Album Review: Big Boi- Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Average Rating: 8.5/10

Overall Rating: 9.2/10

         1.  Intro

         2.  Daddy Fat Sax (10/10)

         3. Turn Me On Ft. Sleepy Brown & Joi (8.5/10)

         4. Follow Us Ft. Vonnegutt (9/10)

         5. Shutterbugg Ft. Cutty (9.5/10)

         6. General Patton (6/10)

         7. Tangerine Ft. T.I & Khujo Goodie (8/10)

         8. You Ain’t No DJ Ft. Yelawolf (10/10)

         9. Hustle Blood Ft. Jamie Foxx (5.5/10)

         10. Be Still Ft. Janelle Monae (9/10)

         11. For Yo Sorrows Ft. Sam Chris, Too $hort & George Clinton (10/10)

         12. Night Night Ft. B.o.B & Joi (9/10)

         13. Shine Blockas Ft. Gucci Mane (6/10)

         14. The Train Pt.2 Ft. Sam Chris (9/10)

         15. Back Up Plan (10/10)

         16. Theme Song (7/10)

         17.  Royal Flush Ft. Andre 3000 & Reakwon (10/10)

     For four years now OutKast, or any of their members have in a way, took a bit of a break. The brain behind a lot of the creativity of the due, Andre 3000 has gone into mostly just production and making guest appearances, and his right hand man, the more traditional rapper of the group Big Boi has gone on to begin a solo career, so now with a solo album, “Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty” can Big Boi change his image from Andre’s right hand man to finally building a name of his own?

     This album wasn’t the first time Big Boi worked alone, the 2003 Outkast double album “The Love Below/ Speakerboxxx” had an entire half of the album made entirely be Big Boi, it was excellent, but it still stood behind Andre’s side, “The Love Below”. So now, with very little Andre 3000 featured anywhere on this album, Big Boi can finally make a name out of himself and not just build his dynasty behind Andre’s.

     “Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty” showed a lot of growth for Big Boi since his 2003 semi-solo debut. Like Speakerboxxx the “Sir Lucious Leftfoot” album shows off a lot of lyrical skill, which included a lot of great punchlines, a lot of very powerful wordplay, a lot of pop culture references, and  a lot of fun tongue twisters. The album was really a showcase of really strong, fun flows and just pure lyrical talent, that was what this album was about, and since Big Boi has really expanded and became a better artist throughout his career, this album really showed his growth, and his stronger lyrical talent in great group of the tracks here.

     The production on this album was pure classic southern hip-hop. The production featured a lot of dance inspired, club-like, drum and bass influenced rhythms. The whole album’s production sounded great, nothing on the album was really serious music or something like that, and that was not a problem at all, there is no denying the fun, strong southern party inspired production in the album. The production here really was a reminder on why southern hip-hop once ruled the hip-hop world, and honestly that’s exactly why it was so excellent.

     The album also had a large number of excellent tracks. Some of the most notable tracks here include “You Ain’t No DJ” which had a really unique beat, and great lyrical performances by Big Boi and Yelawolf, “Daddy Fat Sax” which was a bit short, but it’s great wordplay, beat and flow more than make up for its short length, “Royal Flush” was a great track, it had verses from Big Boi, Reakwon, and Andre 3000, so it was in a way an OutKast reunion, and as usual, Big Boi seems to stand behind Andre no matter how good he raps, “For Yo Sorrows” was really a great party track, it had great production, the flow was really good and strong, and as usual the wordplay was outstanding, and “Back Up Plan” which felt like really an excellent all-around party track.

     The album did have some issues though. The production did feel fairly plain and a bit boring at some points, “Hustle Blood” was a mixed track in my opinion, thanks to its plain production, “General Patton” could have been one of the best on the album, but it’s beat puts it down a few levels, and .”Shine Blocks” which was a good track, but its poor hook and having a needless and poor verse from Gucci Mane really hurt the song and made it into something much smaller than what it could have been if it was just Big Boi or if it featured someone else.

     Other than the production errors on some tracks on the album, the album’s theme was too simplistic for Big Boi. I mean, true the album had a theme, and it showed that Big Boi did grow as an artist, but given his lyrical talent and strength, you’d think the theme would have matched, I mean, the theme here was good and all, but just not really something Big Boi would really grow to after being in the game since 1994.

     Overall Antwan Andre Patton gives us something that was pretty much a success form beginning to end. True, it’s not quite as good as Outkast’s albums as a duo, but it is certainly as good as his half of the double album “The Love Below/ Speakerboxxx”. The album had it’s really great moments, and it’s reasons to be a classic, but the albums did have some bad sides that brought it down though, so overall this album was excellent, but not really as good as it should have been though.

EP Review: Tech N9ne- Seepage

Average Rating: 9.3/10

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

         1.  Choking From It Skit

         2. Seepage Ft. Tonesha Sanders (10/10)

         3. Asshole Ft. Big Scoob & Krizz Kaliko (9/10)

         4. Alucard (10/10)

         5. Bite me Ft. Jessica Slankard &Tonesha Sanders (8/10)

         6. Trippin Comin’ Ft. Krizz Kaliko (9.5/10)

    Tech N9ne is probably one of the busiest artists in the industry; just in 2010 he had a total of two albums, he started off his year with the album “K.O.D” which was his best album to date, then the album “The Gates Mixed Plate” came out, it was a good album, but much lighter than KOD or anything Tech has done, in the same year he had an EP, which was full of K.O.D leftovers, which was called “The Lost Scripts of K.O.D”, it came out between K.O.D and The Gates Mixed Plate, it was as good as K.O.D, then in October he had a mixtape called “Bad Season” which was made to get his thoughts back together, and then finally he released another EP called “Seepage”, but was Seepage a great small group of tracks, or just a sign that Tech is getting tired.

      Seepage brought in a whole different side of Tech and a bit of a deeper and more human side in his other music. The EP talked about Tech’s feelings, his personal traits, the stages in his life, and a few other things, it was a hard concept, especially for anyone especially because the whole EP which was just six tracks, but did Tech pull it off? well, given that the production here where beats that he had for K.O.D, but ended up not using for K.O.D, and given the fact that Tech is at his best when he works with that type of style, it looked like that the EP really shaped well as far as I’m concerned.

   

     As I mentioned Seepage was made up of just six tracks, so there isn’t about much to look at here other than the six tracks and how they went together. Tech talked about a lot of stuff on Seepage, he talked about his dark thoughts, dark events that happened to him, and the fact that he can’t avoid his dark side on the EP’s best track “Seepage”, he talked about the term ‘Asshole’ and the fact that people call him an asshole in the track “Asshole”, he talked about the fact he’s better than a lot of rappers out there, and the fact that there are a lot of rappers who went on ‘the KOD’s side’ on “Alucard” which was really dark and aggressive, he talked about how girls want Tech to sexually abuse them and taking things to the limit in “Bite Me”, also, Tech talked about fake friends, fake people and generally just his views on liars in the really emotional track “Trippen Coming”.

     Seepage does come close to being one of the best EPs out there, but there were some issue with it though. One big issue with the Seepage EP was that even as an EP it felt a bit rushed, it all felt like ‘c’mon let’s just put this out!’, also like every EP it gives the listeners the desire for more, but the difference between Seepage and other EPs was that this EP really did give the desire more than any other EP, and in a higher rate than desired or which is even recommended for an EP to do that.

    

     Looking at Seepage as a whole, it really was an excellent EP. Seepage had its big ups, every track was really something great, the album felt personal, and more importantly Tech’s rhymes where all very smart and clever, so is Tech getting tired? No, honestly I think he’s just getting better by the minute; did the EP give everything right on just six tracks?  In a way yes, but at the same time it did feel a bit rushed though. Overall this was really a very strong EP, especially with the fact that he really expended his music by letting his character grow and go on different levels more than ever here.

Album Review: Kanye West- My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantesy

Average Rating: 8.2/10

    Overall Rating: 9.5/10

1. Dark Fantasy (10/10)
2. Gorgeous Ft. Kid Cudi & Reakwon (10/10)
3. Power (10/10)
4.  All of the Lights Introlude
5. All of the Lights Ft. Rihanna & Kid Cudi (10/10)
6. Monster Ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nikki Minaj & Bon Iver (10/10)
7. So Appalled Ft. Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beats & RZA (8/10)
8. Devil in a New Dress Ft. Rick Ross (5/10)
9. Runaway Ft. Pusha T (5/10)10. Hell of a Life (8/10)
11. Blame Game Ft. John Legend (6/10)
12. Lost in the World Ft. Bon Iver (7/10)
13. Who Will Survive in America

      After an artist goes through a rough time in his or her career, it usually takes that artist a fairly long amount of time to redeem himself or herself, also it takes the artist a while to regain his or her fans, for example, after Eminem released Encore, he took a five year hiatus, then released Relapse, which was generally a poor attempt for Eminem to redeem himself, but the year after that, Eminem managed to redeem himself with Recovery, and he got even more fans while regaining his older ones, another example is 50 Cent, who after released Curtis, managed to redeem his skills, but not his fanbase with 'Before I Self Destruct', and the third, and most obvious example was Kanye West, who had a tough last two years making himself look like an arrogant asshole, making him really need to redeem himself with ‘My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy’.

     'My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy' had a great background in general, mainly because it indicates Kanye's return to the rap world, meaning that with this album, Kanye planned to redeem himself and regain his fanbase by doing what he’s familiar with, while not doing anything too experimental, and with his really strong production skills which just keep improving, My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy was a great album, why? Mainly due to experience, because Kanye was really successful in almost all his albums, and “My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy” just continued his streak of success.

     My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy was a lot deeper and generally a much better produced album than his last few album. The album’s best tracks had superb production, and at the same time the lyrical content that felt like it fit the song. The most notable songs with great lyrics and matching production, one of the greatest examples was the album’s first track “Dark Fantasy” which sounded like a gospel when it was on the hook, and it just completely switched into a strange, different styled beat during the verses, and honesty, the beat was one of the best I have ever heard, and lyrically I felt like the song deeply symbolized a person’s deepest fantasies and that they can be really crazy, and honestly Kanye symbolized that perfectly with his lyrics on this track.

     Another great track with great lyrics and outstanding tailor-made production was “Gorgeous”, a track which talks about Kanye and Rekowan’s current point in there carriers, there struggles, and more important how they turned that struggling point around, into something really successful, and what better way to rap like than with a really strong hook complemented by a voice like Cudi’s along with a guitar styled beat?

      Another great track with the same case was “All of The Lights” which felt like the most artistic track on the album. The song was mainly about mistrust, and Kanye used the idea of his girlfriend cheating on him when he came back from prison, It had a lot of style, a lot of style, substance, it was well made, and as a result that was a really good idea for a song in general. All of The Lights had a great for trumpet based beat, as usual it was really strong as a beat itself, and it really complimented the song’s theme, style and lyrical content.

    Runaway was one of the weaker tracks on the album; it had much calmer production and a much less interesting subject matter. Runaway was about Kanye warning a girl that she should run away from him and that he’s not really a good person, it was more of an emotional song, it was good, but when putting it next to the rest of the album, there was a huge group of much better songs that did a much better job than this ond.

     Blame Game was generally a good song; it was about what was exactly given in its name, it was about blame and how people just seem to blame each other, mostly in bad relationships. Blame Game wasn’t nearly the best on the album, but it was not by any means a bad song, but it was just flawed though, the production was a bit boring, the song was slow comparing to the rest of the album, and honestly the song just didn’t do it for me, it was a good enough song to be enjoyable, but it was one of those songs that are really easy to skip when listening to the album.

    Other than those few tracks there were other tracks that had a more serious subject matter, the only difference between the ones earlier mentioned and the other ones was that all the other ones had a much smaller and less complex concept. For example, “Lost in The World” was about confusion and really not knowing what’s going on, it was a great track, but not one of the best on the album, and “Power” which was a song about general corruption; it’s a stand out track on the album mainly because of its strong production and it’s more complex flow.

   Kanye did let loose on some tracks though, so not all the tracks here go deep into subject matters. There was “Devil in a New Dress” which was basically just Kanye and Rick Ross liking a girl and they were both debating whether they should get the girl or religion, it was a great concept, but probably was the weakest track on the album production wise. “Hell of a Life” was a story where he talks about falling in love with a porn star, he rapped it over an ACDC inspired beat which really made the difference for this track, and “Monster” which was basically a straight up rhyming game, it went from verse to verse from Ross, to Kanye, to Jigga then to Nikki, and to put them all together an excellent hook, it was truly it was one of the best tracks on the album, and was one of the best tracks of 2010.

    

     Overall I think Kanye proved he can easily win his fans back and that he is at his peak with this album without signs that he Is slowing down at all. The album was pure genius, it was something very artistic production wise and lyrically, it was something unique as a project in general, and it truly stood out not as just a great rap album, not just as a great album, but as a real piece of art with a lot of heart and soul put into it. “My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy” really wasn’t perfect, but it still deserved a lot of props and a really loud applause for its strong lyricism, stand out production, and it’s really artistic feeling and theme as an album.

Album Review: Gucci Man & Waka Flocka Flame- Ferrari Boyz

Average Rating: 0.6/10

Overall Rating: 0.1/10

          1. Ferrari Boyz (1/10)

          2.15^th and 1^st Ft. YG Hootie (1/10)

          3. Break Her (1/10)

          4. Feed Me Ft. Frenchie (1/10)

          5. Mud Muzik Ft. 2Chainz (1/10)

          6. In My Buisness Ft. Rocko (0.5/10)

          7. Young Niggaz (0.5/10)

          8. Suicide Homicide Ft. Wooh Da Kid (0/10)

          9. I Don’t See U Ft. Ice Burgandy (0/10)

          10. Pacman (0/10)

          11 Stoned (0/10)

          12. She Be Puttin On’ Ft. Slim Dunkin (0/10)

          13.So Many Things (3/10)

          14. Too Loyal Ft. Slim Dunkin (0/10)

          15. What The Hell Ft. Rocko (0/10)

      Gucci Mane, a rapper who I think is one of the worst rappers of all time, why? His music says it all, every one of his tracks are made up a few really simple and easy ingredients, which are: Bragging, groups of one-liners that made up his verses, boring beats that tried too hard to be gangster, and embarrassingly simple flows. A year ago, Gucci had a protégé, who I consider as a worse version of Gucci Mane, and his name is Waka Flocka Flame, his album last year “Flockavelli” used Gucci’s exactly ingredients, with a little added needless aggression, therefore making him a worse rapper than Gucci, and now, the both of them are making an entire full length album together, I don’t know why I’m giving it a chance, but can two negatives make a 

positive?

       Let’s take a look at the outer layer of the album before getting into the music. Ferrari Boyz is an album by Gucci Mane & Waka Flocka Flame, they both have really low respect in the hip-hop community, this album’s theme can be taken as a joke, and it’s clear with the name. So let’s see what the album can throw here, I highly doubt it’s possible, but can the music it’s self-overthrow Gucci & Waka’s low respect? Can it overthrow it’s really bad theme and outer layer? Only the music in the album can answer these questions.

    Where do I start with this album, the whole thing was as expected, actually honestly a bit worse than what I expected, especially on the lyrical side, I mean, at least on Gucci or Waka’s albums there is at least one more serious song on each album, but here? This album was all about stuff nobody cares about.  The Ferrari Boys album was all about going to the club, how ‘awesome’ Gucci & Waka are,how they are both surrounded by  strippers and money, and there expensive cars. Look at other mainstream artists, they use some detail on what they are talking about making there lyrics seem just a bit smarter, but Gucci and Waka? Both of them had no detail what so ever, they get into one idea, not even a concept, one idea, then start revolving around it until the listener is dizzy. The lyrics themselves made my IQ go down, every time I heard or read the lyrics on this album I honestly felt like I was getting dumber.

   When you look at the production here, it’s the same case as always for these two. Every beat here sounded similar to the beat of another track which sounded similar to the beat of another track on the album, and what makes it worse is the fact the beats here where boring in the first place, I mean, I hear a beat, I’m bored, I hear another beat on the album, my boredom increases. Also the beats don’t match the lyrics at all, a lot of the beats here where hardcore gagster beats, and Gucci & Waka where both rapping about smoking weed, partying and money, so the balance between the beat and the lyrics was really non-exisistant in this album.

    The IQ draining lyrics and the time waiting beats her could have both been easily excused by one thing: a decent flow, and did this album have a decent flow? Honestly it didn’t, most of the tracks here had verses completely made up of one-liners, the rhymes where really simple all the time, and there was no type of wordplay at all in the album. A decent flow saved a lot of albums from being terrible, and sometimes honestly turned songs from bad to good, but nearly every track here didn’t even have a decent flow to begin with.

      Ok, enough negative comments on the album for now, I do have to admit with all the trash here put together and glued into one piece, there was still little treasure in in this trash, but just maybe one little particle of good music. The production on the track “So Many Things” was a lot better than the production on most of the album, the beat was more chill and it actually matched the theme of the track, I swear, if it wasn’t for the lack of detail and the one-liner flow used on this track, this could have been an actual good song, maybe Gucci or Waka’s first actual good track.

   After listening to fifteen tracks of pure ear bleeding, Ferrari Boyz is finally over, and honestly my opinion on Waka and Gucci did not change at all. Honestly, I think they got worse due to them not changing at all, and if you look at their respect here, it went down, way down, for doing the same mistake that they always do. True, this may not be the worst album of all time, but it will fall to a place down there, I mean, I know I already said it, this album goes beyond terrible, I just feel bad for the people who turned really dumb after listening to this, because honestly, I felt like my IQ was really going down and was about crash land on the ground, really, I know I said it, but this album defines dumbed down, it’s the exact meaning of bad production and it probably broke the record of using one liner flows, so what I’m saying is this album really sucks, even mainstream fans will hate this. So everyone, feel free to say that I’m hating on Gucci and Waka, but just know if I am hating, them at least I’m hating on them for a reason.

Album Review: Eminem- Recovery

Average Rating: 9.8/10
Overall Rating: 9.5/10

          1. Cold Wind Blows (9.5/10)

          2. Talkin’ To Myself Ft. Kobe (10/10)

          3. On Fire (8.5/10)

          4. Won't Back Down Ft. Pink (10/10)

          5.W.T.P (9/10)

          6. Going Through Changes (10/10)

          7. Not Afraid (10/10)

          8. Seduction (10/10)

          9. No Love Ft. Lil Wayne (10/10)

          10. Space Bound (10/10)

          11. Cinderella Man (10/10)

          12. 25 To Life (10/10)

          13. So Bad (9.5/10)

          14. Almost Famous (10/10)

          15. Love The Way You Lie Ft. Rihanna (10/10)

          16. You're Never Over (10/10)

          17. Here We Go (10/10)

    Coming back after a slump is never easy. NAS barely came back to his legendary status since Illmatic came out, Jay-Z couldn’t return to his golden days no matter how hard he tries, 50 Cent is having almost as hard of a time as Jay-Z, and Eminem was slumping since Encore came out. But for Recovery, Eminem decided to take on a different direction and concept; he wanted to make a more serious, mature album, showing a much different and better side of himself.  So can a new concept bring Eminem back to his golden age? Only the quality on his second album after his hiatus “Recovery” can tell.

     Recovery generally went on a very different direction than Eminem’s last album Relapse, it was far more serious, the tracks where a lot smarter, it was more open, and really the tracks on Recovery where the tracks that people would want from a returning Eminem album. In a nutshell, Recovery was smart, open, and honestly nothing what Relapse was, even Slim Shady was removed most of the album, which honestly gave it a really positive effect.

     Recovery was Eminem’s longest album, it had 17 tracks, and no skits, therefore making it long enough for him to open up about what he experienced during his recent years, and have many of the subject matters we’ve been wanting Eminem to talk about since he came back from his drug addiction and hiatus.

     Eminem opened up about so much on this album. He talked about his tough time around music and how he almost killed his own career in the strong, rock-influenced “Talkin’ To Myself”. He talked about how he planned to change his life and how he tried to get out of depression in the deep and strongly emotional track “Going through Changes”. He talked about starting a new life after his drug addiction, and finally beating his demons in the uplifting first single of the album “Not Afraid”. he talked about his reasons why he’s still rapping in the metaphorically strong “25 To Life” where he talks about hip-hop like it was a girl, and he talked about Proof in the late tribute to him on the album’s best track “You’re Never Over”.

     Eminem talked about other subject matters on the album. He talked about domestic violence in “Love The Way You Lie” which featured Rihanna and was one of the best tracks on the album. he talked about how he’s over his haters in “No Love”, one of the most rhythmic tracks on the album, thanks to his, and Lil Wayne’s verse. He talked about his trust issues while being love struck in the guitar-based “Space Bound” a great track for the radio, and one of the best of Eminem’s career, and he talked about his rise to fame in some very hardcore and strong metaphors with a banging beat in the track “Almost Famous”.

    Eminem had some battle-oriented tracks on the album too, where he’s just constantly spitting punchlines and rhyme after rhyme after rhyme. “Won’t Back Down” was one of them, it was very intense, and one of the best lyrical tracks on the album. “On Fire” was just rhyming, but it was the worst on the album, it could have had a better beat, but still it was a great track and “Cinderella Man” also plays a role as one of the best tracks on the album, it had a very strong beat, as well as some strong battle oriented lyrics to complement its production.

     With all those serious and the battle oriented tracks, it’s hard to believe that Eminem still had some fun on the album. He brought Slim Shady in the album for two tracks with “Cold Wind Blows”, which just kept taking shots at celebrates, it felt like a song that should have been on Relapse due to its content, and “Here We Go”, which was just plain old classic Slim Shady. Eminem also talked about pimping girls, sex with them and generally was just bragging on himself in “So Bad” and talked about a white trash party in the album’s only party oriented track, “WTP”.

     Recovery was definitely one of hip-hop’s most polished albums, and possibly nearing Eminem’s best album. I think that this was more or less the Eminem people where waiting for, he was serious in some tracks, he had fun on some tracks, and he went back to his sources in some other tracks, what more can be wanted? The album was well balanced, well concepted, well thought of, and possibly flawless, or at least almost flawless. I think that this was overall the return Eminem wanted and needed, and it was the return that the fans wanted too. Recovery was an opener to a new chapter in Eminem’s career, let’s see if he can keep this chapter on track with how it started.