Little is known about the origin of Philly rapper Freeway's beard. Some say that it was born out of necessity, to obscure the identity of one of the world's greatest (or worst, if you think about it) assassins. It is also believed by many to hold magical powers, or at the very least, it stores food crumbs for sustenance, so that Freeway can go often for days at a time without grabbing something to eat. I personally believe it to be detachable, something that Freeway purchased at Party City in order to join up with the other Amish kids during rumspringa. No matter how you feel about the beard, though, you have to agree: it's pretty awesome. Not many rappers can pull off the beard like Freeway can.
Born Leslie Pridgen but quickly adopting the rap nickname Freeway as fast as he could, Beardy linked up with fellow Philly resident Beanie Sigel during rap battles in high school. Once Sigel was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, he went back home and scooped up his boy, who made his debut appearance on "1-900-Hustler" (from Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia). The dynamic duo also created a side group called State Property, which consisted of basically everybody on the Roc-A-Fella roster who wasn't named Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, or Kanye West. (The group spawned two albums and a couple of extremely poorly-acted films.)
Freeway also saw fit to start up a solo career of his own, and after losing a highly publicized rap battle with Cassidy (a rapper of seemingly no consequence today, although he did wash my car windows a few weeks back), went back to the drawing board and drafted Philadelphia Freeway, his Roc-A-fella debut. Following the trend of rap music at the time, all but two of the songs feature Beardy alongside guests. Most of the album was produced by Just Blaze, with Kanye West and Bink periodically popping up: this helped create a consistent sound that, let's face it, Roc-A-Fella isn't exactly renowned for (except for on 'Ye's own albums).
Philadelphia Freeway went on to move over five hundred thousand copies, which should make any rapper happy, but instead, Freeway went through some internal struggles: at one point, he even thought about quitting rap altogether to pursue his Muslim faith. His crew, State Property, also disbanded, leaving him with time to create an all-new band of weed carriers, called Ice City, who caused absolutely no damage to the music scene. However, as proven by his "Month of Madness" blog stunt late last year, Beardy is back with a vengeance. I'll get to his current output when I get to it, but for now, let's go riding on the freeway.
By the way, Freeway adopted his name from drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross. Former corrections officer-turned-yacht enthusiast Rick Ross, also signed to Def Jam Records, also borrowed his moniker from the same guy, and also sports a pretty rowdy beard. Coincidence?
1. FREE
I appreciate the fact that Freeway avoided including a rap album intro, opting to start Philadelphia Freeway off with an actual song. Sadly, I was pretty bored with this option. Not that an intro would have ever been preferable, mind you.
2. WHAT WE DO (FEAT JAY-Z & BEANIE SIGEL)
Beardy completely dominates this Roc-A-Fella posse cut, outshining both his boss and his contemporary, as it should be, since it is a Freeway song, after all. Shawn's reference to Freeway's beard also made me laugh out loud. This is actually the best Roc-A-Fella posse cut to come out of the camp, and its accompanying The Wire-inspired clip (with a few of the actual actors from the show) only adds to the proceedings. I'd bet that Memphis Bleek cries himself to sleep every night, wondering why Shawn didn't let him jump on (read: ruin) this track.
3. ALL MY LIFE (FEAT NATE DOGG)
Overall, I liked this track, but some of Beardy's lines are funny for all of the wrong reasons. Otherwise, not bad.
4. FLIPSIDE (FEAT PEEDI CRAKK)
I first heard this Just Blaze banger while playing Def Jam: Fight For NY. The beat pretty much rocks, and it also proves that Justin creates better beats for everyone who isn't named Jay-Z. That said, the clean edit is the one which appears in the game, and this song is decidedly not clean. Then again, most of the songs I review are decidedly not clean, so there you go.
5. ON MY OWN (FEAT NELLY)
I'm not a fan of Nelly as a rapper. He has a couple of okay songs (both of which are produced by The Neptunes), and his videos contain some decent imagery much of the time (I can think of one scene in particular in the clip for some recent Nelly track featuring Ciara and Jermaine Dupri), but for the most part, I couldn't care less. Thankfully, he only appears on the hook, doing his sing-songy shimmy-shimmy-cocoa-puff thing, and the song itself is not ruined because of it. This actually isn't bad.
6. WE GET AROUND (FEAT SNOOP DOGG)
This isn't bad, either, although a collaboration between Free and Snoop doesn't exactly feel like the natural order of things. The hook is all sorts of awful, though: I suppose some of you may consider that a small price to pay to hear Calvin Broadus sound entirely comfortable over a Just Blaze beat, but that's on you two.
7. DON'T CROSS THE LINE (FEAT FAITH EVANS)
Meh.
8. LIFE (FEAT BEANIE SIGEL)
I just listened to this track, and I can't remember a thing about it, save for the fact that Sigel does, in fact, make an appearance.
9. FULL EFFECT (FEAT YOUNG GUNZ)
I really liked this track. Justin's beat goes a long way toward making the Roc-A-Fella seat fillers sound good, and Beardy comes across as a thoroughly engaging emcee. Which is all you can ask for, really.
10. TURN OUT THE LIGHT (FREEWEST) (FEAT KANYE WEST)
Kanye West's beat sounds similar to the stuff that he gave to every other Roc-A-Fella artist that wasn't named Jay-Z. Which is to say, it's alright, but it's not real.
11. VICTIM OF THE GHETTO (FEAT RELL)
Decent, but nothing special.
12. YOU DON'T KNOW (IN THE GHETTO) (FEAT OMILLIO SPARKS)
Two songs in a row with the word “ghetto” in the title? That's usually not a good sign, and Beardy doesn't say or do anything to persuade me otherwise.
13. ALRIGHT (FEAT ALLEN ANTHONY)
Justin Blaze creates a beat that sounds like one of those 1980s songs I tried to avoid (because I'm a New Wave guy, through and through), but, honestly, I liked this shit a lot. Its sound brings back a pleasant form of nostalgia, and both Free's lyrics and Allen Anthony's singing mesh well with the music. Good show.
14. HEAR THE SONG
There wasn't anything objectionable about this song, but the only comment that I can make without re-listening and re-forgetting the song itself is this: what is with Freeway's obsession with selecting Kanye West instrumentals that sound like leftovers from The Blueprint? Free sounds great over the harder stuff, so filling Philadelphia Freeway with mostly soulful beats has officially mystified me.
The following tracks are considered Philadelphia Freeway's bonus songs.
15. YOU GOT ME (FEAT MARIAH CAREY & JAY-Z)
Raise your hand if you feel thatMariah Carey Mrs. Nick Cannon has been irrelevant since that “Heartbreaker” song she did with Hova. Okay, put them down: you're wrong, anyway. Mariah had a pretty good minor comeback with both versions of “We Belong Together”. Oh, this song? It sucks balls. Why do you ask?
16. LINE 'EM UP (FEAT YOUNG CHRIS)
Wasn't bad at all, until Young Inexperienced Chris spit his guest verse, which brought my IQ down by a couple hundred points. Now I'm not even sure I can dress myself, let alone finish a rev
FINAL THOUGHTS: Apparently, Freeway has a tendency to record mostly quote-unquote “serious” songs to slower-paced semi-soulful beats. Philadelphia Freeway is chock-full of songs like that. However, while he's not a bad rapper at all (his flow can be entertaining as hell), he sounds much better over the more upbeat instrumentals, as proven by the best tracks I listed below. As a whole, this album is not bad, although you will find yourself gravitating to some songs more so that others.
BUY OR BURN? You know what? If you're a hip hop head, and you find yourself paired up with this disc at the record store cotillion, you should go ahead and pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised when I first got it, and you will be, too. And also, it puts out, which is always nice.
BEST TRACKS: “Flipside”; “Alright”; “What We Do”; “Full Effect”
-Max
Born Leslie Pridgen but quickly adopting the rap nickname Freeway as fast as he could, Beardy linked up with fellow Philly resident Beanie Sigel during rap battles in high school. Once Sigel was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, he went back home and scooped up his boy, who made his debut appearance on "1-900-Hustler" (from Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia). The dynamic duo also created a side group called State Property, which consisted of basically everybody on the Roc-A-Fella roster who wasn't named Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, or Kanye West. (The group spawned two albums and a couple of extremely poorly-acted films.)
Freeway also saw fit to start up a solo career of his own, and after losing a highly publicized rap battle with Cassidy (a rapper of seemingly no consequence today, although he did wash my car windows a few weeks back), went back to the drawing board and drafted Philadelphia Freeway, his Roc-A-fella debut. Following the trend of rap music at the time, all but two of the songs feature Beardy alongside guests. Most of the album was produced by Just Blaze, with Kanye West and Bink periodically popping up: this helped create a consistent sound that, let's face it, Roc-A-Fella isn't exactly renowned for (except for on 'Ye's own albums).
Philadelphia Freeway went on to move over five hundred thousand copies, which should make any rapper happy, but instead, Freeway went through some internal struggles: at one point, he even thought about quitting rap altogether to pursue his Muslim faith. His crew, State Property, also disbanded, leaving him with time to create an all-new band of weed carriers, called Ice City, who caused absolutely no damage to the music scene. However, as proven by his "Month of Madness" blog stunt late last year, Beardy is back with a vengeance. I'll get to his current output when I get to it, but for now, let's go riding on the freeway.
By the way, Freeway adopted his name from drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross. Former corrections officer-turned-yacht enthusiast Rick Ross, also signed to Def Jam Records, also borrowed his moniker from the same guy, and also sports a pretty rowdy beard. Coincidence?
1. FREE
I appreciate the fact that Freeway avoided including a rap album intro, opting to start Philadelphia Freeway off with an actual song. Sadly, I was pretty bored with this option. Not that an intro would have ever been preferable, mind you.
2. WHAT WE DO (FEAT JAY-Z & BEANIE SIGEL)
Beardy completely dominates this Roc-A-Fella posse cut, outshining both his boss and his contemporary, as it should be, since it is a Freeway song, after all. Shawn's reference to Freeway's beard also made me laugh out loud. This is actually the best Roc-A-Fella posse cut to come out of the camp, and its accompanying The Wire-inspired clip (with a few of the actual actors from the show) only adds to the proceedings. I'd bet that Memphis Bleek cries himself to sleep every night, wondering why Shawn didn't let him jump on (read: ruin) this track.
3. ALL MY LIFE (FEAT NATE DOGG)
Overall, I liked this track, but some of Beardy's lines are funny for all of the wrong reasons. Otherwise, not bad.
4. FLIPSIDE (FEAT PEEDI CRAKK)
I first heard this Just Blaze banger while playing Def Jam: Fight For NY. The beat pretty much rocks, and it also proves that Justin creates better beats for everyone who isn't named Jay-Z. That said, the clean edit is the one which appears in the game, and this song is decidedly not clean. Then again, most of the songs I review are decidedly not clean, so there you go.
5. ON MY OWN (FEAT NELLY)
I'm not a fan of Nelly as a rapper. He has a couple of okay songs (both of which are produced by The Neptunes), and his videos contain some decent imagery much of the time (I can think of one scene in particular in the clip for some recent Nelly track featuring Ciara and Jermaine Dupri), but for the most part, I couldn't care less. Thankfully, he only appears on the hook, doing his sing-songy shimmy-shimmy-cocoa-puff thing, and the song itself is not ruined because of it. This actually isn't bad.
6. WE GET AROUND (FEAT SNOOP DOGG)
This isn't bad, either, although a collaboration between Free and Snoop doesn't exactly feel like the natural order of things. The hook is all sorts of awful, though: I suppose some of you may consider that a small price to pay to hear Calvin Broadus sound entirely comfortable over a Just Blaze beat, but that's on you two.
7. DON'T CROSS THE LINE (FEAT FAITH EVANS)
Meh.
8. LIFE (FEAT BEANIE SIGEL)
I just listened to this track, and I can't remember a thing about it, save for the fact that Sigel does, in fact, make an appearance.
9. FULL EFFECT (FEAT YOUNG GUNZ)
I really liked this track. Justin's beat goes a long way toward making the Roc-A-Fella seat fillers sound good, and Beardy comes across as a thoroughly engaging emcee. Which is all you can ask for, really.
10. TURN OUT THE LIGHT (FREEWEST) (FEAT KANYE WEST)
Kanye West's beat sounds similar to the stuff that he gave to every other Roc-A-Fella artist that wasn't named Jay-Z. Which is to say, it's alright, but it's not real.
11. VICTIM OF THE GHETTO (FEAT RELL)
Decent, but nothing special.
12. YOU DON'T KNOW (IN THE GHETTO) (FEAT OMILLIO SPARKS)
Two songs in a row with the word “ghetto” in the title? That's usually not a good sign, and Beardy doesn't say or do anything to persuade me otherwise.
13. ALRIGHT (FEAT ALLEN ANTHONY)
Justin Blaze creates a beat that sounds like one of those 1980s songs I tried to avoid (because I'm a New Wave guy, through and through), but, honestly, I liked this shit a lot. Its sound brings back a pleasant form of nostalgia, and both Free's lyrics and Allen Anthony's singing mesh well with the music. Good show.
14. HEAR THE SONG
There wasn't anything objectionable about this song, but the only comment that I can make without re-listening and re-forgetting the song itself is this: what is with Freeway's obsession with selecting Kanye West instrumentals that sound like leftovers from The Blueprint? Free sounds great over the harder stuff, so filling Philadelphia Freeway with mostly soulful beats has officially mystified me.
The following tracks are considered Philadelphia Freeway's bonus songs.
15. YOU GOT ME (FEAT MARIAH CAREY & JAY-Z)
Raise your hand if you feel that
16. LINE 'EM UP (FEAT YOUNG CHRIS)
Wasn't bad at all, until Young Inexperienced Chris spit his guest verse, which brought my IQ down by a couple hundred points. Now I'm not even sure I can dress myself, let alone finish a rev
FINAL THOUGHTS: Apparently, Freeway has a tendency to record mostly quote-unquote “serious” songs to slower-paced semi-soulful beats. Philadelphia Freeway is chock-full of songs like that. However, while he's not a bad rapper at all (his flow can be entertaining as hell), he sounds much better over the more upbeat instrumentals, as proven by the best tracks I listed below. As a whole, this album is not bad, although you will find yourself gravitating to some songs more so that others.
BUY OR BURN? You know what? If you're a hip hop head, and you find yourself paired up with this disc at the record store cotillion, you should go ahead and pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised when I first got it, and you will be, too. And also, it puts out, which is always nice.
BEST TRACKS: “Flipside”; “Alright”; “What We Do”; “Full Effect”
-Max
oh thank heavens, you have no idea how long i've been waiting for a disc that puts out
ReplyDelete"It is also believed by many to hold magical powers, or at the very least, it stores food crumbs for sustenance, so that Freeway can go often for days at a time without grabbing something to eat."
ReplyDeleteBest part of the WHOLE review. Where do you come up with this stuff, man?
I actually like the opening track a lot. I'm surprised you didn't describe it as the umpteenth attempt to recreate "Get 'Em Girls". "What We Do" is also great but that kind of goes without saying. After that it's Peedi Crack surrounded by garbage.
ReplyDeleteGreat review. It's worth noting that "Alright" uses a certain sample also popularized on a Tribe joint. Nostalgia indeed.
ReplyDeleteActually there's two songs on here that uses a recognizable sample that Tribe uses on Midnight Marauders
DeleteA surprisingly good album, although it's released on the Roc-A-Fella mainstream label.
ReplyDeleteHis rhymes are ok and his delivery also... Freeway's best effort in his entire carreer.
one of my favorite spitters out right now, i personally like free at last better than this one, free's flow is much tighter on his later work, especially on the month of madness stuff
ReplyDelete