My Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - Layers (April 15, 2016)

Even though I keep claiming that Ryan “Royce da 5’9” Montgomery is one of my favorite artists out, I sure as hell am behind on his catalog. I have no excuse for this, really: whenever I hear that he has something new coming down the pike, I get excited, but once I have it in my hands (or, more realistically, on my phone), I become fickle, choosing to listen to other shit I know I’ll enjoy, inadvertently saving Ryan’s projects for this very site. There’s no rhyme or reason behind this: I’ve listened to both PRhyme albums (Ryan’s side group with DJ Premier), his Bad Meets Evil EP (his project with fellow Detroit dictionary connoisseur Eminem) and each official Slaughterhouse release (his former supergroup, featuring him alongside Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, and professional podcaster Joe Budden) rather quickly, and yet the last Royce solo album I wrote about, Success Is Certain, didn’t even grace my ears until seven years after its release. God, I suck.

At least I’m only two years behind on Layers, the man’s sixth attempt at justifying his continued excursion into hip hop as a solo artist.

My Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - Success Is Certain (August 9, 2011)

2011 was a big year for Ryan Montgomery. The Detroit artist who records under the moniker Royce da 5’9” even though “Royce” has nothing to do with his real name found himself realigned with his former friend, colleague, and rap partner Marshall “Eminem” Mathers when it was announced that Slaughterhouse, the four-man lyrical clinic made up of Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, DJ Akademiks’ BFF Joe Budden, and Ryan himself, were officially signed to his label, Shady Records. This was followed up with a Slaughterhouse EP the very next month, one that was, interestingly enough, not distributed by Shady (plans had been well under way for that release prior to their major label signing). That June, Ryan and Marshall reformed their duo Bad Meets Evil for their very first project (everything that had released previously, way back when both were babies within the industry, were just loose singles), The Hell EP, which introduced Ryan to the mainstream, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and earning our subject a golden plaque for units sold. Things were looking up for Ryan Montgomery.

Two months later, Ryan’s fifth solo album, Success Is Certain, was released to far less fanfare.

For The Max-Approved Mixtape: Royce da 5'9" - "Happy Bar Exam 2"

Artist: Royce da 5'9" featuring Marv Won

Title: "Happy Bar Exam 2"

Producer: Jake One

Album: The Bar Exam 2 (mixtape) (2008)

It's no secret that I hold Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9" in high regard.  If I had a list made up of my favorite rappers' names placed with no specific attention paid to order, Royce's name would be on it somewhere.  Ever since his mainstream debut, appearing on his buddy Eminem's Aftermath debut The Slim Shady LP, I've found myself tracking his shit down, from his early days with Game Recordings (you may not remember the indie label, but you would remember their album artwork) to his work with Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil, and now PRhyme, and that's not even counting his solo work.  He could have easily been dismissed as a black Eminem back in the late 1990s, and I have no doubt that many folks did exactly that.  Hell, some of you two may feel that way about him to this day.  You would be wrong, though.  Ryan Montgomery traffics mostly in swagger and boasts about his dick and sexual prowess, but that's a faucet he can turn off whenever necessary, and, as proven by his many affiliations, he plays well with groups.

I'm fairly confident that I've reviewed pretty much every single Royce da 5'9" solo album that's been released thus far, except for Success Is Certain (which I'll get to when I get to) and maybe the odd compilation here and there.  But I haven't touched his mixtapes, and odds are I probably won't: it's difficult to have an endgame for your ongoing blog project when you keep throwing in exceptions.  I didn't have to make my peace with the decision or anything: that's less writing for me to do, so huzzah!  But under normal circumstances, that means I would never get the chance to write about "Happy Bar Exam 2", a banger that heads predisposed to paying attention to only official albums might have completely missed otherwise.

Now this is absolutely true: up until six months ago, I had no fucking idea that the Jake One beat that serves as the backing for "Happy Bar Exam 2" was swiped from a Lil' Scrappy song entitled "N---a What's Up".  I listen to a lot of hip hop, most of which I don't think I'll ever write about, but you can imagine why someone who has the preferences I do would overlook something called a Lil' Scrappy entirely.  (The song featured 50 Cent, which probably didn't help matters.)  In the interest of fairness, I listened to the Scrappy-Doo song while I was writing this paragraph, and honestly, the best thing about it was the beat.  It's not awful, and I probably wouldn't jump through flaming hoops just to switch the channel or anything, but I also would never recommend it to anyone.  Royce certainly did Jake One a solid by rescuing the instrumental, as it has done and will continue to do more good in this world during its second life.

About that song title: yeah, it's fucking ridiculous.  It's intended to celebrate the release of the second mixtape in the Bar Exam series, conveniently titled The Bar Exam 2, and Royce and his friends went around announcing the titular phrase as though banks and government offices should have been closed down for a national holiday.  It's silly, but not so much that it detracts from the song itself.  (One of those friends, DJ Green Lantern, also hosted and mixed the project, and you have no fucking idea how happy I was when Royce released a No-DJ version of The Bar Exam 2 shortly afterward.)  Weirdly, though, "Happy Bar Exam 2" (there is no "Happy Bar Exam" on the preceding volume) is not the introductory track on the project: Ryan buried it in the middle of the proceedings, almost as an afterthought.

This is far from being a throwaway, though.  "Happy Bar Exam 2"'s crushing beat and militant drum work kick in immediately, with the first voice you hear (if you're listening to the No-DJ version, anyway) is fellow Detroit emcee Marv Won, who destroys his verse with a flow that's "cockier than the n---a that made 'Flashing Lights'".  He could have kept the instrumental to himself and I still would have liked this shit, but once Royce steps into the booth, he dominates the track in a matter-of-fact way that younger hip hop heads who are only sort-of familiar with Slaughterhouse wouldn't be aware he could easily do. His work on here is effortless, like Jay-Z's early conversational flow, but with much more menace hidden between the punchlines.  It only lasts for those two verses before Royce's attention moves elsewhere, but he successfully gets his shit-talking across over a track that knocks.

I hope this post answers a question someone posed to me a while back about why I continue to write about Slaughterhouse when I have stopped giving a fuck about Lupe Fiasco (I believe my exact phrasing was, "He had his chance").  Should be kind of obvious, right?  Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Do you agree or disagree with this selection?  Discuss below.

-Max

My Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - Street Hop (October 20, 2009)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” My use of that quote was unintentional: the fact that it is attached to a review that is running so close to the holiday named after the man is just a happy coincidence. But I believe that message certainly applies to the subject of today's post, Ryan “Royce da 5'9”” Montgomery, who has certainly seen his share of both challenge and comfort.

Bad Meets Evil - "Nuttin' To Do" b/w "Scary Movies" (1999) + My Gut Reaction to Hell: The Sequel (June 14, 2011)

I have no plans on reviewing maxi-singles on a regular basis, but the songs presented on here aren't available anywhere else, so what the hell, right?

In 1999, Detroit-based rapper Marshall Mathers unleashed his Aftermath debut, The Slim Shady LP, to critical acclaim, heavy sales figures, and a whopping slice of controversy.  But this post isn't about that project: instead, I'm focusing on a song that appeared near the end of the tracklisting, "Bad Meets Evil", a collaboration with his hometown homeboy Ryan Montgomery, who worked under the pseudonym Royce da 5'9".  The pair, who met back in 1997, hit it off so quickly that they decided to record as a duo.  Taking their name from that particular song, Bad Meets Evil quickly banged out a couple of tracks for underground label Game Recordings, who was best known for putting photographs of half-naked models on their record sleeves instead of the actual artists.  Not that anybody was complaining, mind you: hell, it made their progression to the best-selling Hip Hop Honeys adult DVD series that much more natural.

Em and Royce unleashed their maxi-single, "Nuttin' To Do" b/w "Scary Movies", in 1999 as a way to capitalize on Eminem's sudden popularity.  It features nine tracks: three original songs (the third, "I'm The King", was a Royce solo effort), three clean radio edits for the deejays, and three instrumentals.  I'm not certain of the sales figures, but I enjoyed the songs so much back in 1999 that I couldn't wait to get a full-length release from the duo.

Who almost immediately broke up after releasing this single.

Okay, that's not entirely true.  Eminem continued to work with Royce as he recorded his solo album, which would eventually become Rock City.  Em even tried to hook Ryan up with a job as one of his new boss Dr. Dre's ghostwriters, although Royce's manager fucked up that partnership by bragging about it to the press.  But somewhere along the line, the two drifted apart: Royce dived deeper into alcoholism while Eminem surrounded himself with the likes of D-12, Obie Trice, and, later on, Curtis Jackson, all of whom managed to make him rich.  An obviously embittered Ryan had several altercations with the Dirty Dozen, and also lobbed some dis tracks Marshall's way, although none of them were ever directly answered by the man who had become one of the biggest rap stars in history.

Sad, right?  But at least we got to hear them together on this maxi-single.

1. NUTTIN' TO DO

The first of three tracks on this maxi-single is a Reef-produced flashback to the days when Eminem was Slim Shady, the smart-assed, sadistic, and socially retarded misanthrope that recorded The Slim Shady LP, as opposed to the constantly shouting jackass who released Recovery. Early fans of Marshall Mathers will love this shit, as nearly every bar is a punchline that has little to no relation to the previous one, and I mean that as a compliment. Royce comes across as the only rapper on the fucking planet that can keep up with him (a fact that remains true to this very day), as he also turns in a winning performance. There isn't much actually songwriting on here, but as an aural transcript of some general shit-talking, this track is an oldie but goodie.

2. SCARY MOVIES

Compared to his beat on the previous track, Reef's work on “Scary Movies” sounds positively epic. Royce takes the first slot on here, delivering a long verse that makes him sound like a seasoned veteran (remember, this song was released well before his solo debut and his subsequent drinking problem), actually besting Marshall's contribution, even though this is still the Eminem I prefer to listen to. It was the combination of these two songs (and, to a much lesser extent, The Slim Shady LP's “Bad Meets Evil”) that caused fans to salivate for a joint effort, so of course there would be a near-instantaneous fallout between them (Slim's (extremely) minor assists on Rock City notwithstanding). Fun fact: this excellent track is played during the end credits of the Wayans family parody flick Scary Movie, but its soundtrack features a Royce solo effort entitled “Scary Movies (The Sequel)”, which is alright enough, but it just doesn't pack the same punch.

3. I'M THE KING

The final original song on this single is a Royce solo affair, as he uses two verses to rip up The Alchemist's instrumental (which may or may not have been a direct lift of Capital the Crimelord's work on R.A. The Rugged Man's “Stanley Kubrick”, I don't really know). Marshall's presence is missed, but to be fair, he would have sounded terrible on here anyway: this is the Ryan Montgomery show all the way, as he not-so-subtly reveals the cocky persona that has brought him to his current position in the rap game. Well, this sounds a lot better than most of Rock City, anyway.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This isn't an album or even an EP, so it's ridiculous to look at it as anything but a collection of random songs, but man, what a collection: “Scary Movies” and “Nuttin' To Do” still rank among Eminem's best performances recorded on wax, and for listeners who were entirely unaware of Royce da 5'9”'s existence before this Bad Meets Evil thing came about in 1999, these three tracks serve as a very effective introduction to a man who remains one of the better emcees in our chosen genre today. The songs sound a bit dated, of course, but in a good way, not unlike a pleasant high school flashback. All this, and you even get to keep the instrumentals? That's not a bad deal. Every single track on here is a keeper. I'm serious.

BEST TRACKS: If you stumble across this maxi-single on the Interweb, you should pick it up. It's relatively cheap, and the music is entertaining in a way that these two probably couldn't possibly touch today.

Speaking of which...

In late 2010, Shady Records made headlines by signing the quartet Slaughterhouse, an underground rap crew made up of artists who were all fucked over by their respective record labels at one point or another.  The group consisted of Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, Crooked I, and Royce da 5'9".  This was an incredibly huge deal, because it meant that Royce and Eminem, the head of Shady Records, had put aside whatever differences they had and decided to work together again.  During the deafening cries of joy heard on hip hop blogs everywhere, the two guys quietly recorded a project that was even more highly anticipated than Slaughterhouse's Shady Records debut: the return of Bad Meets Evil on the EP Hell: The Sequel.

Fourteen years removed from their beginnings, Bad Meets Evil find themselves facing an entirely different hip hop climate than the underground fight clubs they were founded upon.  Hell: The Sequel attempts to bridge the gaps between the two eras, mixing radio-ready beats, a guest spot from Bruno Mars (of all fucking people), and singalong choruses into the equation, all while Ryan and Marshall do their best to recreat ethe magic that was captured so succinctly within the span of two fucking songs from a maxi-single.

So can they pull it off?

1. WELCOME 2 HELL

This was an interesting reintroduction to the two-headed dragon that recorded this project. Over a thumping Havoc beat that sounds absolutely nothing like anything Mobb Deep could ever consider using (the man has grown as a producer, what can I say), Marshall and Ryan lay down their mission statement, each handling their own verse before they resort to some entertaining back-and-forth theatrics. Both men have obviously grown older since “Scary Movies”, and Em's flow is closer to Recovery than anything else, but they still bounce off of one another's energies quite well (read: Marshall actually sounds pretty good!). Nickel comes across as more of a guest than a co-star, but that's my only real complaint. Well, that, and Em's use of distorted vocals at times, which sound like his bid for a fraction of Odd Future's audience, which is both unnecessary and ridiculous, as Tyler, the Creator will absolutely never ever be able to match Eminem in sales. Mean, but true.

2. FAST LANE (FEAT. SLY JORDAN)

This street single, the first from Hell: The Sequel, will possibly go down in history as proof of Royce's psychic prowess: he mentions digging up the corpse of Jack Kevorkian, but this track was released well before the man actually passed away. Creepy, huh? Anyway, this track is a fun diversion, as Royce takes center stage while Marshall acts as his easily-bothered hypeman with an unhealthy fixation on Nicki Minaj's ass. The instrumental, credited to Eminem alongside and Supa Dups and JG, keeps things moving at a fast clip, which is appropriate for a song entitled “Fast Lane”, and our two hosts prove once again that they have an undeniable chemistry behind the mic. Who knows just how many great songs hip hop heads have been deprived of, all because these two were embroiled in a bitter feud. The hook, from Sly Jordan, isn't all that great, but I can work around it.

3. THE REUNION

Bad and Evil recruit Sid Roams, best known for their work with Prodigy of Mobb Deep, to trick the audience into thinking this is going to be your average song addressing the reconnection between our two leads. As it is, Em and Royce only actually reunite during the last few bars of this storytelling rap, in which Marshall channels Slim Shady-levels of sadism and misogyny (although in his regular voice and not a stupid fucking accent, thank God) while Ryan is stranded at the club between both his wife and his mistress. There's also a commentary hidden (in plain sight) about artists whose public personas differ greatly from what they rap or sing about: Em and Royce go through great pains to prove that they're not just “putting on a show”. This was the first misstep on Hell: The Sequel, but it isn't even that bad of a song: “The Reunion” sounds like what Bad Meets Evil's natural progression would have been, had Em and Ryan not broken up. Huh.

4. ABOVE THE LAW (FEAT. CLARET JAI)

Marshall's D-12 running mate Mr. Porter delivers a fucking fantastic instrumental, one which sounds like a True Master concoction as filtered through Dr. Dre's headphones, and both Royce and Em spit flames during their individual verses. Ryan's brief reference to Kanye West reminded me of their past beef (apparently Royce neglected to actually pay 'Ye for one of his older beats, which led to West vowing to never work with Nickel again), which has yet to be resolved, to my knowledge, so it was a bit weird to hear him specifically mention that he wasn't throwing shots his way. (Possibly because he was completely in the wrong?) Everything about this track is great...except for the hook, which sounds out of place, but maybe that's just because I didn't think “Above The Law” actually needed a chorus. But everything else rocked.

5. I'M ON EVERYTHING (FEAT. MIKE EPPS)

Royce and Em return to their bread and butter, songs written as though they were under the influence of several types of drugs that neither man actually uses (well, not Eminem, anyway), for this exercise in excess, by which I mean that they both use up so many bars on “I'm On Everything” that it's a small miracle that this EP is only half over at this point. Mr. Porter chops up a sound bite from a Mike Epps standup routine, turning it into an impromptu chorus (on which Epps sounds a bit like a shouting Method Man) that sounds annoying at first, but grows on you as the track progresses: for their parts, both Royce and Marshall tear shit up...after getting their bullshit Drake-esque metaphors and ridiculous sound effects out of the way first. I'd say that these guys were making fun of what passes for rap music today, but that's giving Em too much credit. Still ended up liking this enough, though.

6. A KISS

When I first saw that “A Kiss” was built over a Bangladesh beat, two thoughts crossed my mind: (a) I hope he actually got fucking paid this time (he has famously been stiffed for his work on Lil' Wayne's hit songs “A Milli” and “6 Foot 7 Foot”, both of which share a sonic structure with this offering), and (b) Shit, this song is going to suck. The shitty female vocal sample at the beginning (and used throughout as a hook) seemed to cement that argument. But then a funny thing happened: Ryan and Marshall turned this misogynistic test drive into a goofy lyrical clinic, with Royce going off the rails with hilarious bar after hilarious bar and Em doing the same (while lusting after Katy Perry and throwing a relatively harmless potshot in Lady Gaga's direction). Not the best song these two could come up with, but kudos for diverting my lowered expectations, guys.

7. LIGHTERS (FEAT. BRUNO MARS)

The inclusion of Bruno Mars on this track (both on the hook and behind the boards, as a part of the production team The Smeezingtons) seems to guarantee that this track will be a hit. Interscope seems to believe that, anyway, since “Lighters” is being positioned as the first actual single from Hell: The Sequel. And truthfully, the beat is fucking terrible, and Bruno sounds cheesy as fuck (as he sings about “a sky full of lighters”, which would seem to signal the Apocalypse before it doubles as a sign of respect for the artists involved). But Em and Royce keep “Lighters” from sounding like the third level of Hell, using the radio-friendly beat to spit some decidedly non-radio-friendly verses, with Royce's performance resonating the most, what with his ode to his father and his genuine excitement about working with Marshall again. Not good in the least bit, but it could have been a lot worse.

8. TAKE FROM ME (FEAT. CLARET JAI)

Okay, this track isn't very good. It's moderately better than “Lighters”, but just barely. Mr. Porter's weak instrumental, which sounds generically dramatic, is mostly to blame, although vocalist Claret Jai's chorus is also pretty terrible (as this is her second appearance on Hell: The Sequel, I'm now convinced that the artist formerly known as Kon Artis is smitten with her and strong-armed Ryan and Marshall into including her in the fun). However, Royce and Em use their respective verses to basically call out so-called “fans” for bootlegging their shit, hence the song's title, and they both make strong points. It's too bad that their message will never be heard, seeing as it's attached to a crappy instrumental and all.

9. LOUD NOISES (FEAT. SLAUGHTERHOUSE)

Hell: The Sequel ends with a Slaughterhouse posse cut that just so happens to feature Marshall Mathers, or at least that's how it feels to me. As I had hoped when I read the title, Mr. Porter includes a sound bite of Steve Carrell from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, but sadly, it only pops up at the very beginning, as it is quickly replaced by the shouting of “Slaughterhouse!”, which gets fucking old real fast. The beat doesn't sound as combustible as a collaboration of this caliber should, and, surprisingly, Crooked I seems tired, but everyone else (yes, including Joe Budden) is on point, I suppose. Still, this closing number should have been much better. At least Marshall isn't outclassed by Royce and Joell Ortiz, the two MVPs of this track, so that was awfully nice of them.

The deluxe edition of Hell: The Sequel contains two additional bonus tracks, boosting the project's profile to that of a real boy album.

10. LIVING PROOF

For a bonus track, this shit was tremendously dope, from Mr. Porter's really goddamn good beat on down to the bars from our respective hosts. Royce and Em hardly interact on here, though, so it's fairly obvious that these two recorded their contributions independently, but you can't have everything. Royce proves unequivocally that he is deserving of a much more successful career than what has been bestowed upon him thus far, and Marshall goes out of his way to eschew his title as a critical and commercial darling with a go-for-broke flow, all to excellent effect. Bonus points for not going the obvious route and naming the song “Don't Stop”. Those of you two who have heard this song will know what I'm talking about.

11. ECHO (FEAT. LIZ RODRIGUEZ)

So of course all of the goodwill Hell: The Sequel has earned will be squandered by the other bonus track off of the deluxe edition of the EP, as “Echo”, with its rock-tinged DJ Khalil beat and a Liz Rodriguez-handled chorus that has absofuckinglutely nothing to do with the song and probably came as part of a package deal with the instrumental, sounds like one of the shittier leftovers from Recovery. Marshall reverts back to his latter-day persona, the guy who shouts a lot and only occasionally bends his words into interesting bars, and Ryan's left to drown in a musical ocean that he isn't comfortable in. This was a shitty way to end the evening. Thankfully, “Echo” isn't representative of the project as a whole, which is a surprising comment coming from me.

THE LAST WORD: Bad Meets Evil's long-awaited debut project, Hell: The Sequel, isn't anywhere close to what I was expecting after listening to “Nuttin' To Do” and “Scary Movies” again (I know, that's my own damn fault), but, in a shocking twist, the duo of Eminem and Royce da 5'9” update their sound for today's audience, and for the most part, they actually. Fucking. Succeed. Marshall Mathers, who long ago spun off into the land of pop artistry, finds his hip hop credibility returned to him when paired up with who is still the only other rapper in our chosen genre who can keep the pace with him, and their chemistry is paramount to why Hell: The Sequel works. Someone should get these two a fucking sitcom already: for his part, Royce acquits himself well to the spotlight, which will be good practice for the man, as this EP will help him gain a wider audience, guaranteed. Beat-wise, Em and Royce screw the pooch a bit by relying too heavily on Mr. Porter instead of using their combined clout to get the attention of the likes of Dr. Dre and DJ Premier, but the instrumentals are mostly decent, adequate backdrops for the mostly entertaining rhymes from our two hosts, which are delivered at a rapid-fire clip. Look, I'm just as surprised to write this as you two are to read this, but it has to be said: Bad Meets Evil's Hell: The Sequel is a pretty good side project. I had no idea Marshall even remembered how to have fun in hip hop anymore.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Catch up on Eminem's albums here, and you can read more about Royce da 5'9” here.

Reader Review: Royce da 5'9" - Street Hop (October 20, 2009)

(For today's post, Rex tackles the most recent album from Royce da 5'9”, Street Hop. This was one of those discs that I had been meaning to get to, but shit kept getting in the way, so at least someone was able to write it up. Leave some messages for Rex below.)


Royce da 5'9” was on the verge of being forgotten. During the late 1990s and the early millennium, Ryan Montgomery was poised to emerge as one of the best newcomers in hip hop, especially after making a guest appearance on Eminem's quadruple-platinum debut The Slim Shady LP and writing several tracks for Dr. Dre's 2001. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way: Dre fired him after his manager began talking recklessly about Royce's contributions, and by the time his own debut album, Rock City, leaked to the Interweb, confidence in the man was at an all-time low, leading to a (now-squashed) beef with Em and his D-12 crew and severs bouts with depression and alcoholism. These demons all merged together to help him craft a terrific sophomore album, Death Is Certain, but he even squandered that goodwill with Independent's Day, an overly awful album that should have ended his career.


However, after taking control of his own life, things started changing for the better. He dropped two volumes in his critically acclaimed The Bar Exam mixtape series (the third chapter hit blogs earlier this year), and he aligned himself with the like-minded Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, and Joe Budden to form the supergroup Slaughterhouse. He followed this with Street Hop, his fourth full-length album (released shortly after The Revival EP previewed some of the tracks) Executive produced by the one and only DJ Premier, Street Hop features cameos from his Slaughterhouse brethren (although Joey only makes one appearance while the other two have twice as much – that just makes me laugh, like when Joey was left off of the Eminem collaboration) and other big names such as Busta Rhymes, Phonte, Bun B, and, um, Trick-Trick; production was handled by the likes of Emile, Nottz, Mr. Porter, Carlos “6 July” Brody, StreetRunner, and Primo himself.


Royce seemingly pulled out all the stops to make Street Hop his best album, as he wanted to be held in such high regard as bigger names such as Eminem and Nas (who was once rumored to have signed Ryan to a Def Jam contract at one point). Without further ado, here's the review.


1. GUN HARMONIZING (FEAT CROOKED I)
This track originally appeared on The Revival EP, although this time around it includes an assist from Crooked I. While Emile provides a good beat and both artists come through with decent verses, the chorus, which features Ryan imitating the sound of gunshots, is sooooooo annoying. The hook ruins what is otherwise a good song.


2. COUNT FOR NOTHING
Also from The Revival EP, but this time around, Royce simply reuses the original song. Although that seems pretty dumb from a business point of view, this shit still knocks. Producer Nottz brings a heater for Royce to shit all over, and the way he uses the vocal sample of Public Enemy's Chuck D counting from one to nine (not unlike how DJ Premier used the same sample on Biggie's “Ten Crack Commandments”) to kick off his bars was pretty great.


3. SOLDIER (FEAT KID VISHIS & IYANA DEAN)
Frequency's beat is too poppy for me, and the hook isn't all that great, but Royce's playful threats and fucked up insults lift this track above mediocrity. Royce's brother Kid Vishis is alright too, I suppose.


4. SOMETHING 2 RIDE 2 (FEAT PHONTE)
My first reaction to reading the album credits went along the lines of this: “Phonte! OMG!!!!!” Then I realized that the emcee (formerly of Little Brother) only provides a part of the chorus. Oh well. The beat isn't that good, but it serves its purpose. (You'll be especially disappointed to find that DJ Premier provided the instrumental.) Royce doesn't do anything special, either. Skip.


5. DINNER TIME (FEAT BUSTA RHYMES)
Quincey Tones (Yeah, I don't know who he is either) supplies exactly the right type of beat for Royce to tear the fuck apart with some great lyrics that he delivers as only he can. Busta Rhymes plays the role of hypeman before supplying a decent verse of his own. Easily the best track on Street Hop so far.


6. FAR AWAY
This beat from Emile is highly commercial, but it somehow works regardless. The hook is garbage, though. Ryan manages to save the track with some goofy bars and his typical gangsta shit-talking. However, this won't be to everyone's tastes.


7. WARRIORS (FEAT SLAUGHTERHOUSE & MELANIE RUTHERFORD)
Another addition from The Revival EP, the best one thus far. StreetRunner brings the heat with some cinematic horns and opera vocals crooning in the background. Each Slaughterhouse member gets two verses, and all four of them straight up rip shit. Appropriately enough, Royce truly bodies the beat, with Crooked not far behind.


8. ...A BRIEF INTERMISSION (SKIT)
Funny the first time around, but you won't ever need to hear it again. (I'm more intrigued by the fact that the Interweb seems to believe that this skit was produced by David Cross, of Mr. Show and Arrested Development fame. Any truth to this rumor? Let me know.)


9. NEW MONEY
And StreetRunner does it again. This beat is the perfect foil to Royce's shit talking, and the Beastie Boys sample gives the track a nice charm. Also, the chorus isn't awful. This was pretty great.


10. SHAKE THIS
“Shake This” was released almost a full year before Street Hop, but it still sounds pretty good. Over a much better Primo beat than “Something 2 Ride 2”, Ryan dives deep into his personal problems. The flow and pace of this song reminded me of “One Mic” from Nas.


11. GANGSTA (FEAT TRICK-TRICK)
A very generic rap song title obscures a track that is much better than you would imagine. A good instrumental (provided by Raf Moses) allows Royce to discuss his life as a Detroit gangsta, while fellow Motown rapper Trick-Trick simply closes out the track with a brief monologue about how gangsta he is. Yes, it sounds redundant, but it works, although it would have been better without the guest star.


12. MINE IN THIZ (FEAR MR. PORTER)
A sex rap with a dirty ass club beat (from guest star Mr. Porter, who also helps on the hook). Royce uses this time to get buck nasty with the beat. Not the best song in the world, but a guilty pleasure nonetheless.


13. STREET HOP 2010
The fourth and final track lifted directly from The Revival EP features some Middle East-ish sound effects (courtesy of producer Nottz). It's truly a mediocre beat, but what's worse is Royce's performance, which is easily the worst on the entire album. He speaks with no clear direction, mistaking pop culture references for depth. This wasn't interesting at all, and it should have been left behind on the EP.


14. THING FOR YOUR GIRLFRIEND (FEAT K-YOUNG)
This track kicks off with a funny skit that you'll only have to listen to once. When the actual song starts, though, we get a nice soulful beat from Mr. Porter and some pleasant vocals K-Young. Royce channels his inner Isacc Hayes and spits a couple of nice verses about the pleasures of having sex with fine women (what else would he rap about?) Not bad.


15. ON THE RUN
As indirectly as it may be, this track might as well be a continuation of the Kool G. Rap classic. Royce spits about being on the run over an epic, cinematic beat from Emile, complete with some great vocals worked in. A true highlight of Street Hop.


16. MURDER
It's strange that Ryan would sequence two storytelling tracks right next to each other. It features a beat similar to “On The Run” (although Frequency's work is still pretty good) and another vital performance from our host, but the song's strength is impaired due to the proximity to the previous track.


17. BAD BOY (FEAT JUNGLE ROCK JR.)
A reggae tinged beat featuring Royce spitting with a fake Jamaican accent? Far too annoying to enjoy.


18. PART OF ME
Now this is more like it. A fantastic instrumental from (frequent collaborator) 6 July and some great attention to detail from Royce. This was really good.


19. HOOD LOVE (FEAT BUN B & JOELL ORTIZ)
While “Shake This” was Primo's best beat on Street Hop (and “Something 2 Ride 2” was just bad), “Hood Love” is merely good. The concept of each artist saluting the hood meshes well with the instrumental, making this a very organic way to cap off the evening.


Street Hop was later reworked into a “deluxe” format with three additional tracks.


20. I'M FRESH (FEAT MR. PORTER)
Mr. Porter, who actually produced all three bonus tracks (so where's that D-12 collaboration at, Royce?), supplies Royce with a interesting vehicle for his lyrics. This track absolutely should have made the final cut of Street Hop.


21. IT'S ALL ABOUT (FEAT GRAFH)
While the instrumental sounded nice, our host only remembers to bring his generic gangsta shit notepad; his guest Grafh fares much better. The hook would have probably been terrible regardless.


22. MY OWN PLANET (FEAT BIG SEAN)
Meh.


FINAL THOUGHTS: My, how high the phoenix has risen from the ashes. Royce da 5'9” has rigged Street Hop with several standout tracks that inserted him back into hip hop's conscience, perhaps this time permanently. However, it's far from perfect: some of this is pure garbage. I was also highly disappointed by the combination of DJ Premier's first contribution and Phonte being reduced to hook duties. The reggae offering was also pretty terrible, and the skits were fairly useless. However, when it comes down to it, Street Hop is Royce's best album, although far from his most consistent. (I would probably give that award to Death Is Certain.) In the end, Royce shows listeners that he still possesses tremendous talent, pissing me off even more that the Bad Meets Evil joint album never happened. Oh well.


BUY OR BURN? I recommend a purchase, as several of the songs one here are more than worth your money. You don't need to hunt down the deluxe version, though


BEST TRACKS: “It's All About”; “Hood Love”; “On the Run”; “Warriors”; “Count for Nothing”; “Shake This”; “New Money”; “Part Of Me”; “Dinner Time”; “Thing for Your Girlfriend”; “Mine In Thiz”


B-SIDE TO TRACK DOWN: “Gimme Money”: this track was the original incarnation of what ended up becoming “New Money”, which couldn't get past the sample clearance stage. Although it does have completely different lyrics and an entirely different beat, so maybe they should be looked at as separate entities. Either way, it's a good track worth hunting down.


-Rex


(Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave some notes for Rex below.)

My Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - The Revival EP (July 7, 2009)

Royce da 5'9" has been riding a wave of goodwill in hip hop blogland lately. After releasing his acclaimed mixtape The Bar Exam 2 (for free, for fuck's sake!), Ryan Montgomery hooked up with three other rappers on the verge (Joell Ortiz, late of Aftermath Records; Crooked I, who was once signed to Death Row Records; and Joe Budden, the Def Jam reject who has taken to bashing Method Man and any other artist who has an issue with him in online freestyles) and formed Slaughterhouse, a hip hop supergroup that has the potential of bringing back that "real" hip hop (notice I put "real" in quotes, as opinions vary as to what makes hip hop real), even though they won't sell any copies of their record except to backpackers and folks like myself, who like to beat dead horses.

Anyway, The Revival EP is one of four digital-only releases that the Slaughterhouse members will be releasing in the coming weeks to build up hype for their group debut, coming later this year. Royce took the title from an album that he was supposed to release a couple of years ago, but after getting locked up for a parole violation after copping a DUI, he focused more on his mixtape game rather than forming a real album, so those sessions remain officially "in the vault", although a lot of that shit has probably leaked already.

That's certainly a lot of words written for an EP that only features four fucking tracks.

1. GUN HARMONIZING
I could have done without the childish gun noises coming out of Ryan's mouth, as it reminds me of a bunch of kids re-enacting a shootout on the playground at recess (or, at least that one episode of Spaced). The fact that the sounds double as a chorus of sorts makes me want to never hear this shit again, regardless of how pleasant the chanting/singing in the background is.

2. COUNT FOR NOTHING
Uses the same Chuck D vocal sample (from Public Enemy's "Shut 'Em Down") that DJ Premier chopped up for Biggie to use on his "Ten Crack Commandments". This is more of the sort of track I would expect Royce to appear on, with a beat that keeps things moving along while the punchlines chime in with full force. My only issue is that this sounds more like an incomplete mixtape-only track than an actual song readied for a release, digital-only or otherwise. Ryan also manages to drop more names than The Game on any given Sunday on here.

3. WARRIORS (FEAT SLAUGHTERHOUSE)
Did you ever wonder what a Wu-Tang Clan posse cut would sound like if each rapper held down two verses instead of just the one? Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, and Ryan Montgomery attempt to answer that question (and in no way did I just compare Slaughterhouse to Wu-Tang) and simply rip the fucking stuffing out of a soothing beat that seems to be better suited for a dramatic film score, but I'm clearly wrong. This shit could actually get people excited about hip hop again, especially if you look past Joey's recent fuckery. (I'm obviously partial to Method Man, by the way. Remember back in the day, when the Wu refused to enter into rap beef, they would just smack the shit out of you? Now we have to deal with Gza/Genius dissing Curtis Jackson and Inspectah Deck writing songs about Joe Budden. What the hell happened?)

4. STREET HOP 2010
Another incomplete-sounding song filled with punchlines and random pop culture references (Royce actually mentions Marlon Brando's controversial Academy Awards acceptance speech at one point). While the title is meant to invoke thoughts of Ryan's eventual Street Hop album (another project that The Revival EP was supposed to foreshadow), the quality of the song (and its short length) indicate that this was a leftover track from one of his Bar Exam mixtapes or, at best, an afterthought.

THE LAST WORD: The Revival EP sounds like a rushed product that was intended to draw attention to the forthcoming Slaughterhouse crew album. Which, of course, is what it was supposed to be. One song bangs and one song sounds decent, but the other two falter miserably, and considering there's only four songs on here, those are very questionable odds. The sheer lyrical energy behind "Warriors" alone will carry this project, as the song is good enough to warrant that kind of publicity (even though the four rappers are ultimately saying nothing), but methinks Royce should have performed some quality control on the project, or at the very least, included his "Redemption" freestyle. Sigh.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Other Royce da 5'9" write-ups can be found here.

100 Calorie Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - "D.O.A. (Redemption)"

The short version of the tale is that Ryan Montgomery, in full-on Royce da 5'9" Hulked-out mode, recorded a freestyle alongside his Slaughterhouse brethren (Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, and resident angry young man who takes shots at veteran artists a la Canibus, Joe Budden) over the No I.D. beat for Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)", but his verse was actually taken from a different freestyle he recorded a while back. Now, while most people would never notice and probably wouldn't give a fuck anyway, hip hop fans are (apparently) a fickle lot, and Royce quickly recorded "D.O.A. (Redemption)" as an "apology" to his fans. Although he doesn't really spend a lot of time sounding like he's sorry. (He's already spent the better part of the last decade making up for recording a song alongside pop tart Willa Ford.)

Instead, Ryan spends nearly four-and-a-half minutes proving why he's one of my favorite artists who has been deserving of a much larger fanbase ever since he recorded alongside the white boy from Detroit who turned into the biggest rapper in the free world. (No, not Kid Rock.) The man simply rips the beat to shreds with a potent mix of humor, violent posturing, and good old-fashioned shit talking. The good thing about the Internet is that a rapper's every conscious thought can be recorded for posterity and released to the masses with a very brief turnaround time, which explains Royce's references to his boy Joell's recent mixtape (the one where the man covers a ton of classic hip hop songs), Drake, and the Charles Hamilton-slash-J Dilla controversy (I'm pretty sure the man just reneged on his own promise to leave Sonic's dumb ass alone with that "throwing [his body] in a coffin" line). Shit, I was half-expecting Ryan to discuss the protests in Iran and the Jon & Kate impending divorce.

Simply put, Royce is on fucking fire right now. If Marshall was smart, he would make some room for his old rhyme partner on Relapse 2. The world needs some more Bad Meets Evil material right now.

Royce da 5'9": "D.O.A. (Redemption)" (not a real video):



-Max

Royce Da 5'9" - Independent's Day (June 28, 2005)

Ryan Montgomery was riding a critical high with his second album, Death Is Certain, and although he didn't sell enough copies to warrant repeated exposure on Billboard's album sales charts, he could still be happy with the final results: his sophomore effort received almost universal praise, even with its darker themes, which were fueled by his alcohol-binging loneliness and depression.

After splitting up with the sauce, Royce da 5'9" hit the streets with some mixtapes that kept the momentum going, and released his third album in as many record labels, Independent's Day, in 2005. Obviously a play on a certain well-known holiday (Guy Fawkes Day), Independent's Day was seen as Ryan's attempt to celebrate his status as hip hop's premier underground rapper, a celebration which resulted in an unusual number of radio-friendly attempts, the most notorious of which being a collaboration with Sara Stokes, late of Puff Daddy's MTV-reality-show crew Da Band, on "Wet My Whistle", which may be the reason why Independent's Day ended up selling a negative number of copies: the math for the album's marketing budget was so fuzzy that the label, Trouble Records, seems to have only released this one fucking album in their entire history.

Hell, even the Koch graveyard, which Royce apparently fled from, could have done a better job: maybe they would have set up Royce with a singer on his hook that might have had an actual career. But what do I know? Maybe Royce hooked her up with the job because he was able to wet his whistle. And by that, I mean "score a job with Puff Daddy writing some of his songs in exchange for the favor of including Sara on his third album".

What else did you think I meant? Get your minds out of the gutter, folks.

1. INTRO
Yes, yes, gunshots can sound like fireworks, and vice versa. That comparison doesn't make for a good rap album intro, though.

2. I OWE YOU
So Ryan sets up the conceit of Independent's Day: he's trying his best to appeal to every possible demographic. Eighty year old men in New Brunswick really don't care much for your shit, dunn! How about this: you make some more music for your actual fans, and we'll support the hell out of it. Sound good? The only problem with that plan of attack is trying to determine how many Royce fans there are left after that song he did with fucking Willa Ford.

3. RIDE (FEAT BIG HERK & JUAN)
Utilizing one of the most generic titles in hip hop history, Royce proves that, yes, he can make a song that sounds even worse than the shit that was on the radio in June of 2005, thanks for asking. Big Herk, the second rapper, also sounds a lot like Xzibit's twin.

4. WET MY WHISTLE (FEAT SARA STOKES)
The fuck is this shit?

5. POLITICS (FEAT CEE-LO)
This song is actually halfway decent: it deserves to be on a much better album. Cee-Lo's singing sounds more Goodie Mob than Gnarls Barkley, which is always a plus, and Ryan sounds almost like the Royce da 5'9" persona that his fans first noticed.

6. LOOKING AT MY DOG (FEAT YO GOTTI)
I kind of like Carlos "Six July" Brody's beat, but otherwise I truly feel that this sort of song is beneath Royce. Predictably for a weed carrier, Yo Gotti fails to impress: I have doubts that he could even manage to carry actual weed in a proper fashion, given his horrible performance behind the mic.

7. RIGHT BACK (FEAT JUAN & KID VISHIS)
I'm not even convinced that one of those bullshit rappers in the South could make this beat somehow work for them. Royce, smartly, only appears on one verse and the hook: he then ran out to hide in the restroom for the rest of the recording process, wondering exactly what he had did in a past life to warrant this type of ridiculous output, the kind where his younger brother (Kid Vishis) manages to sound almost as good as Ryan simply because Ryan sucked terribly behind the mic. Circle of life, my two readers.

8. SKIT
...

9. BLOW DAT...
Fuck. My ears just stopped bleeding from the skid mark on hip hop's Underoos that was "Wet My Whistle", and I'm presented with another song that prominently features the word "whistle" in its hook? God, this shit sucks. So far, I'm finding U-God's Golden Arms Redemption to be more entertaining that Independent's Day. No, I'm being serious.

10. CHIPS ON PISTONS (FEAT BLADE ICEWOOD)
Can somebody please do something to Ryan that causes him to spiral back into his depression, so that his musical output can stop sucking so goddamn much? All of these "happy" songs are causing Ryan's fanbase to defect. And what the hell kind of rap name is 'Blade Icewood', anyway? Did you grab a dictionary and select the first three words you selected at random?

11. SKIT
...

12. FUCK MY BRAINS OUT (FEAT JUAN &INGRID SMALLS )
This is such a godawful mess that I almost feel the need to dispose of all my Royce da 5'9" CDs by throwing them out of a fucking window, but then someone may be injured by the falling debris, and I don't want anybody else hurt as a byproduct of this grade-Z bullshit.

13. INDEPENDENT'S DAY
"'Round here, they call me Indy Pendy, 'cause of how independent my pen be"? That's what passes for a hook these days. I'm prone to give up and start reviewing New Wave albums soon: at least those guys knew that their lyrics left a lot to be desired.

14. MEETING OF THE BOSSES
That title just cries out for a collaboration with a hip hop heavyweight or two, right? Maybe a feature by both Jay-Z and Nas? Yeah, but that would actually make sense. Instead, Royce wastes a halfway decent beat rhyming by his damn self about absolutely nothing in particular. Fuck, I'd even accept a chorus by Marshall Mathers at this point, and those two weren't even on speaking terms in 2005.

15. SKIT
...

16. PARANOIA (FEAT LA THE DARKMAN)
This isn't the most natural pairing, but considering the fact that Ryan and La utilize the same producer (Six July again), it was bound to happen eventually. The end result is decent, but nothing makes this song stand out in the crowd, except for possibly the strange-sounding chorus, which only attracts the wrong sort of attention to it.

17. LAY IT DOWN (FEAT JUAN & K-DOE)
Great Scott's beat (not a bad producer moniker, by the way) is decent for an obvious attempt at a club banger, and Royce certainly sounds good (finally!), but once Ryan's first verse is over, the sonic vacations trends downward at an alarming pace.

18. YEAH
Uh, no. This song isn't completely bad, but it's the last goddamn song on the album: why even bother?

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is from the same guy that brought us Death Is Certain? Seriously? In his feeble attempt to sell records, Royce inadvertently alienates his remaining fans: even a supporter like myself couldn't really look him in the eye after the release of Independent's Day, let alone attempt to give a fuck about his later output. (I eventually came around, but it took a long while.) This shit is a failure on almost every possible level, and makes for a disappointing and aggravating listen. Now I'm just fucking depressed, because I just can't stand to hear artists with such great potential and obvious talent fuck up so badly.

BUY OR BURN? Neither. In fact, I think you should steal this shit from your local record shop, and draw a crowd outside while you make a big show about ripping through the plastic and breaking the fucking disc in half. That way, nobody will be able to listen to this shit.

BEST TRACKS: "Politics"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Read through the other Royce da 5'9" write-ups by clicking here.

Royce Da 5'9" - Death Is Certain (February 24, 2004)

There are three specific moments in the life and career of Ryan Montgomery , also known as Royce Da 5'9", that influenced the recording of his second studio album, Death Is Certain.

The first moment was when Royce's debut album, Rock City, leaked to the Interweb. Columbia Records was having a hell of a time trying to sell an underground rapper to a mainstream audience anyway: in fact, they actually resorted to having Ryan fill the token rapper role on the first single from their newest (white) songstress Willa Ford (who was formerly known as the ex of one of the Backstreet Boys, but who is best known now for getting her kit off for Playboy after the music career stalled; not that there is anything wrong with that), an experiment which failed miserably (although I have a clear recollection of Carson Daly on Total Request Live, who always reported with both elation and confusion whenever an artist he actually liked appeared on MTV's countdown, gratefully attempt to introduce Royce to an uncaring audience when the video dropped). Right at the point when they realized the impossibility of the situation (not even having Eminem on the first single helped, although if you'll remember, "Rock City" sucked left nuts anyway), Rock City leaked, forcing Columbia to scrap a release in the States, instead offloading the album overseas. Royce recorded some new tracks and retooled "Rock City" (by deleting the guitars from the original mix) and released Rock City 2.0, but at that point it was too late, as nobody bought the damn thing (everyone had already downloaded the original version), which led to Royce getting the boot and ending up downtrodden at the Koch graveyard.

The second moment was when Marshall Mathers got a little too happy with his fountain pen, which resulted in signing his weed carriers D12, Detroit stalwart Obie Trice, and, of all people, Curtis fucking Jackson to Shady Records. The final signee was especially insulting to Ryan, as he had himself requested a record deal from Shady after the Columbia debacle, and was flatly refused by his former Bad Meets Evil rhyme partner. Trying to be the bigger person, Royce accepted Em's invitation to perform on his Anger Management tour that year, but their relationship quickly deteriorated, and Royce was soon dropped from the tour amid a ridiculous amount of diss tracks coming from both Ryan's and D12's camps. (It should be noted that Eminem never directly participated in any diss toward Ryan.) Royce released a 2-disc mixtape called Build & Destroy, which collected most of these disses and included some rare, random shit for good measure.

However, this tragic turn of events for Royce's career would lead to the third defining moment: Royce turning to the bottle. His alcoholism took over at this point, leading to chronic depression (there's nothing like a depressant to chase the blues away, as my boy Lenny from The Simpsons would have me believe) that would fuel the entirety of his sophomore release, Death Is Certain, a much darker and more somber affair than its predecessor. he seemed to get all of the beef out of his system (having it only pop up in minor spurts here and there) and focused on improving his rhymes, using the low-level beats provided (mainly by Carlos Broady), and the one big-budget banger (from frequent collaborator DJ Premier, the only "name" producer on the album) to get his point across.

Most critics praised Death Is Certain, calling it his finest and most polished effort. It wasn't the biggest chart-topper in history, but Royce never expected it to be: he was an underground puppy who was plucked from the streets by obnoxious children who didn't know a thing about caring for a pet, and with interference from the parents, Ryan was now back at home, where he could thrive.

So, about Death Is Certain...

1. INTRO
Useless rap album intro, but thankfully it's only twelve seconds long. It works a lot better if you put tracks one and two together.

2. REGARDLESS
Nice way to start off your second real album. I love how Royce swipes lyrics from Marshall's "Lose Yourself"; it seems appropriate, as Royce is still the only rapper out there that masterfully meshes with Em's flow.

3. THROWBACK
Sounds like an obvious single, but I don't remember if it was ever marketed as such. Essentially a lesson in "How To Sell Royce Da 5'9" In Five Minutes Or Less".

4. WHAT I KNOW
Meh.

5. I PROMISE
The beat isn't that good, but what plays underneath the hook reminds me of Carlos "Six July" Broady's instrumental for Biggie's "My Downfall", a far superior track.

6. CALL ME NEVER!
A weird voicemail interlude that you can feel free to skip. It doesn't even matter that DJ Premier is the final caller, even though that message leads into...

7. HIP HOP
Primo blesses Ryan with easily the best song on Death is Certain. It's almost as good as Rock City's "Boom", but much darker. But it shouldn't surprise you that Primo brings the best instrumental, especially considering that the remainder of the album features board work by Carlos Broady, Joe Noname, and Guy Who Bags Groceries At The Shop 'N' Shack And Makes Beats During Smoke Breaks.

8. GANGSTA (FEAT CUTTY MACK)
The beat is a miss, and Ryan's lyrics are okay at best. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, what with such a creative title and all.

9. T.O.D.A.Y. (FEAT INGRID SMALLS)
I love the fact that he actually addresses the concern of hip hop fans that there are barely any name producers on Death Is Certain. Lyrically, Royce seems to have only gotten better, but some of the choices he makes are a bit questionable, such as the inclusion of the female vocalist on the hook, which clearly isn't necessary.

10. I & ME
This is actually pretty good, as Royce touches on some of his anxieties and wonders how he went from working with Dr. Dre to ending up groundskeeping at the Koch graveyard. I didn't need to hear the chick's threats at the very beginning, and I'm sure Royce could have come up with something better than ripping off 2Pac for the hook, but whatever.

11. BEEF
So he first rips off Pac, and now he blatantly borrows from Biggie, although he does so over an interpolation of Biggie's original "What's Beef?" beat (which was originally produced by Carlos Broady anyway).

12. BOMB 1ST
I could have done without the hook, which only exists to repeat the title of the song into your subconscious, and the sound effects layered throughout the second verse are cued up too loudly, but otherwise this track is short and sweet.

13. EVERYBODY GOES (FEAT INGRID SMALLS)
This track is okay, if only because the hook, which sounds whimsical and carefree, is a funny contrast to Royce's threatening lyrics.

14. DEATH IS CERTAIN PT. 2 (IT HURTS) (FEAT CHA CHA & INGRID SMALLS)
I don't have the time nor the patience to figure out what happened to part one. Royce goes through the stages of grief over a beat that suits the content; at least it does to me, as I imagine that Royce would want to celebrate a life rather than mourn.

15. SOMETHING's WRONG WITH HIM (FEAT CARLOS BROADY)
Songs like this are why Royce would be the first rapper I would sign if I could leverage this blog into a label deal of some sort. He talks about how his album is dark because that's what he wants to listen to, and admits that his own wife doesn't like his CD. (He says she would rather listen to Joe Budden, which is hilarious to me.) Carlos Broady interrupts constantly, but this song rocks, even though the title is mislabelled on the album itself as "Something's Wrong Him", which makes no fucking sense.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Death Is Certain has some problems with the beats, but surprisingly, those issues aren't so bad that they make the album suffer. As such, it's actually pretty fucking good, and I can see why folks regard this as Royce's finest effort. Ryan also comes across as astonishingly candid, addressing many of the same issues that fans and critics alike had when his sophomore effort was announced, often within the scope of his actual songs, making for an oddly meta experience.

BUY OR BURN? This album deserves your money, not just because Royce is one of my favorite rappers (although that helps), but because his album is actually good. Give it a shot; you won't be disappointed, but if you are, you have personal issues that a blog such as mine can't help you with.


BEST TRACKS: "Hip Hop"; "Something's Wrong With Him"; "Death Is Certain Pt. 2 (It Hurts)"; "Regardless"; "Throwback"

RELATED INFO: The newly-digital Hip Hop Site (I miss when they sold vinyl) announced a couple of weeks ago a definitive version of Rock City, subtitled 3.0, available for purchase/download, which includes every song earmarked for each version of Royce's debut, with the apparent blessing of Ryan himself. It may be worth a look-see.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:Royce Da 5'9" - Rock City

Royce Da 5'9" - Rock City (a/k/a Rock City 2.0) (November 26, 2002)

Ryan Montgomery, better known on party lines as Royce Da 5'9", is a rapper that hails from Detroit, home of the Lions, Marshall Mathers, and not much else worth noting. At present, he is probably best known as 'the rapper that could have had a steady career in the music industry, if only Eminem wasn't such a douche bag'. He is also the first artist I would want to sign if I had my own record label, which, given my writing schedule, also won't be happening anytime soon, but I can dream, right?

Ryan met Marshall backstage at a concert, where Em was apparently pimping out copies of his underground releases Infinite (which I really need to listen to again) and The Slim Shady EP, which at this point was garnering attention from sources as diverse as, well, The Source, and Dr. Dre's Aftermath label, mainly due to the race of the artist in question and not so much the overtly violent lyrical content. Royce and Em bonded immediately, and they formed a duo called Bad Meets Evil, with Royce as the Devil and Em, the Devil's own Hitler. A three-track EP found its way to stores (conveniently enough, after the release of Em's major label debut The Slim Shady LP, on which Royce also appeared) through Royce's relationship with Game Recordings, a unit that is now more famous for releasing those Hip Hop Honeys DVDs than for their music distribution arm; the two Em/Royce songs, "Scary Movies" and "Nuttin' To Do", were hailed as instant classics, and the third track, a Royce solo offering called "I'm The King", proved that he could hold his own on the mic, and shouldn't only be seen as a "black Eminem" (which I always thought was a bizarre comparison, because I always thought of Eminem as a white Reggie Noble).

I always questioned why Royce was signed with Game/Columbia Records (after a minor stint on Tommy Boy) while Em had the Aftermath/Interscope hookup; it turns out that Royce may have been signed well before Em. However, I'm sure that Royce also wondered why his boy was leaving him in the dust; it seems their relationship quickly deteriorated after Eminem blew the fuck up, which coincided with the recording of Royce's debut album Rock City. After the album was mastered, Royce took a job ghostwriting for Dr. Dre for his 2001 comeback album, but after running his mouth about his contributions (some of which were already recorded and mastered), Dre kicked him out of the building. Eminem then quietly signed his own band of weed carriers, D-12, to his subsidiary, Shady Records: as Royce was a better rapper than every single person in D-12 (Em excluded, at the time anyway), people were waiting in the wings for news that Royce was jumping ship to be a part of the Shady/Aftermath Experience. Then Em hooked up with Obie Trice, another rapper from Detroit, and the writing was on the wall. At the point where Marshall signed Curtis Jackson, an artist with no Detroit ties whatsoever, Royce had already lashed out at the entire camp, which is a story I'll save for another write-up. (I will say this, though: on a Tommy Boy collection that I can't remember the title of, his track "I Won't Be" contains the following lyric: "What will you equal after the math?"; I'm surprised this was never taken as a dis, considering rappers get angry when other rappers drink the wrong flavor of Kool-Aid on a Thursday.)

To add insult to more insults, Rock City leaked to the Interweb in early 2002, causing Royce to pull a Lupe Fiasco and retool the disc before it's official release later that year. (The re-release often carries the subtitle Version 2.0, but it should be considered the official debut for Royce.) However, the original disc was still made available in Europe, so Royce is in the unique position of having two debut albums with the same title in his back catalog.

I've always considered Royce to be in my top ten lyrically, and have always felt he caught a bad break. Signing with Shady probably would have been a bad choice (since Interscope would have forced him to make some club bangers for the ladies), but there's no reason that he shouldn't have been snatched up by a respected indie outlet, such as Nature Sounds or Death Row (just kidding!). Rock City ultimately sold half of zero copies, resulting in Ryan getting dropped from his major label home. Does that mean this album sucks? What do you think?

1. IT'S TUESDAY (INTRO)

At least Ryan spits a verse on the intro, so I can't really complain about it. However, the singing is truly unnecessary.

2. ROCK CITY (FEAT EMINEM)

This is not a good beat for Royce to spit to, but the real disappointment is Marshall. After years of teasing listeners with the possibility of a Royce/Eminem collabo, instead we get Em singing on a (terrible) hook and ad-libbing like a fucking moron.

3. OFF PAROLE (FEAT TRE LITTLE)

Tre Little offers nothing to the proceedings, even though he contributes more vocally that Pharrell Williams, who ad-libs accordingly on this Neptunes track. Royce's lyrical skill has advanced much farther than "Scary Movies", but the hook is still blah.

4. MY FRIEND

DJ Premier contributes the backing track for Royce's ode to his penis. Hi-larious.

5. YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME

The beat kills this song from the jump. Royce's lyrics are also weaker than usual, although they do pick up during the second verse.

6. MR. BALLER (FEAT PHARRELL WILLIAMS, CLIPSE, & TRE LITTLE)

Sounds like a Clipse track featuring Royce and Tre Little, the guy selling hot dogs outside of the studio. And not a Lord Willin' track either; I'm talking Exclusive Audio Footage Clipse here. Not bad.

7. LET'S GO (FEAT TWISTA)

The problem with including Twista as a guest on your album is that you inevitably use a beat that seems tailor-made for Twista's patented tongue-twisting rhymes, and you, as the host, feel an obligation to try and keep up with your guest. Also, unless your name happens to be Shawn Carter, Twista will murder you on your own shit.

8. D-ELITE

Includes a sample that reminds me of both Killarmy's "Militant" and the music they play in the bumpers of E!'s True Hollywood Stories when they are either going to or returning from commercial. This is pretty good, actually.

9. TAKE HIS LIFE (FEAT TRE LITTLE)

So what Royce chose to do was take some of his stronger mixtape/Interweb tracks and add them on to the retail version of Rock City. "Take His Life" is a good choice (although Tre Little could be deleted from every single song he's ever appeared on and nobody would miss him), but I would have preferred "The Desert", or even Dr. Dre's "The Way I Be Pimpin'" as a bonus track, since Royce wrote that song and all.

10. NICKEL NINE IS...

Another mixtape track. Not that good of a mixtape track, either.

11. BOOM

To date, still the best Primo/Royce effort. This song is just a fucking monster.

12. SOLDIER'S STORY

Not awful, but had been floating around for seemingly years prior to Rock City's release.

13. WHO AM I

I will forever remember this track as "the one where Royce rhymes over 2pac's "Pain" beat", "Pain" being from the Above The Rim soundtrack (as a cassette-only bonus track, for some stupid reason; that song is one of only a handful of Pac tracks I would call 'great'). This track is, alas, not very good. Hey, does anybody remember when Ja Rule decided to shit all over Pac's grave with his "More Pain" cover/tribute song? It made me want to punch Jeffrey's grandfather in the mouth for being half of the reason Ja Rule's mother was born, it was that blasphemous, and I'm not even a Pac fan (I prefer Biggie, personally).

14. LIFE (FEAT AMERIE)

I've always liked Amerie, and only half of the time it's because of her music. That said, this song is only alright.

The following is listed as a bonus track:

15. KING OF KINGS

I understand why this was relegated to the 'bonus track' category; because the sound doesn't actually fit in with the rest of the sequence. Don't read that as "Ryan decided to rhyme over a hot polka beat", though; this song is still pretty fucking good.

The original release, which can still be found online, features a less-polished Royce and more guest appearances. Thematically, it's the same as the real Rock City.

1. IT'S TUESDAY (INTRO)

Same track that appears on the retail.

2. ROCK CITY (FEAT EMINEM)

The original version of this song still doesn't include any Eminem verses, and the same instrumental is utilized, but there were guitars on this version that didn't make the retail. I suppose it doesn't matter either way, though, since this song sucks.

3. GET'CHA PAPER (FEAT TRE LITTLE)

This track features the first attempt Royce made at rhyming over a specific Neptunes beat: the final product ended up being "Off Parole" on the retail, but the beats are exactly the same. Royce's attempt at a club banger is kind of misguided, but enjoyable nonetheless. Fun fact: Tre Little's vocals on this track appear exactly as they do on "Off Parole"; he couldn't even be bothered to contribute new vocals?

4. WE LIVE (DANGER)

Royce gets his interpolation of Hall & Oates's "Maneater" onto an album. Not surprisingly, this sucks, although not because of Hall and/or Oates.

5. YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME

He kept this song for the retail? What the fuck?

6. LET'S GO (FEAT TWISTA)

Same track as appears on the retail.

7. D-ELITE PART 1

Revised to simply "D-Elite" on the retail, probably because Part 2, which follows, was mysteriously "lost" (read: deleted because it's awful).

8. D-ELITE PART 2 (FEAT D-ELITE)

Royce's weed carriers were originally given their time to shine, but since the opportunity was completely wasted on them, Royce deleted it from the retail release. This doesn't even require a punchline: Ryan did it for me. I didn't bother listing the members of the crew because they just don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

9. SHE'S THE ONE (FEAT TRE LITTLE)

Tre Little completely ruins this Neptunes track. However, what most people may not realize is that the original version of this song was an Eminem and Royce duet; Royce's first verse was the same, but Eminem's Slim Shady alias took over the second verse, spitting by far the most ridiculous pick-up line I've heard on a rap record ("Bitch, I've got a dick. Wanna fuck?", which, by the way, reminds me of a story a friend of mine back in high school told me once about some random guy that tried to hit on her with a classy line just as bizarre as Em's: "Wanna get a pizza and fuck? (In response to her 'what the fuck' look) What, you don't like pizza?" Hilarious! ), and then Ryan and Marshall traded back and forth during the last verse. The original track leaked to the Interweb (and is easily found) and teased folks with what could have been, which is very aggravating, given this final product. That said, the outro, where Royce demands that the engineers "fade (him) out" while the song is actually fading out is mildly amusing.

10. BOOM

The version with the awkwardly-layered chorus that was always completely unnecessary. It's obvious that the label added it after the fact in order to somehow get radio airplay, which would never have worked anyway, because the last DJ Premier-produced track you've ever heard on the radio was that Christina Aguilera song, and that was the first mainstream Primo single in, like, seventy years. Ignore the hook (or listen to the version on Rock City 2.0, which is the 'director's cut'), and you'll understand why people are demanding a Royce/Primo collaborative album.

11. WHAT WOULD YOU DO

Very meh. Good thing it was removed from the actual release.

12. WHO AM I

Same track as appears on the retail.

13. LIFE (FEAT AMERIE)

See track number 12.

14. MY FRIEND

Same track as appears on Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. Ha! Now you're paying attention, right?

FINAL THOUGHTS: Rock City is proof that Royce was more than deserving of his record deal, more so than, let's just say, Bizarre. Oddly, the retail release of Rock City (2.0, if you will) is actually much better than the original pressing, so it seems that Royce took the early criticism to heart and did something constructive. I can't believe that the album didn't do as well as it should have: considering at the time, his main homey was Slim Shady, could race have been a factor? Without question, yes. Well, that, and Eminem has Andre Young and Interscope's budget in his pocket (not literally, you weirdos).

BUY OR BURN? It's not like you'd be able to buy the original version anyway, but the retail should be purchased, without a doubt. Support one of the better quote-unquote underground rappers out there today, and in return, you're rewarded with an entertaining listen. (Fuck, this write-up was long, wasn't it?)

BEST TRACKS: "Boom"; "My Friend"; "Getcha Paper" (from the original pressing); "King of Kings"

-Max

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