Ndiaye (it's just music, folks: don't make it seem more important than it really is, Lonnie), Common's homage to the electro of old kicks in. This is actually Common's most successful attempt at a club banger. He isn't saying anything important, but he sounds pretty good over this Neptunes instrumental (provided by both Pharrell and Chad, which helps). The robot head in the Hype Williams-helmed clip that portrays Pharrell is creepy as hell, though. Also, this song was used in commercials for Microsoft's Zune MP3 player, one of which has a "fan" claim that she downloaded his entire back catalog (for only $14.99!) off of the strength of "Universal Mind Control". Yes, I realize that she was a paid actress, but I still chuckle at the idea of her realizing that nothing else in Commons's back catalog sounds even remotely like this song. Come on, join in with me: if you picture the girl bumping "The Bitch In Yoo", you can't help but laugh.

2. PUNCH DRUNK LOVE (FEAT KANYE WEST)
Since Kanye was too busy emoting his ass off on 808's & Heartbreak, an album that isn't as bad as some other bloggers want you to think (although it remains his worst album to date), he barely contributes to his Chi-Town homey Common's album (although he managed to snag an 'Executive Producer' credit, thanks to the fact that Universal Mind Control was released on G.O.O.D. Music, Kanye's vanity label). If 'Ye's chorus was the best he could come up with as a consolation prize, he shouldn't have even bothered. You should skip this song and, instead, rent Punch Drunk Love, the Paul Thomas Anderson flick that proves that Adam Sandler can actually act when the occasion calls for it.

3. MAKE MY DAY (FEAT CEE-LO)
I was completely lost as to the point of this dull-ass "happy" song. Cee-Lo, late of the Goodie Mob, but perhaps best known as half of Gnarls Barkley, could have had his vocals replaced by those of any random studio singer and the end result would have been exactly the same: an eminently skippable song that serves no purpose whatsoever. Which is too bad, since these two guys deserve better.

4. SEX 4 SUGA
Um...yeah. This song is pretty bad. There are rappers that can spin this type of material inti a decent-sounding song, but Common has never been one of them. My ears almost fell off in embarrassment after hearing Lonnie exclaim that he was going to touch his lady friend "where the son don't shine". Somewhere, I'm sure that there is a woman that will find this to be the sexiest song ever made, and I would like to never meet her, as she would obviously have poor taste in music.

5. ANNOUNCEMENT (FEAT PHARRELL)
This song is uniformly awful. Everything from the attempted beat-jacking of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Dreams", to Common's rhymes (which are also somewhat inspired by Biggie Smalls), which don't flow in a natural way: the motherfucker goes from bragging about banging a chick in his kitchen to bragging about how he bought a mink coat for his mother, all in the span of two bars. What the hell? Pharrell's verse is also pretty terrible, and not just because he's obviously trying to be the Puff Daddy to Lonnie's Biggie, so this sentence will be the only time that Max acknowledges his contribution.

6. GLADIATOR
Over an unorthodox Neptunes instrumental that sounds more like a cross between Kanye West and DJ Premier than the usual club-ready fare they're known for, Common manages to keep everybody awake (or, if not everybody, the folks that stuck around after "Sex 4 Suga" started) with a somewhat entertaining track, all Gladiator references aside. The chorus is too fucking long for anybody to care, though.

7. CHANGES (FEAT MUHSINAH & OMOYE ASSATE LYNN)
The closest thing to a "normal" Common song that Universal Mind Control has to offer. Too bad I fell asleep midway through, or else I could write a more detailed diatribe as to why this song sucks so much. As it is, I can only advise you to skip this, regardless of how hopeful the outro sounds (although Common's daughter Omoye compares her father to Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama - that's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?).

8. INHALE
I'm glad to hear that not every song on Universal Mind Control is obsessed with sex. This track is alright enough, but in order to fully enjoy it, you may need to take some advice from the title and inhale an illicit substance or twenty.

9. WHAT A WORLD (FEAT CHESTER FRENCH)
Upon the creation of Chester French, a pop duo co-signed by Pharrell Williams, bloggers have been in a tizzy as to how good the crew would sound, and although they have yet to release an album of their own, they have managed to create a mild buzz in the industry. I never paid them much attention before (there's an awful lot of new music out there to discover, so, inevitably, something has to suffer), and, thanks to their contribution to this song, I feel entirely justified by my gut reaction.

10. EVERYWHERE (FEAT MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD)
I found it odd that Common elected to end his album with a song on which he barely makes a guest appearance. Oh, sure, he has a verse on here, but Martina Topley-Bird (who began her music career performing alongside Tricky) is the obvious star here. I wouldn't be surprised if this track ended up on a solo album of hers, as well, since it has no place on Universal Mind Control. This was a weird way to end your album.

The following is a bonus track that was available only if you purchased Universal Mind Control on iTunes (or if you trolled around on the blogs when it was leaked).

11. BREAK MY HEART (LIVE)
This live track is decent enough in that it hints as to what the disc could have been, but it's really too little, too late.

THE LAST WORD: Um, yeah. Universal Mind Control, while not entirely without merit, is a drink coaster all the way. I personally like "Universal Mind Control", but that's not enough to warrant me listening to this weak shit ever again. Longtime readers may have noticed that I skipped from Common's first album straight to disc number eight: that was primarily due to my lazy work ethic, but it's also due to the fact that I can't find my copy of Resurrection in my crates. And, after having listened to this shit, I feel like putting it off even longer. Common, my man, enjoy the SAG card, as I believe that's what's going to keep the money rolling in for you.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Common (Sense) - Can I Borrow A Dollar?

Redman - Red Gone Wild: Thee Album (March 27, 2007)

2007 finally saw the release of Red Gone Wild: Thee Album, Redman's sixth solo album, which had been promised for several years at that point. The album itself was in danger of becoming one of those fabled follow-up projects that rappers discuss in interviews for years on end but never materializes (such as Dr. Dre's Detox, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2, and, in a much more broad sense musically, Guns 'N Roses's Chinese Democracy (at least until it finally hit Best Buy store shelves fourteen years after its inception)). However, the difference between Redman's project and the other three listed is that Redman's previous album, Malpractice, caused him to lose a lot of fans, so there weren't a whole lot of folks out there anyway that gave much of a fuck about the guy's career in 2007. Malpractice found our rhyming hero managing to amuse only himself with increasingly nonsensical thematic structures (what the fuck was the "Roller Coaster Malpractice" skit supposed to be about, anyway?) and reliance on an uncharacteristically poor selection of beats. So Red Gone Wild: Thee Album was intended to be his return to form, which it could have been, had his label, Def Jam, not derailed his efforts by keeping the disc in the vault for so long, forcing Reggie to retool some older tracks and rethink his original concept.

As I mentioned in the write-up for Reggie's last mixtape, Live From The Bricks, the version of Red Gone Wild: Thee Album that we received was not the album that was intended to be released. Multiple tracks promised by Redman (and leaked to the Interweb) were ultimately cut, possibly due to age or poor reception, such as the Eminem-produced "I C Dead People", which was constructed as a dream/nightmare collaboration between Redman and the ghosts of 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Big L, and Big Punisher (or, rather, the ghosts of older verses from the late rappers). Other tracks which are missing entirely include "Fuck Da Security" (or "Rush Da Security", as it is known on the Def Jam promotional twelve-inch: it does manage to put in an appearance on foreign editions of this disc, however) and "Future Thugs", which also featured labelmates Ghostface Killah and Ludacris. However, one older track that did manage to make the cut was the Timbaland-produced "Put It Down", a song that Reggie had mentioned for many years: Redman bragged that he had purchased Timothy's instrumental (along with several others) long before his takeover of pop radio (with the assistance of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado).

So, was Red Gone Wild: Thee Album worth all of the fuss?

1. FIRE
Well, it's not a rap album intro, so that's a plus. Although Reggie actually rhymes on this track, it's a pretty unmemorable effort, but I still prefer it to an intro.

2. BAK INDA BUILDIN'
Hey, Dr. Trevis has returned! This track could have made for a much better album opener. The instrumental (provided by Adam Deitch, a drummer and producer who has worked with Jean Grae, Talib Kweli, and Afu-Ra) and Chris Pinset (who has worked with Redman on Red Gone Wild: Thee Album)) is actually interesting, for one. But that could just be me.

3. PUT IT DOWN (FEAT DJ KOOL)
Redman has gone on record that he had this Timbaland beat in his back pocket well before Timbo's reincarnation as a pop producer. Considering that this instrumental sounds like one of LL Cool J's outtakes from the same sessions that produced "Headsprung", that may not be a solid bragging point. However, this shit does sound really good. Reggie rides the Timbaland track as if he and Timmy were born to create this song.

4. GIMMIE ONE
While I appreciate the reference to Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (a flick that's really fucking good), I found this track to be boring as shit. The fact that this was produced by Pete Rock surprises me to no end, given the final result.

5. FUCK UR OPINION (SKIT)
...

6. SUMTN 4 URRBODY (FEAT BLAM, READY ROC, RUNT DAWG, ICADON, & SAUKRATES)
A posse cut featuring the supporting players from Reggie's three previous mixtapes. It's gracious of Redman to limit his own contribution to eight bars halfway through the track, but he really should have either started shit off or closed it out, if only as a show of dominance. Even though I was nonplussed with Saukrates on here, everybody else was pretty good, so as a whole, the song is decent.

7. HOW U LIKE DAT (FEAT GOV MATTIC)
With so many references to Reggie's mixtape series (Ill At Will, for those of you not keeping up), this track comes off more as a freestyle than an actual song. So it makes sense that the beat is of no consequence, as it exists solely so Reggie knows when his sentenced are supposed to end. Reggie dominates the track (his guest is only afforded the last thirty seconds to spit) and, curiously, refers to himself as having "a Wu-Tang tongue" while calling himself the "Def Squad lieutenant". Hmmm.

8. FREESTYLE FREESTYLE
I seem to remember bloggers going apeshit bananas for this track when Red Gone Wild: Thee Album was released. I suppose Reggie's rhymes are good, but he sounds a tad bit bored. That's probably because the song as a whole sucks balls, in most part due to Scott Storch's non-beat. Maybe if Storch was a better producer (he has a couple of good tracks on his resume, but that's where it stops), he wouldn't have so many financial problems right now. Maybe that last statement is a bit unfair, as the economy is rough all over, but maybe the guy should have saved his fucking money instead of buying a boat and whatever the fuck else he purchased in an ill-advised attempt to make Lil' Kim happy.

9. WALK IN GUTTA (FEAT ERICK SERMON,KEITH MURRAY, & BIZ MARKIE)
I didn't like this song back in March of 2007. Today, I can appreciate it for what it is, an above-average Def Squad song. Keith Murray sounds like he's actively trying to get his fans back, and Erick Sermon has (apparently) no need to improve his flow, since he still has everyone's nostalgic EPMD respect, but Reggie steals the show on his own album, which is not only nice, it should have been a given.

10. WUTCHOOGONNADO (FEAT MELANIE RUTHERFORD)
I'm going to walk away, that's what. This is nothing like the Reggie Noble music that people actually like to listen to. This track is followed by two separate skits, one of which ties up the trials and tribulations of the journalist that's appeared on previous Redman albums rather nicely, and those might be a better listen than this shit. Both skits appear prior to the next track.

11. DIZ IZ BRICK CITY (FEAT READY ROC)
For what is ostensibly an anthem to Reggie's hometown, this track sounds oddly sentimental. But it's not bad. Redman's punchlines are amusing, and the DJ Clark Kent beat is relaxing. The hook is all sorts of fucking awful, though.

12. RITE NOW
This was, more than likely, a condition of clearing the Al Green sample, but this song is edited. (For the most part, it's squeaky-clean, but a couple of gunshots, sexual content, and the word "fuck" manage to make an appearance.) Reggie sounds as if he's being physically restrained, and the beat isn't anything we haven't already heard from Erick Sermon.

13. BLOW TREEZ (FEAT READY ROC & METHOD MAN)
This is among the worst Redman/Method Man collaborations that I have ever witnesses, and I've caught episodes of their Fox sitcom. The flow of the song is a reggae-tinged crawl, which doesn't work for any of the rappers involved, and the lackluster stab at a South-esque hook (a repeated vocal sample) is simply the bow on a gift-wrappes pile of shit.

14. PIMP NUTZ
What the fuck is with that chorus?

15. MR. ICE CREAM MAN (SKIT)
This skit runs for just over three minutes, making this Reggie Noble's magnum opus. However, Prince Paul he ain't. This skit is entirely unnecessary.

16. HOLD DIS BLAOW!
At this point, Red Gone Wild: Thee Album has officially turned into a fucking chore to write about. Reggie brings absolutely nothing to the table, and he's supposed to be one of my favorite lyricists. The beat also sounds like a pale imitation of what Rockwilder might sound like today, which is great, since Rockwilder is actually behind the boards. Sigh...

17. GET 'EM (FEAT SAUKRATES & ICADON)
Meh.

18. MERRY JANE (FEAT SNOOP DOGG & NATE DOGG)
This weed anthem is pretty fucking stupid. Redman sounds alright, and I always appreciate a Nate Dogg hook, but both Snoop and the beat are in the running for the grand prize in a "Worst Part Of An Already Bad Track" competition. Still, I found myself wondering what Method Man would have sounded like with these three guys on the track.

19. GILLA HOUSE CHECK
I just don't care about this album anymore.

20. NO MO' SOOPAMAN LUVA
A skit that exists only to lead the listener into the next song, which just so happens to be all about Reggie's Soopaman Luva persona. Fans of the "Bathtub" intro from Snoop Doggy Dogg's Doggystyle might get a kick out of it.

21. SOOPAMAN LUVA 6 (FEAT E3, MELANIE RUTHERFORD, & HURRICANE G)
This installment is rather ridiculous, since it's all about Reggie trying to break Hurricane G out of prison (although, predictably, he gets a tad bit distracted). Speaking of which, Hurricane G's presence completely fucks this track up. I can tolerate her on some things (okay, mainly on the Cocoa Brovaz's "Spanish Harlem"), but, for the most part, I find her voice annoying as fuck. I'm kind of mystified as to how Erick Sermon could have knocked her up in the first place.

22. SOOPAMAN LUVA 6 1/2 (FEAT HURRICANE G & MELANIE RUTHERFORD)
Picks up immediately where the last installment left off, and while the beat is a lot better, there still isn't anything on here worth listening to. Maybe it's time for the Soopaman Luva to retire in Miami-Dade County.

23. SUICIDE
Adam Deitch and Chris Pinset's beat is half-great and half-annoying as shit. Hearing Reggie singing is oddly compelling, but rapping is obviously his bread and butter. I have mixed feelings about this track, but regardless of what I believe, this song should never have been designated as the last song on any Redman album.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Red Gone Wild: Thee Album is a major disappointment, considering the buildup over the past several years. I realize that a few of my two readers may try to rationalize their purchase by proclaiming that this disc isn't actually that bad, but it is what it is. With only one possible single for the radio and one other track that appeals to the hip hop heads ("Put It Down" and "Walk In Gutta", respectively), if I were running Def Jam, I wouldn't have promoted this shit, either. It should have been left in the vault: at least that way Reggie could have continued to talk it up in the press and it could have taken on a mystical quality, not unlike Rakim's Dr. Dre-produced tracks recorded while he was signed to Aftermath. I'm now officially depressed.

BUY OR BURN? If you are currently in a coma and the promise of some new Redman material is the only thing that could possibly get those brainwaves going and revive you, then your caretaker should burn this and play it for you ASAP. However, that's the only reasonable excuse for even attempting to track down this shit. I'm a Redman fan, and even I want to throw this disc out of a moving vehicle.

BEST TRACKS: "Walk In Gutta"; "Put It Down"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Here are some write-ups for some better Redman projects (and also Malpractice).

Weird-Ass Wu-Tang Clan Cameos, Part 1: The Dirty Version

As a Wu-Tang stan, I've been known to collect any and every song that the Wu-Tang Clan has ever contributed to. (At least, that's how I used to operate, before I got a life.) And, like most fans, I've been frequently mystified as to the lengths the Clan will go in order to garner attention to its cause. In this series (which will hopefully last beyond the one post, although, as I promised late last year, the 'Producers Guild' thing will return once I find some time and get my thoughts together), I plan on highlighting some of the more bizarre collaborations that Wu-Tang Clan fanatics have been subjected to, all in the name of protecting one's neck.

The late Russell Jones, best known to readers as Ol' Dirty Bastard, isn't the most obvious choice for pop stardom at first. Method Man had the charisma, Ghostface Killah had the rhymes, and The Rza had pointy-ass finger blade things (and, also, he had all of the Clan's money, if we are to believe U-God and other various affiliates). However, his outspoken public presence and his constant drug troubles made Russell endearing to the public (that, and the fact that he lifted up a fucking car to save a trapped child), and the music industry adopted him as the son they never really wanted, but could tolerate, as long as he didn't do anything as silly as interrupt the recording industry's annual celebration of itself, the Grammy Awards. Oh, wait...




BLACKSTREET FEAT OL' DIRTY BASTARD, SLASH, & FISHBONE - FIX (REMIX)
I was never able to figure out why Dirt McGirt appeared on this remix to an ineffective BLACKStreet album track, but here you go. I'm sure the residual checks (I remember this clip airing on MTV on a pretty frequent basis) went a long way towards those child support payments. This track was released when rappers and R&B singers were attempting to appeal to the rock-and-roll fanbase by creating the most godawful amalgamations of rap and rock known to mankind (see also: Puff Daddy & The Family's "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)", which is a terrible track, but I have to admit that the Spike Jonze-directed video was pretty cool). Slash, late of Guns 'N Roses but probably best known to the two of you today as a character from fucking Guitar Hero, has a decent solo towards the end, but I can't picture any of my readers watching this clip more than just the once.


BIG DADDY KANE FEAT BIG SCOOB, SAUCE MONEY, SHYHEIM, JAY-Z, & OL' DIRTY BASTARD - SHOW & PROVE
This allegedly classic Big Daddy Kane creation (off of Daddy's Home), with production duties handled by the one and only DJ Premier, is included here because of the seemingly random way the guests were selected. It's not a bad song by any means (the version presented in this video, however, is terrible, as it is filled with abrupt pauses where the uploader tried to insert the dirty version of the track over the video feed, and since the version of the track is amended already (as this song is crazy long), it makes for an annoying listening experience), but there are some things that will make you sit up and take notice. Shyheim's verse (penned by Method Man, as the story goes) is probably the worst one on here, and there's something about Jay-Z's outfit that makes me believe he would die of embarrassment if her were to ever see this clip again. ODB appears after his future label boss Hova and rounds things out nicely. (I never said that these songs would be bad: I said the pairings would be strange.) It's also nice to hear Sauce Money, since my understanding is that he has taken a new position as a chimney sweep.



JC CHASEZ FEAT OL' DIRTY BASTARD - SOME GIRLS (DANCE WITH WOMEN)I would apologize for the poor video quality, but honestly, none of you two are going to watch this one anyway. JC Chasez, formerly of N*SYNC, will never be able to match what his bandmate Justin Timberlake has been able to pull off in his career, what with the Timbaland tracks and "Dick In A Box", which is why he is (or was; I'm not sure anymore) a judge for some dance show on MTV. However, his brief foray into solo stardom was Schizophrenic, and its lead-off single was "Some Girls (*Dance With Women)". The video above features Dirt McGirt doing some weird half-dance/half-standing around thing, all while looking generally mortified to be seen there. (If Dirty had been doing this track with Justin, at least he would have been able to keep his street cred.) Rightfully so, this track never took off.



EN VOGUE FEAT OL' DIRTY BASTARD - WHATEVER (TUMBLIN' DICE REMIX)
Whenever I hear those tumbling dice effects, I'm always transported back to the beginning of Rampage The Last Boy Scout's "Take It To The Streets", featuring Billy Lawrence. (Whatever happened to her?) Apparently, this remix (which appeared on the "Whatever" single's B-side) made the mixtape rounds when it dropped, which I believe was 1997. This was En Vogue's first single release after losing group member Dawn Robinson, who signed a deal with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records that led, predictably, nowhere: she later helped form Lucy Pearl and is now best known for once being a part of En Vogue. I like the original version, even with it's creepy-as-fuck video, which looks like Terry Gilliam on acid (actually, that combination would probably make Terry Gilliam seem like hack extraordinaire Joel Schumacher), but this remix doesn't work for me at all. By the way, you know who should be in line for a career resurgence? En Vogue. Not only were the girls really cute, they actually had good songs, which is much more than you can say about some of these "singers" today. By the way, there was never an official video released for this remix, so there you go.



CHOCLAIR FEAT OL' DIRTY BASTARD & SAUKRATES - SUAVE DIRT DOGS
This combination is just goofy. Canadian rappers Choclair and a pre-Gilla House Saukrates trade bars with Big Baby Jesus over the finer qualities of the female species over an annoying instrumental that, I swear to god, may force you to give up on hip hop for good. I'm not sure who signed off on this track, but whoever it was should be bludgeoned to death with a billy club, beaten, tortured, stabbed multiple times, shot at point blank range, fed to lions, and slapped.


MARIAH CAREY FEAT OL' DIRTY BASTARD - FANTASY (REMIX)Of course, no discussion of Ol' Dirty Bastard's kookiest cameos would be complete without his inauguration to the mainstream via Mariah Carey's Tom Tom Club-jacking "Fantasy". Released while Mariah Carey was still cute (and not strangely fake looking, as Mrs. Nick Cannon is today), this remix (produced by Sean Combs, of all people) elevated Dirt McGirt's game to new heights, surpassing even Method Man, the original breakout favorite, as the most bankable emcee in the Wu-Tang Clan, a position he held right up until he started getting into some problems with drugs, which is to say, approximately half the time it takes for this video to finish. Mariah Carey was apparently a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan and invited the man personally to record, a decision that I'm sure Tommy Mottola was sweating at the time. The lasting legacy this song will forever hold with me, though, lies in the fact that, even for four minutes and change, my father, a Mariah fan, was forced to listen to one of the rawest motherfuckers to ever touch the mic (or else he could just change the channel, I suppose). For Dirty fans, this track is a must hear, and for everyone else, well, the beat's catchy enough.

I obviously left out a ton of shit, so feel free to leave me your thoughts and concerns below.

BONUS VIDEO:



OL' DIRTY BASTARD - BROOKLYN ZOO (ORIGINAL VERSION)
During my search, I came across what was apparently the first version of the "Brooklyn Zoo" video. Although it aired in New York, it was never really shown anywhere else, as the Wu quickly released an alternate take that wasn't, I don't know, so offensive to Asians (which is weird, since they seem to have co-opted a bunch of other shit from that culture). I had never seen it before, so I found it interesting in a Wu-Tang stan kind of way, but it makes me miss music videos such as these, where your crew is just fucking around in a hallway (especially Method Man, pre-stardom) in front of a camera. For those of you two that have already watched this clip, please don't spoil it for the newbies.

-Max

Tha Liks (Tha Alkaholiks) - X.O. Experience (July 3, 2001)

After the release of their third album, Likwidation, Tha Alkaholiks (made up of Tash, J-Ro, and producer/sometime-rapper E-Swift) took a much-needed break. Tash recorded and released a solo disc, Rap Life, while the other two focused on work and (presumably) drinking. However, in late 2000, an affiliate of their posse, the Likwit Crew, hit all six numbers in the hip hop lottery: rapper Xzibit, who is probably best known for his MTV reality show Pimp My Ride and his puzzling appearance as an FBI agent in the last X-Files movie, was able to wrangle in Dr. Dre to executive-produce his third album, Restless, which automatically provided the project with a higher media profile, and, as longtime fans expected, Tha Alkaholiks were brought in to provide a guest spot. Due to the exposure, the trio decided to hook back up for album number four, but they soon found out that hip hop had undergone a severe shift during their absence.

In 2001, radio-friendly rap was the name of the game, and all hip hop albums were damn near required to include more commercial fare in order to justify/guarantee a release to the big box stores, where more units were shifted. Thankfully, this did not mean that the Trackmasters had the airwaves in the grip of their cold, dead hands: the very definition of radio-friendly had also changed, incorporating concepts from producers such as The Neptunes, Timbaland, and (to a much lesser extent) Rockwilder, who would have begged for radio spins just three years prior.

Forced to make a decision or face the possibility if becoming irrelevant in our chosen genre, Tha Alkaholiks opted to change with the times. They commissioned beats from two of the three producers listed above (Timbo wasn't invited, but can you imagine Tash drunken driving over one of the better Tim Mosely creations?), while E-Swift handled most of the rest, although he switched his style up more than a little bit to ape the flavor of the moment. The group even underwent a controversial name change: for their fourth disc, X.O. Experience (note the badass cover art above), they officially switched up the group moniker to Tha Liks. Since I'm not writing their biography or anything, I have no clue if the name switch was label-required or the choice of the artists (although I am aware that it was done because most radio station deejays refused to play songs by a group that called themselves Tha Alkaholiks), but either way, the motive was clear: glorifying alcohol abuse = poor sales; taking that out of the equation = better sales (maybe?).

X.O. Experience sold rather poorly (even with some Neptunes assistance on the lead-off single, "Best U Can"), and the crew took another hiatus, although this one wasn't as necessary as the last. Tha Alkaholiks left their label, Loud Records (although, to be fair, all of Loud's artists left their label, as money troubles forced it to shut down) and, five years later, released one final album before officially calling it quits. It's sad to see that an obviously talented crew like Tha Alkaholiks saw their career end essentially because the trends changed to such a degree that their old fans seemed to stop caring, but like a fine wine, the last three Liks albums have improved with age (especially Coast II Coast, their best effort to date), so the timing may be right for a Liks renaissance.

Let's find out.

1. INTRO
A rap album intro that's interesting in a nostalgic educational filmstrip kind of way, but it's still ultimately skippable.

2. BAR CODE (FEAT XZIBIT)
X.O. Experience already sounds completely different from the previous three discs, thanks to E-Swift's imitation of the club-ready sound of the day. However, that isn't a completely terrible thing. While Tash and J-Ro sound as good as always (and J-Ro slyly references Tash's solo album in his verse), I question Xzibit's inclusion in what is ostensibly the group's reintroduction to the game. He sounds good, his added clout should have helped, and I know that Tha Liks are basically responsible for his entire career, but I would have saved his cameo until at least the fourth track in. Still, this is pretty good.

3. RUN WILD (FEAT SHAE FIOL)
I wasn't feeling the hook on this one. The instrumental also sounds like some generic Rockwilder-lite pop music (which is pretty bad, since Rockwilder actually handled the production duties). Lyrically, the two rappers sound decent enough, but I probably won't ever pay attention to this song ever again, and I'm betting that the two of you won't, either.

4. L-I-K-S
I didn't really care for this song, either (E-Swift's beat didn't work for me this time, and the whole concept of spelling your name in your rap song became obsolete, in my opinion, after Elmo from fucking Sesame Street dropped his Definitive Jux debut), but I love the fact that, whenever Tash or J-Ro start to rhyme, you're instantly transported into a much better mood than the one you would be in if, say, you just finished up reading the write-up for GangStarr's Daily Operation prior to this one. These guys have this party-rap shit down, and I mean that only as the highest of compliments.

5. BULLY FOOT SKIT
The first time I ever heard this skit, I thought it was clever that the ringtone/pager beeping at the end seamlessly leads into the instrumental for the next track. Hearing this today, it's a lot less clever, but at least it's short.
6. BULLY FOOT (FEAT BUSTA RHYMES)
Guest star Busta Rhymes seems to hijack this song from hosts (for good reason, as I later found out that Tha Liks were pretty fucked up during the recording sessions for X.O. Experience, and when they finally arrived at the studio to record this collaboration, they found Busta already working his ass off), but not because he outshines either J-Ro or Tash. It's simply because Busta's voice is the first one you hear, and DJ Scratch's production work suits his style more so than it would a couple of alcoholic artists. The beat starts to become unbearable after a short time, so don't say Max didn't warn you.

7. MY DEAR (FEAT DEFARI)
Well, someone responsible for this song was a huge fan of The Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By" (or, to a lesser extent, Joe's "Stutter", a song that I still like to this day). This song isn't bad at all, but Defari manages to fuck up the souffle by slamming the oven door with a verse that is both harsher than it has any right to be and very poorly written. (A note to all aspiring rappers: quoting a certain Trick Daddy song is never a good idea. Give this track a spin, and you'll see what I'm referring to.)

8. INTERLUDE
...

9. DA DA DA DA
I can't stand the lazy-ass hook on here, nor can I tolerate the imaginative song title, but lyrically, this is pretty good. It's not as if J-Ro was ever a bad rapper, but because he's usually outshined by Catashtrophe, his lyrical skills have been overlooked numerous times. On this track, he proves why you should give him a second glance (although, yes, Tash raps circles around him on here as well).

10. 40 OZ QUARTET PART I
Short enough to be an interlude, but this is really a one-verse wonder from J-Ro over some simple production (I believe E-Swift is utilizing the "breathing over a jug of moonshine with two x's printed on the side" technique to furnish the melody). Not bad at all.

11. SICKNESS (FEAT BUTCH CASSIDY)
I've always wondered why Tha Alkaholiks never collaborated with Method Man and Redman: I'm sure Red and Meth's blunted rhymes would compliment the drunken verses from Tha Liks any day of the week. Anyway, this song is pretty good, especially Tash's denouncing of weak rappers, although Rockwilder's production (his second and final contribution to X.O. Experience) is a bit too club-ready for my tastes.

12. GOIN' CRAZY
E-Swift's beat is overly simplistic, like one of those mixtape songs that fifty million other no-name rappers would jump on to further their own careers (or, at the very least, to see their name pop up on multiple blogs when their version posts). Tha Liks deserve better, as the track comes off as if no actual thought was put into this shit whatsoever.

13. BEST U CAN (FEAT PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
Tha Alkaholiks made their lone foray into the mainstream with the help from the hitmakers of the moment, The Neptunes, who were still riding high from their recent success. Although the combination of Tha Liks and Chad and Pharrell's dancefloor beats should sound fucking awful, I actually really like the song. It's not the crew's best effort by a long shot (and The Neptunes have also produced much better beats for other artists), but it is enjoyable, and you probably wouldn't kick it out of bed, either, if you're truly being honest with yourself.

14. 40 OZ QUARTET PART II
I would pay actual money (and not the Monopoly money I sometimes trick street vendors with) for an entire Alkaholiks album that utilized the moonshine jug throughout. Tash fucks up his one-verse wonder midway through: I smell a fix.

15. ANOTHA ROUND
I appreciate the fact that Tash references the crew's name change, but I still found myself bored to death by this shit. In fact, I just dug myself up out of my grave with the sole intention of finishing up this write-up.

16. YO MOUTH SKIT
...

17. THE BUBBLE (FEAT KING TEE)
It's hard to look past the beat, which sounds like background music for either some truly ineffective children's programming or for some online refresher on-the-job training. King Tee comes off the best, probably because his verse is the shortest, forcing you to listen to E-Swift's awful instrumental for the least amount of time. As such, he wins.

18. 151 (FEAT XZIBIT)
The closet thing to a "regular" Liks track on X.O. Experience, and the album is that much better for it. J-Ro's odd rhyme technique is off-putting at first, but the fact that he throws in an anti-drunk driving public service announcement in his final verse redeems it. Tash, of course, rips shit in a lovely manner. (Longtime readers will recall that I have frequently touted Tash as one of the most underrated rappers in the game.) This shit is just entertaining, which is all that music needs to be.

19. PROMOTE VIOLINS (FEAT KURUPT)
The title alone is pretty fucking hilarious. E-Swift's beat sounds like yet another instrumental Busta Rhymes would lease, hook up digital cable (or a satellite dish, if he were so inclined), and build an Ikea entertainment center within, but it still works for Tha Liks. Although Kurupt's verse is the weakest of the three (which is consistent with his current output: seriously, where did that guy leave his talent, on the bus?), the sound of this song is powerful enough to serve as an effective album closer.

FINAL THOUGHTS: X.O. Experience was a critical disappointment, failing to appeal to fans that religiously picked up the last three Alkaholiks albums. However, lack of sales should never be used as a true barometer for the album's effectiveness. While there is a lot more filler on here than on their previous efforts, Tash, J-Ro, and E-Swift have still managed to concoct a disc of enjoyable party songs without entirely dumbing down their message. It also helps that, when it comes to the lyrics, Tha Alkaholiks continue to shine, even when E-Swift's instrumentals take their inevitable radio-friendly detours.

BUY OR BURN? I would recommend that you two actually buy this shit (it is apparently out of print, but used copies should be relatively easy to find). Not every song works, but the disc as a whole is an entertaining package. You won't be disappointed, although Max is not legally responsible if you don't have the capacity or the capability to enjoy this album.

BEST TRACKS: "Sickness"; "Bar Code"; "Best U Can"; "40 Oz Quartet Part I"; "Promote Violins"; "151"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Browse the minibar for more Alkaholiks posts by clicking here.

The Notorious B.I.G. - Born Again (December 7, 1999)

In honor (I say that cautiously, as I have not yet seen it) of the release of Notorious, the Biggie Smalls biopic that hits theaters today, I present Christopher Wallace's first posthumous album, Born Again.

The title of the album follows the natural cycle presented on Biggie's first two discs, Ready To Die and Life After Death. In fact, if I remember correctly, Biggie spoke of calling his third release Born Again prior to his untimely death on March 9, 1997, from injuries sustained in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, one which remains unsolved to this very day.

However, the title may be the only input that The Notorious B.I.G. has on this project. Since he was dead and all, he wasn't available to contribute any new verses, so his friend/mentor/boss Sean "Puffy" Combs was charged with compiling an album that could simultaneously pay homage to the man and possibly be perceived as a valid third album. Naturally, this meant grabbing as many "unreleased" (read: swiped from mixtapes) Biggie bars as possible, and fitting them onto recently-completed instrumentals like a jigsaw puzzle, and then calling upon the hot rappers of the moment (or, when that failed, pulling rank on the Bad Boy Records roster) to fill in the blanks.

Consequently, Born Again is primarily made up of song amalgamations that aren't necessarily natural. To his credit, though, Puff Daddy seems to have chosen artists to contribute that, at the very least, Biggie might have listened to in his lifetime, unlike the deviant mutations of tracks that appear on his other posthumous disc, Duets: The Final Chapter, but we'll get to that when we get to that.

For an album that was talked up in the hip hop press for about a full year prior to its release, Born Again is as notable for its exclusions as it is for what ended up on the final product. A remix of an early Biggie hit, "Party & Bullshit" (which appeared on the Who's The Man? soundtrack before Biggie was even signed to a label: his name even appears on the disc as 'Big'), featuring Will Smith and Biggie's widow Faith Evans, and featuring production from DJ Premier, was mentioned so often that I'm convinced that it's sitting in the Bad Boy vaults, fully mastered, simply collecting dust, and yet, it's not here. I suppose it would have been too obvious for Puffy to include some of Biggie's actual unreleased songs on Born Again, apparently, so only one remnant of the Ready To Die studio sessions, "Come On", makes an appearance. (Other tracks, featuring artists as diverse as Nerf Herder, The Lox, Killah Priest, Lauryn Hill, and Sufjan Stevens, also ended up missing from the final cut.) Probably the biggest name missing from the project is Shawn Carter, who publicly stated that he didn't participate because, unlike most of the artists on Born Again, he actually did record songs with Biggie Smalls and didn't feel that it would be appropriate. (And yet Jay-Z had no such qualms when Duets: The FInal Chapter was conceived. Hmm.....)

Born Again sold tons of copies and helped cement Christopher Wallace's place in hip hop's eventual hall of fame, which will either be located in New York somewhere, or possibly in Scandinavia, where the music from the South doesn't get much play. However, it was met with much critical derision, and the public perception of the disc was a cartoonish image of Puff Daddy riding his deceased friend's coattails all the way to the motherfucking bank. As such, most Biggie fans don't even bother including this disc in their hero's official catalog.

But was this backlash deserved?

Probably. Here's why:

1. BORN AGAIN (INTRO)
Kind of incredibly polarizing. You'll walk away from this rap album intro either depressed that Biggie was ultimately correct about his early death, or you'll be pissed off that Puffy and company included this shit as a wholly manufactured way to tug at your heartstrings. The dumbass chanting at the end (lyrics swiped from "Dead Wrong") also makes zero sense in this context, and seem to have been included as an inside joke being played on the listeners. We get it: the man's dead. I can read the newspaper too, jackass. This is one of the most useless rap album intros I have heard in a long while.

2. NOTORIOUS B.I.G. (FEAT PUFF DADDY & LIL' KIM)
I never cared for this song. You can almost see Puffy break out the shiny suit over Prestige's radio-friendly endeavor, and that is never a good thing. (For one, they burn the corneas and cause much distracti...oooh, look, shiny object!) I'm sure it doesn't help that the Duran Duran sample (from, duh, "Notorious") constantly reminds me today of the children dancing in fucking Donnie Darko. And wasn't this song once simply referred to as "Notorious"? What the fuck happened?

3. DEAD WRONG (REMIX) (FEAT EMINEM)
Probably the most vile song on all of Born Again, but I mean that in the best possible way. Biggie's demented lyrics (taken from multiple sources and not, in fact, from an unreleased song entitled "Dead Wrong", as I mistakenly believed) are aided and abetted by an after-the-fact beat from multiple members of Puff Daddy's Hitmen production squad. Since Biggie actually comes off as someone you would not want to fuck with, I have to give kudos. Marshall's tacked-on verse at the end is unnecessary (as was his cameo in this track's video), but still mildly amusing: this was during Slim Shady's career apex, so it's actually pretty entertaining. True fans should probably track down the original version of this track online, sans Eminem, so that you can hear what it sounded like prior to label interference (read: Puff Daddy).

4. HOPE YOU N----S SLEEP (FEAT HOT BOYS, & BIG TYMERS)
When Born Again was released, this song caught a lot of flak: would Biggie have actually worked with Cash Money artists if he were still around. Looking back, the answer is a wholehearted "You bet your fucking ass he would", especially when it comes to Lil' Wayne, hip hop's flavor of the month, who bats cleanup on here as part of the Hot Boys. The Mannie Fresh instrumental is alright (believe it or not, I always kind of liked his beats; I was just never impressed with the artists he chose to work with), and, in a sentence I never thought I would see on my blog, I found Juvenile's verse to actually be really good, and B.G.'s wasn't entirely without merit. Aaah, lowered expectations! Biggie's vocals sound awkwardly laid in by the engineers, though, as if they did it while wearing earplugs, a blindfold, and six broken condoms. (See, not all of these comments make sense.)

5. DANGEROUS M.C.'S (FEAT BUSTA RHYMES, MARK CURRY, & SNOOP DOGG)
This patchwork quilt of a song is only notable because, apparently, there was something wrong with the audio on Biggie's original recording: we actually lose his voice for almost two bars, so Busta Rhymes steps in to help us out. Otherwise, this song is boring as fuck, and Busta's hook is almost as stupid as the one that Ron Browz contributes to his own "Arab Money". Okay, I'm exaggerating: nothing could be dumber than the hook on "Arab Money". Snoop's appearance on here brings with it more questions than necessary, the primary one being: Why? And I'm almost nineteen percent sure that it isn't the same Mark Curry that had his own show, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, on ABC for five seasons. (It was on for that long? Seriously?)

6. BIGGIE (FEAT JUNIOR M.A.F.I.A.)

Although Lil' Kim appears on this track, she doesn't get her own performer credit, as she was still technically a part of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. back in 1999. Anywho, save for the inclusion of an older vocal sample in the hook, Biggie Smalls doesn't actually appear on here at all. Instead, the Junior M.A.F.I.A. take the opportunity to rhyme about their mentor, although everyone involved take major detours during their verses, derailing the sympathy. Also, while Kim doesn't sound horrible (indeed, she is actually the best rapper out of the group, although that's possibly because she was fucking her mentor), she's already appeared on Born Again too many times, and this is only her second appearance.

7. N----S
For obvious reasons, this is the only song on Born Again that doesn't feature any guest assistance from anybody. When Curtis Jackson was set to release his Get Rich Or Die Tryin', a mixtape-only track was released (with this same title) that fit Biggie's lyrics from here onto a much better beat (one I believe was provided by DJ Green Lantern, but I could be wrong). Not that Puffy did a completely awful job with the instrumental, but if I wanted to hear music that sounds like the opening theme to a 1970s cop show, I would turn on my television.

8. BIG BOOTY HOES (FEAT TOO $HORT)
Ahhh, nothing like a misogynistic sex rap to help pay your respects to a deceased artist. (Remember all of those vulgar anal sex jokes after Ray Charles passed away? Or the vivid discussion of autoerotic asphyxiation on Mozart's farewell album?) I have to admit that I laughed out loud when Biggie exclaimed how he likes his women "educated, so [he] can bust off on their glasses", and that makes me feel a bit guilty, but not by much, as we've all seen much worse in mainstream porn. (If you haven't, you should open up a new browser window and look that up while finishing the review.) Too $hort sounds pretty bored as fuck on here, as if even he realized that he's said all of this shit before.

9. WOULD YOU DIE FOR ME? (FEAT PUFF DADDY & LIL' KIM)
Beat-wise, this comes off as a companion piece to Life After Death's "Nasty Boy". Hook-wise, it'll make you want to run a wire hanger through your ear canal to stab your brain to death. I would like to think that even Puffy would be aware that the chorus could have been better served if it were performed by a couple of fucking hyenas (literally, two hyenas fucking) in front of a classroom of tone-deaf fourth graders. Also, why the fuck is Kim on here again? (That's a rhetorical question, you two, so please don't leave your theories in the comments.)

10. COME ON (FEAT SADAT X)
Somewhere, someone is reading this and thinking, "Sadat X? What the fuck is he doing on Born Again? When was the last time Sadat sold millions of records?" Well, here's the deal, for those of you two that aren't aware: "Come On" was originally intended for Ready To Die, but was removed for reasons unknown to me (possibly sample clearance issues, but my theory is that Puffy felt Sadat X from Brand Nubian didn't really fit the demographic he was aiming for). This means, that, unlike every other fucking song on here, "Come On" is the only track which Biggie actually recorded with his guest, and it shows in the quality. This isn't bad at all: whatever happened to producer Clark Kent, anyway?

11. RAP PHENOMENON (FEAT REDMAN & METHOD MAN)
And then we're presented with this shit. Anybody remotely interested in hearing what Reggie Noble would sound like over a DJ Premier beat will find themselves severely disillusioned, as Primo falters on what is ultimately the most disappointing instrumental on all of Born Again. Seriously, Primo gave a much better beat to motherfucking Fred Durst. Red and Meth sound pretty boring, but, admittedly, Biggie's verses (swiped from his guest appearance on Tracey Lee's "Keep Your Hands High" - I was always a fan of his "The Theme (It's Party Time)", but the track featuring the guest of honor was of no consequence) sound pretty good. Still, this could have been so much more.

12. LET ME GET DOWN (FEAT CRAIG MACK, G-DEP, & MISSY ELLIOTT)
Is that really the best use of Craig Mack you could muster, Puffy? Come on, motherfucker! The man is partially responsible for Biggie's success for two reasons: (1) Craig Mack, Biggie's only labelmate in the early days of Bad Boy, was much less charismatic than The Notorious B.I.G, leaving listeners with no choice but to pick Biggie, and (2) Craig Mack's "Flava In Ya Ear (Remix)", which featured Biggie on the lead verse (and also included Busta Rhymes, Rampage, LL Cool J, and Puffy on the ad-libs) with a performance that cemented his place in hip hop while Craig Mack was forced to take a night job at Ruby Tuesday's. Oh, the song? It's not bad, but it's not very good, either.

13. TONIGHT (FEAT PUFF DADDY & MOBB DEEP)
An unnecessary remix of Life After Death's "Long Kiss Goodnight", now with one hundred and eighty percent more Puff Daddy shouting. Havoc sounds alright, but the surprise here is Prodigy, who, uncharacteristically, doesn't suck. This probably would have been a much better song had Havoc actually manned the boards, but I'll take what I can get. Hearing Joe Hooker on the, well, hook, makes me miss Black Rob's "I Dare You".

14. IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE (FEAT BLACK ROB, BEANIE SIGEL, & ICE CUBE)
This track is almost fucking avant-garde in its execution, with its awkward beat and a hook that shouldn't exist as a hook. (It doesn't help that the "hook" was converted to such a beast from some older Biggie lyrics that had to be censored due to content, hence the quantity of empty space.) I don't appreciate how Puffy seemed to select his chosen guests by utilizing the Randomizer on Def Jam: Icon: come on, Beanie Sigel and Ice Cube? Really? At least Sigel sounds good (and Black Rob comes off decently as well - I really should try to find his debut in my boxes), but considering that Biggie has approximately half a verse on here, this song is a waste of time.

15. WHO SHOT YA? (FEAT PUFF DADDY)
Biggie's classic "Big Poppa" b-side, a first-person monologue from the perspective of a kidnapper, finally sees a release on a "proper" album (please note the use of quotation marks). This song easily destroys any other track Born Again has the sack to offer up. And I say this even though Puffy takes the coward's way out and fades out the song just before Biggie takes out his frustration on his captive. (The full, uncensored version can be found online rather easily.)

16. CAN I GET WITCHA (FEAT LIL' CEASE)
Rap song number 1,873,472 extolling the virtues of the woman with the ample bottom. Raise your hand if you're disturbed at the idea of Biggie and Lil' Cease trading lines (relatively speaking) in the chorus about one of them wanting to get with the other because they have a big B-U-T-T. (I realize that's not what the chorus is actually going for, but it's pretty fucking close, and it's distracting enough to make you move to the next song.)

17. I REALLY WANT TO SHOW YOU (FEAT K-CI, JOJO & NAS)
So Biggie's "Everyday Struggle" is remixed into submission, to the point that you may need to use dental records to identify it. The inclusion of Nasir was supposed to be a big deal because Nas and Biggie weren't exactly close during his lifetime: yeah, Puff, having Nas appear on the disc after the star has already died is a surefire way to help them bury the hatchet.

18. MS. WALLACE (OUTRO) (FEAT VOLETTA WALLACE)
I found this to be a very touching and honest outro. Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, denounces her son's decision to become part of the music industry, all while acknowledging that his rhymes brought entertainment to more than a few people's ears, because she feels that rap music was directly related to her son's murder. I appreciate her candor, although it is ironically tacked on to the end of a rap album (and is faded out before she even finishes talking - goddamn it, I hate when people do that shit). However, the biggest problem with this outro is not its existence, unlike other albums. No, the beef I have with it is that it will probably never be heard by Biggie's fans, who will skip this shit right back to the beginning after realizing that this isn't a song. Sigh.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Born Again is an inferior album in the Biggie Smalls catalog. That's the opinion that essentially everyone on Earth has, so you two shouldn't be surprised by my conclusion, but the reason it fails is not because of the massive number of guests: it's because said guests fail to show even the smallest ounce of emotion regarding the passing of the star attraction. The most sincere comment comes from Biggie's mother, but she's talking about how she wishes her son never picked up the mic: that's not what hip hop fans want to hear. It's pretty obvious that Born Again was a cash-in for Puff Daddy, capitalizing on exploiting his friend, and I have a weird feeling that Notorious will give me that same feeling. Again, none of this is new information: it's just a new twist on popular opinion.

BUY OR BURN? Enough people already bought enough of this garbage to warrant it the number one slot on the Billboard charts the week of its release, but that doesn't mean you need to make the same mistake. You should avoid this album in much the same manner as I try to avoid anything remotely relating to The Hills (which is to say, like the fucking Black Plague).

BEST TRACKS: "Dead Wrong (Remix)"; "Who Shot Ya?"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Some more Notorious B.L.O.G.S. here (sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun).

Submissions Now Being Accepted...

Hey, you two! Did you enjoy the Reader Review series back in December? Were you interested in submitting a write-up, but ran out of time because Max inconveniently scheduled the run during the fucking holidays? Or do you just like the idea of seeing your writing on a blog that has been featured in Hip Hop Connection (briefly, yes, but still...)?

Well, fear not! Hip Hop Isn't Dead is once again accepting submissions from readers just like yourself. If you've found yourself to be incredibly pissed off about something that I wrote about a while back and wish to set the record straight, or merely want to practice your writing skills in a forum where anonymous readers aren't afraid of writing out simplistic homophobic slurs when they don't agree with you, then hit me up at the email on the right.

The assignment this time is the same as before: write about an album that I've written about previously. I've cleaned up the 'Search By Artist' sidebar, so it should be easier for you to find something you're interested in writing about. The deadline this time around is February 1st.

Here are the usual guidelines:

-Write-ups still have to be written in the track-by-track format. While you should also be sure to list the songs you feel are worthy of attention (read: 'Best Tracks'), introductory paragraphs are not necessary.

-Your review can either be positive or negative, but you have to justify your critique with opinions that aren't the equivalent of "this song sucks" eighteen songs in a row.

-You have to assign yourself a nickname. Nobody gets to post anonymously.

-If you have your own blog and wish to promote it within your write-up, let me know.

Once again, if you have a thick skin and want to make your hip hop preferences known, drop me a line at the e-mail addy on the right. The deadline is February 1st. And bear in mind, although this assignment is revisiting reviews I've already written, soon I'll expand it to include albums I haven't actually listened to yet, so if this is something you'd like to see continue, let me know.

Also, I'm still accepting ideas for write-ups that you would like to see. Drop me a line or leave me a comment, and if enough people start asking for the same stuff, I'll try to oblige.

Stay tuned.

-Max

For Promotional Use Only: Redman - Live From The Bricks (2007)

Reggie Noble's sixth solo album, Red Gone Wild: Thee Album, had been promised to consumers for at least three years as of January 2007. Redman had seen multiple release date changes, complete album overhauls, and even a negative review in Blender (one which referenced songs that never made the album, leading me to believe that there's a bootleg of that motherfucker somewhere to be found). Reggie also had to deal with a record label (Def Jam) that had little to no faith in the older members of its roster (see: Redman, Method Man, LL Cool J) and, as such, failed to promote them properly. So Reggie opted to market himself by his own damn self.

Reggie fans saw two mixtapes from his Ill At Will series hit shelves in support of Red Gone Wild: Thee Album (to date, no third volume has been released). A steady buzz had been created, and eventually Def Jam had to acknowledge it, lest Redman sic a rabid Keith Murray on their street team again. Once the label announced a firm release date for March 2007, Reggie quickly dropped Live From The Bricks, a mixtape meant to keep hope alive. A partnership with DJ Scoob Doo, Live From The Bricks showcased Redman and his weed carriers (including the skilled Icarus, or Icadon, depending on which side of the bed he woke up on that day) rhyming over various beats (both original compositions and those jacked from established artists). The mixtape is sequenced like a regular Redman album, skits and all, except for the fact that there are several songs in the disc's second half that fail to feature the star attraction entirely.

The jury's still out as to whether Live From The Bricks either hurt or helped Reggie's actual sales, though.

1. JERSEY CONFERENCE CALL
Wouldn't be a mixtape without an intro setting up the whole house of cards, right?

2. LIVE FROM THE BRICKS
Reggie rips the shit out of the Jake One beat that was originally blasphemed by Hot Rod (from the G-Unit...hey, whatever the fuck happened to that guy?) for "Be Easy". (For those of you two that care, the beat was originally used by Bishop Lamont for "Fuck Yo Couch", and he did a much better job with it than what Hot Rod could ever dream of.) The pairing of Jake One and Redman could do hip hop some good. Perhaps someone should set up a meet and greet.

3. SHUT 'EM DOWN
Not very impressive. Redman sounds awkward as he slows down his flow to a conversation-style. Maybe this track only sucks because of the beat, but it still sucks.

4. HOW THE BRICKS GET DOWN
Wake me up when it's over. No, really. I can be a deep sleeper.

5. CLICK CLICK
Okay, now that's more like it. This shit is just cool to listen to. Sorry, but that's all I got.

6. WALK IN GUTTER
This was a sneak preview of the Def Squad reunion track "Walk In Gutta" off of Red Gone Wild: Thee Album, although you only get to hear Reggie on this version. I didn't like the song when I heard it for the first time, but in listening to it today, it's actually pretty good. I have no idea what I was smoking back then.

7. YES SIR
Reggie jacks Justin Timberlake's "My Love", with only decent results. This song sounds exactly like how you would imagine it to after reading the first six words in the last sentence. The outro runs for waaay too long to be taken seriously.

8. BRICK CITY CHAMPION
There's just something about Jay-Z's "Lost Ones" beat (produced by Dr. Dre and friends) that causes rappers to wax poetically (and seriously) about life. Dre, you should give Reggie a call. Considering how he kills this instrumental, you two may be able to help each other out.

9. IT'S OURS (SKIT)
...

10. BRANSON BRANSON
This song would have been alright had there not been the sound of a burp incorporated into the beat. I'm not sure what a burp has to do with a song that was titled in tribute to hip hop's foremost drug dealer, but whatever.

11. FROM THE BRICKS TO THE WEST (SKIT)
...

12. IF YOU GOT BEEF THEN RUN ON UP (FEAT MARKIE)
Reggie participates in a West Coast slow-roll kind of thing that is so West Coast that a Nate Dogg soundalike even pops up on the hook. Hell, it might even be Nate Dogg for all I know, although it doesn't sound much like him. This isn't bad at all.

13. WE MOBBIN' (FEAT READY ROC)
Nothing special here, folks. Move it along.

14. IS YOU DOWN (SKIT)
...

15. GET OFF MY DICK (FEAT READY ROC & ICARUS)
Just in case you believed Reggie abandoned his Gilla House crew in the name of promoting Red Gone Wild: Thee Album, this track is proof positive that his sixth solo album would be more of a group effort. This track is alright, but in about an hour you'll just be hungry again.

16. BRICK CITY CODEINE
Zzzzzz.......

17. PIFF PIFF
I'm almost embarrassed for Reggie at this point.

18. FUCK YA OPINION
This is a move in the right direction, although the title is actually better than the song itself.

19. R&B SMOKE BREAK (FEAT MELANIE)
Reggie's resident studio singer Melanie sings over Snoop Dogg and R. Kelly's "That's That Shit". While she does a pretty good job, I really did not want to remember that particular song. Sigh.

20. SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE SHOW (FEAT YUMMY & ROCKWILDER)
Although it isn't appropriate to the song itself (which is actually more than decent), Reggie's verse is fucking hilarious: his delivery alone of "I hit your barbecue with family like the Wayans, 'cause I'm deep, n---a!" is just funny.

21. I KNOW (FEAT E3)
Clearly you don't, or else you would have realized this song was a bad idea.

22. I TAKE YA CHAIN (FEAT ICARUS)
With this track, Reggie takes a smoke break and lets all of his weed carriers take a crack at a song of their choice. I've always hated Fat Joe and Lil' Wayne's "Make It Rain" (one guess as to why), but Icadon's song-jacking is just funny to me. This may not be an actual good song, but it was entertaining enough, in a mixtape kind of way.

23. LET'S GO (FEAT SAUKRATES)
Saukrates sounds fucking great over this beat. I have to say, although I haven't liked a lot of his work ever since he hooked up with Redman's camp, I'm impressed about this.

24. I DON'T BUDGE (FEAT READY ROC)
Ready Roc jacks one of Obie Trice's most underrated beats, with excellent results. Damn, this beat is catchy: Witt & Pep, the producers of Obie's "Cry Now", should give themselves a pat on the back. Go ahead, I can wait.

25. ASK SOMEBODY (FEAT RUNT DAWG)
Runt Dawg sounds like a less-mumbly Curtis Jackson, but he still comes off good over this beat. Some of this shit is actually really funny, so the comparison to the G-Unit general is negligible.

26. BRICK CITY GANGSTAS (FEAT MR. RED, MR. PURP, & READY ROC)
Well, it's about fucking time Reggie (also known as Mr. Red for this one song only) appeared on his own goddamn mixtape. While the track itself is alright, there's hardly anything memorable about it.

27. BRICK CITY TO ROCKLAND COUNTY (FEAT BLAMM & LD)
I liked the beat, as it sounds different that what Redman typically chooses to rhyme to. However, while Reggie sounded good, I found myself slowly becoming annoyed with the guests.

28. INTERNATIONAL (SKIT)
...

29. WELL WELL WELL
Meh.

30. WALK ON
This is weird. This track is essentially made up of all of Redman's verses from his collaboration with Method Man, "Walk On", from Meth's 4:21...The Day After. The reason I find it weird is that, at this point, Meth's album had already hit the shelves, so everyone that cared had already heard all of Reggie's rhymes, which are all run together here. It leads me to believe that Reggie's original verse was chopped up to infinity and beyond when they were constructing the Meth song, and that Redman and Method Man weren't actually in the same studio when they recorded their duet. You know, that may help explain my comment on the Meth album, where I was confused as to why it took three separate producers to create one fucking song...

31. MY FIRST BRICK CITY SONG
Reggie certainly loves jacking beats from his then-boss, Jay-Z ("Lost Ones" from earlier in the album, the R.Kelly/Jay-Z jack from the second volume of Ill At Will, his freestyle over "Trouble" that hit the airwaves after this mixtape's release (the one that proved that Paul Wall was vastly inferior when paired up with an actual talented rapper), and now Jay's "My 1st Song"). I'm sure it gives him a bit of a thrill, stealing his boss's thunder like that. This is a decent outro to what has become an overlong mixtape.

SHOULD YOU TRACK IT DOWN? Sure, why not? There's enough good on Live From The Bricks to warrant seeking it out on the Interweb. As with all mixtapes, there is a lot of utter bullshit on here, and it's much longer than it absolutely needs to be, but the great tracks (including some from the Gilla House crew that don't even feature the headliner) will make it worth your while. Feel free to download this and enjoy. It's at least a far better listening experience than Malpractice was.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
More Reggie Noble-related stuff to be found here.

Not Available In Stores! Ol' Dirty Bastard - A Son Unique (2004-2005)

After Russell Jones was finally released from prison (an experience which, from what I understand, truly fucked with his psyche), he was whisked away to a press conference alongside Damon Dash and, of all people, Mariah Carey, to announce his signing with Roc-A-Fella Records. If I remember correctly, none of Ol' Dirty's Wu-Tang brethren were involved with the festivities, but that can't be right: The Rza, at least, should have been there, being family, right? Maybe my mind is just messing with me.

Ol' Dirty Bastard's signing was just another in a long series of power moves that Dame Dash executed without getting approval from his partner, Jay-Z, who generally had the final word on any artist that was signed to his vanity label. (Dame also tried to promote Cam'Ron to vice president of operations, or some other useless title (not unlike "associate producer"), while Shawn Carter was away on vacation.) These internal power struggles took their toll, and, inevitably, Roc-A Fella crumbled. Jay-Z became president of Def Jam Records and took the Roc-A-Fella name with him (and proceeded to sign many artists to that subsidiary, although the only two that listeners even bothered with were Kanye West and Hova himself), while Dame Dash started up the Dame Dash Music Group (or DDMG), with the full intention of releasing Dirt McGirt's A Son Unique, Russell's comeback vehicle (which was fully recorded and mastered prior to the split) as its flagship title.

Which, of course, never happened.

The passing of Ol' Dirty Bastard (from a drug overdose) meant that his estate automatically became involved with the release of A Son Unique. For whatever reason, the Osirus mixtape (released under a different label) was authorized by the family, but the one album that could have actually served as a viable swan song for the troubled rapper remains in legal limbo. For his part, Dame Dash seems to have completely given up on the disc, almost guaranteeing that this shit will never see the light of day officially.

Which is a damn shame. A Son Unique contains all-new verses from Dirty, unlike the Osiris debacle, and its name-brand production (provided by the likes of The Rza, The Neptunes, and others), combined with its (admittedly way-too-numerous) guest stars makes this the true (and only) successor to N---a Please.

1. LIFT YA SKIRT (FEAT MISSY ELLIOTT)
The addition of Missy Elliott is questionable, as the original, Missy-less track had been available online for quite some time when this disc "dropped" on the Interweb. Producer Mark Ronson, who does a pretty fucking good imitation of early Rza work on here, swiped Dirty's now-unused second verse for use on his own Britney Spears cover "Toxic" from Version. Even with Missy on here, I still like this song, especially the breakdown before each chorus that is lifted wholesale from an older Gravediggaz track whose name I can't place right now.

2. POP SHOTS (FEAT LIL' FAME OF M.O.P.)
The same song that appeared on that insipid and uninspired Osirus mixtape, except with the addition of Lil' Fame. I found it weird that, for two songs in a row, the special guests have made it a point to quote Dirty's lyrics from the Wu-Tang Clan track "Shame On A N---a". I also love how all of Russell's references to Roc-A-Fella were deleted by Dame Dash, although they are all present and accounted for on the Osirus mixtape.

3. OPERATOR (FEAT CLIPSE & PHARRELL WILLIAMS)
I liked this Neptunes beat when it was first released as a sort-of remix to James Brown's "Make It Funky" (and also when it was utilized in a Sprite commercial), and the good news is that it also seems to fit ODB like a sequined glove. This is the third song in a row that featured established guests added onto a song that previously existed as an ODB solo, but I guess that, at that point in time, the addition of the Clipse could have possibly moved some units. Dirty sounded just fine by himself, though.

4. BACK IN THE AIR (FEAT GHOSTFACE KILLAH)
ODB actually sounds somewhat lyrical on here, and Ghost is as indecipherable as someone can be that chooses to speak in his own personal code. The Rza's (supposed) production work sounds kind of bland on here, but otherwise, this song isn't bad.

5. WORK FOR ME (FEAT YOUNG CHRIS)
This song is pretty fucking stupid. ODB has never been one to shy away from more commercial-sounding instrumentals, but I'm almost positive that this beat (and the Dame Dash-approved guest, Young Chris from the Young Gunz, a rap duo I'm almost certain most readers have never heard of despite their moderate commercial success) was forced upon him as a condition of his contract.

6. ODB DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART (FEAT MACY GRAY)
There is truly no way to critique this song. There are no words. I'm sure Elton John would be amused by this, though. I hear he has a healthy sense of humour. (See how I added the "u" for emphasis? Classy, right?)

7. STOMP (FEAT THE RZA)
I liked everything about this track except for Rza's stupid-ass shouting on the hook, which comes off as if he were actively auditioning for System Of A Down. Didn't ODB already have a song called "Stomp" in his back catalog?

8. HOW YA FEELIN'
What the fuck is this shit? This sounds worse than all of Osirus.

9. INTOXICATED (FEAT RAEKWON, METHOD MAN, & MACY GRAY)
I believe this leaked online just prior to Dirty's passing: there's a twelve-inch single for it and everything. I don't know why Macy Gray needs to appear twice in A Son Unique, but she sounds good on the hook, and the "Rawhide" team of Rae, Dirt, and Meth (with The Rza behind the boards) bring the heat. (I don't think I've ever used the phrase "bring the heat" on this blog before. Huh.) Dirty does sound like he's rhyming to a completely different beat, though, perhaps one that originated in his head.

10. DIRTY & GRIMEY (FEAT NOREAGA)
This is another one of those Dame Dash-approved partnerships, as N.O.R.E. was a part of Roc-A-Fella at the time. Would ODB have worked with Noreaga otherwise? Probably, since both artists tend to favor the production work of The Neptunes, but it would have been nice if it was on his own terms, as the end result would have to have sounded a little bit better than this forced shit. Noreaga is especially annoying on the hook.

11. DANGER ZONE (FEAT JOE BUDDEN)
This is probably the strangest partnership on the whole of A Son Unique, as I'm not convinced that the artists were familiar with the other's work: hell, I'm not sure that Joe Budden even remembers he recorded this fucking song today. The hook couldn't have sounded good to anybody in the studio that day. Hey, Dame, did it ever occur to you that, instead of using your connections to create artificial duets, Dirty's fans may have wanted to hear a few more collaborations with the Wu? I'm sure Buddha Monk could have found room in his busy schedule to make an appearance.

12. SKRILLA (FEAT THE RZA)
The credits read "featuring The Rza", but I couldn't hear him anywhere on the track, and I listened to it three timed just to make sure. The hook to this is pretty stupid, but the song is enjoyable nonetheless. The Rza took his instrumental and tweaked it for Method Man's "The Glide", a Wu-Tang posse cut off of 4:21...The Day After. I'm not sure why he didn't bring over one of Dirty's verses with him: I'm sure the Wu heads in the world would have appreciated hearing Dirt McGirt alongside his Clan, even if the collaboration was manufactured in the studio.

13. DON'T HURT ME DIRTY
This is pretty awful. It isn't bad enough to negate the good that A Son Unique has done, though.

SHOULD YOU HUNT IT DOWN? I know that there was a lawsuit that held up the release of A Son Unique, but my understanding is that it was settled quite a while ago, and Dame Dash continues to sit on the masters of this disc, with no release date in sight. That's a fucking mistake. A Son Unique should have sounded awful (if Osiris was any indication), but it doesn't: in fact, save for a handful of songs, this sounds really really good. It's as entertaining as N---a Please (and, to some extent, Return To The 36 Chambers (The Dirty Version)), and some of the songs on here rank among Dirty's best. Hell, if A Son Unique ever got a proper release date, I would recommend that all two of my readers pick up a copy the day it drops, I think it's that good. It's a fucking shame. Oh, well. At least we have the Interweb to help us get our fix.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Wu! Wu! Wu!