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

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