Album Review: Drake- Take Care

Average Rating: 5.5/10

Overall Rating: 6/10

         1.  Over My Dead Body (8/10)

         2. Shot For Me (6/10)

         3. Headlines (8/10)

         4. Crew Love Ft. The Weekend (2/10)

         5. Take Care Ft. Rihanna (6/10)

         6. Marvin’s Room/ Buried Alive Ft. Kendrick Lamar (7/10)

         7. Underground Kings (8.5/10)

         8. We’ll Be Fine (7.5/10)

         9. Make me Proud Ft. Nikki Minaj (3.5/10)

         10. Lord Knows Ft. Rick Ross (7/10)

         11. Cameras/ Good Ones Go (4/10)

         12. Doing It Wrong Ft. Stevie Wonder (5/10)

         13. The Real Her Ft. Lil Wayne & Andre 3000 (5/10)

         14. Hell Ye Fuckin’ Right Ft. Lil Wayne (3/10)

         15. Look What You’ve Done (6/10)

         16. Practice (5/10)

         17. The Ride (4/10)

         18. The Motto Ft. Lil Wayne (2/10)

         19. Free Spirit Ft. Rick Ross (5/10)

         20. Club Paradise (6/10)

    Drake debuted last year with a poor album called “Thank Me Later” which did well commercially and critically, but I personally didn’t like it, mainly because of its repetitive music, repetitive singing, repetitive production, repetitive concepts and off-beat rapping. This review Is about his sophomore album “Take Care” but at some point you gotta wonder, why did I give Drake a second chance if I hated his debut? Well, because I see a lot of potential I see in him, he had a debut, which was experimental, which didn’t go wrong, it can be looked past, only if this second album, improves an Drake’s debut.

    Take Care mainly dealt with one major concept, which was the time period between Drake’s debut, and the process of recording Take Care. The album mainly dealt with Drake’s mentality in that period, what he saw, what he did, and how did he feel about that. The album’s concept went around my ears as something that was somewhat original built from something unoriginal, so let’s see if the music can work out for the concept or more importantly if it is good music in the first place.

    The music in Take Care was a lot more structured and had much more styles, it was far more flexible and it was well-made than Thank Me Later, why? Well, because Drake had a longer time working on the album, “Thank me Later” only took six days, instead of six days Drake took his time and had six months working on the album, so based on the time period there was more reviewing and more effort put into the album, and it really showed with the music.

   The whole album’s concept can be summarized into one song, which was “Headlines”, where Drake talked about everything about his fame, from celebrating, to groupies, to people hating on him, people thinking money changed him, and his entre feedback on his lifestyle change. Headlines was a fitting track to be the first single of the album because it opened the whole album to the listener and it was the best track on the album thanks to its decent production and strong subject matter.

     Drake talked about so many things about what he has gone through between his first album and this album. He talked about how friends turned on him and how they didn’t like his change in songs like “Over My Dead Body” which was basically about how Drake won’t stop rapping no matter how many people turn on him, it had a slow beat, and lyrics that felt on-par with the beat. “Club Paradise” talked about how people don’t think of him as the same person he was because of becoming famous, it was a lot like Over My Dead Body, however Drake did get a bit off-beat in this track, and “Shot For Me” talked about how even when he made it, people kept saying that he changed and how they don’t even give him a chance to explain his real self, it featured more singing than rapping, but the singing wasn’t very repetitive, so it wasn’t  bad track.

   Aside from people talking about how he changed, he also talked about how he thinks he changed in contrast to he was before he was famous. “Underground King” talked about how he was before fame, it was a good track, and probably the first time I heard Drake rapping for an entire song. “Take Care” was in a way a track about a fictional girl who loved him before he was famous, and how he still loves her, but there are too much distractions affecting their love, it was fair track, it has a club-type flow and some great vocals by Drake and Rihanna. “We’ll Be Fine” talked about Drake changing his lifestyle, it was a good track, lyrically it was decent and the production was excellent. “Doing it Wrong” talked about how Drake loves a girl, but because of Drake’s fame, they can’t be together, it had its ups, mainly it’s production, but it was a little repetitive, and “Look What You’ve Done” talked about a girl Drake loved, and how that because of the money he has, he can help her with what she needs.

    Drake also did talk about what girls thought of him in some tracks on the album. “The Real Her” talked about how girls like him just because he’s a rapper and that he’s famous, it was a slow track that was too long, but Andre 3000 had the best moment of the song, he had the one good verse in the song and possibly the best moment in the whole album, and “Marvin’s Room/ Buried Alive” talked about how a girl he loved left him because he was famous, and how she won’t have anyone like him, it was a repetitive, but it was a good track though, especially when Kendrick Lamar’s verse came in.

   Drake still did have his occasional issues of being repetitive on some tracks when he sings, and the occasional being off beat sometimes when he raps, but they were both a lot less consistent this time, which was a good thing. Drake grew and knew what was wrong on Thank Me Later, then improved on Take Care, which was a great thing, even though this album had it’s issues, it was still a improvement.

     Take Care was definitely a much better than Thank Me Later. It was a long album with some good tracks, it had its ups and it had its downs, it stuck to its concept and its music was flexible. While Take Care was just a fair album, it was still a full package, it stuck to its concept and it’s music was a big and notable improvement comparing to the past, and while this album wasn’t enough to make Thank Me Later forgettable and something of the past, it actually showed Drake has potential to be as good of an artist that his hype is up to. 

Album Review: Tech N9ne- Welcome To Strangeland

Average Rating: 9/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

        1. Stars (10/10)

         2. Welcome to Strangeland Ft. Krizz Kaliko (10/10)

         3. Unfair Ft. Ces Cru & Krizz Kaliko (10/10)

         4. Kocky Ft. Jay Rock & Kutt Calhoun (10/10)

         5. Who Do I Catch? (10/10)

         6. My Favorite Ft. Brotha Lynch Hung & Prozak (9/10)

-        7. Registration Ft. iMaday! (9/10)

         8. Bang Out Ft. 816 Boyz (9.5/10)

         9. Beautiful Music Ft. Krizz Kaliko (9/10)

         10. Won’t You Come Dirty Ft. Young Bleed & Steve Stone (6/10)

         11. The Noose Ft iMayday! (6/10)

         12. Sad Circus Ft. Brotha Lynch Hung & Country Kuhnz (9/10)

         13. Slave Ft. Krizz Kaliko & Kutt Calhoun (10/10)

         14. Overwhelming Ft. Jay Da 3^rd (10/10)

         15. Gods Ft. Krizz Kaliko & Cutt Calhoun (8/10)

       Tech N9ne has added another album to his Collabo’s collection, which is a collection of albums full of collaborations and people from Strange Music or rappers who are not so famous all working with Tech. So far Tech had 3 Collabo’s albums, and honestly the best one out of the three, “Sickology 101” which wasn’t nearly as good as Tech’s other projects, the issue with his Collabo’s albums is there they normally are not very good, they get to have some amazing tracks and excellent features, but there are some bad features, but whatever the feature is there is always this one thing in mind: Not enough Tech. So can he find a way through that with this album?

    The concept in “Welcome To Strangeland” was the same as Tech’s other Collabo’s albums, which is having a lot of guests, expanding some unknown rappers’ names, and generally just expanding through different styles of rap. The first Collabo’s, “Kaos Loves Kompany” was a pure horrorcore album, “Sickology 101” was a hardcore rap album, and “The Gates Mixed Plate” was all about hardcore rap based club tracks. Now Tech’s fourth Collabo album, “Welcome To Strangelang” was mostly about blowing up and making it to the mainstream side of music, Tech really did it, it’s a known fact, but now we can finally hear what he thinks of this explosion of success, personally I think it’s a great think, because Tech is getting the recondition he deserves, and this album shows that entire process.

     Tech talked about many things on this album, but what he really opened up about here was his newly found overlapping fame and success and how he felt about it. “Stars” was about Tech basically crashing into fame and the mainstream, it was an amazing song to say the least. “Who Do I Catch” was about Tech breaking into fame and basically catching the eye of the industry and eventually the whole world, Tech had a crazy flow on the song and some really clever lyrics, it was easily the best track on the album, and “Overwhelming” was basically a story of Tech’s life and how unbelievable to Tech was it for him to actually have fans, little than blow up into fame, it was an excellent track, and really one of the best fan-dedication track to come out.

    Tech opened his world ‘Strangeland’ to his level of fame in some tracks on the album. “Welcome To Strangelend” introduced his world and his style to the mainstream music industry, it was a real aggressive and entertaining track. “Kocky” talked about the right to be cocky, especially after getting really big, it was a great track, and “Gods” talked about how Tech rules his genre as a rapper, and how he is the underground king, it was a great track, but not one of the best on the album though.

    He also talked about making it this late and how he needed to make it to fame a lot sooner. “Unfair” talked about how it’s unfair that the real rappers are not making it, and the all-commercial based rappers are easily making it, it was a honest, and unique track and a stand out for this album. “Slave” basically talked about working very hard and at some point making it nowhere, yet still trying again, it included more singing than rapping, and that’s what made it an excellent track and such an enjoyable track.

   Tech also opened up about the negative side of his newly found fame. “The Noose” talked about finding out about a lot secrets when expanding, and Tech wishing that he never knew any of those secrets, it was a good emotional song, but it was really slow, and “Retrogression” was another song that talked about the downs of fame, it talked about the possibilities of relapsing into some addictions or going back into depression because of the stress brought with fame.

    Tech also played out some tracks that had styles similar to the styles he had before he blew up. “Beautiful Music” was a classic Tech styled horrorcore track, “My Favorite” was another classic styled horrorcore Tech track, “Bang Out” was a classic styled hardcore party Tech track, and “Sad Cercus” was a reminder of Tech’s sad ‘fuck life’ type of songs. While those few reminders where not Tech’s best tracks or the best tracks on the album or his career, they were still some great reminders of Tech before blowing up.

   Welcome To Strangeland was overall a pretty much excellent album. It stuck to its concept, it showed that Tech can hold an entire concept for an entire album with no filler what so ever and above all that Tech showed why he deserved to reach this level. Welcome To Strangeland was something rare to see, it wasn’t a choking attempt of a ‘welcome to fame’ type album and it was a full and perfectly tied-together album. While it did have some lower-quality tracks and still did have too little Tech, this album was still great, it still held its own, especially for a Collabo album, and while it’s not Tech’s best album to come out, it was his best Collabos album to come out for sure.

Album Review: Mac Miller- Blue Slide Park

Average Rating: 8.6/10

Overall Rating: 7.8/10

         1. English Lane (Skit)

         2. Blue Slide Park (8/10)

         3. Party on Fifth Ave. (9.5/10)

         4. PA Night (7/10)

         5. Frick Park Market (9.5/10)

         6. Smile Back (10/10)

         7. Under The Weather (10/10)

         8. Of The Soul (6/10)

         9. My Team (9/10)

         10. Up All Night (10/10)

         11. Loitering (6.5/10)

         12. Hole in My Pocket (Skit)

         13. Diamonds and Gold (7.5/10)

         14. Missed Calls (9/10)

         15. Man in the Hat (10/10)

         16. Knock Knock (9/10)

         17.  Donald Trump (8/10)

         18. One Last Thing (9/10)

     The number of white rappers has been increasing since Eminem reached unbelievable levels of critical and commercial success, and honestly, most of the time I felt like Eminem was the only white rapper who could actually rap until the 2009-2010 era, where two white rappers from two very different districts started gaining large amounts of attention. The first of those two white rappers is Yelawolf from Alabama, which belongs to the southern region of hip-hop, and the second is Mac Miller who is from Pittsburg, which is in the northern region of hip-hop. They both have albums coming this year, and since Mac Miller’s album is coming out first, it’s Mac’s turn to go first, and since it’s his turn it’s time to see if he can live up to expectations on his debut album “Blue Slide Park”.

    Mac’s style can be described as more or less new school yet old school. His style in a way brings back the 80s style rap which was used by artists or groups such as Sir Mix a Lot, Beastie Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince or Public Enemy,  and at the same time adding his own elements like deeper lyrics or a more modernized type of flow, and honestly, that’s why he’s a good rapper, while his style is not really perfected or not really my favorite, I think that style will catch on and be perfected at some point, and when you look at this album, that’s what it’s about, showing off that style, experiencing it and expanding it, so it would be interesting to see if Mac can perfect that particular style it in his debut.

    Blue Slide Park was really a different album compared to a lot of other albums out right now. This album didn't only have Mac’s style all over the place but every track on the album was just Mac and Mac himself, he had no guests on the album, and honestly, that had its own ups and downs. The fact that’s the entire was  album just Mac showed his style on complete and full display with no delays what so ever, so it’s clear that that’s a benefit, and the down side about that factor of  the album though was that the album got really lonely at some point , I mean, if an artist needed his or her style in full display, it’s fine, but then they should have guests on one at the very least one or two tracks on the album. The issue was that the album felt too lonely, and that’s clearly something that effected on the music on this album.    

    Blue Slide Park was a collection of 16 tracks. All of the tracks where all Mac and just Mac alone, and as I mentioned, while the album had everything on display, it did feel really lonely at some point, but that doesn’t mean that the album didn’t have any highlights though. Out of the 16 tracks there was actually one big batch of excellent tracks, which was exactly what I expected from Mac and his new school-old school style.

  As I mentioned, the album had many highlights, some of which were party tracks, and they included: “Party of Fifth Ave.” which was a party track which had new school lyrics, a new school flow, along with an old school styled beat, “Up All Night” which was another party song, but this time it felt like an old-school rock inspired track, “My Team” which really had a living fast-paced party flow and style, and “Knock Knock” which was one of my favorites off the album, it had a great flow, great lyrics and better yet, a really strong 80s style beat.

   Some of the album’s best tracks were also some of the tracks that had real concepts. “Frick Park Market” was one of them, it was it was about Mac blowing up to the public and reaching fame, “Smile Back” was a track which was in a way a dedication and a warning to Mac’s haters, “Under The Weather” was about getting back up and thinking positive, “Missed Call” was about how Mac’s life changed after reaching fame, “Man In The Hat” was a really uplifting song about getting up and making it, and what made it a great and different track was that it was written in a very relateable way, and “One Last Song” which was a track where Mac mainly introduces himself to the world and shows his plans for his life and how he’s planning to live.

  There were some weaker tracks on the album though, some of them include “Of The Soul” which had a decent concept, but it’s flow really threw me out of the mood due to it being a slow track right on the middle of a fast paced album, “PA Nights” which was a flawed about Mac’s high school life, it’s concept was great, but Mac’s flow on the song felt off beat to me, and “Loitering” which had a great flow and beat, but it just felt like Mac was rambling random stuff along the whole song.

   Blue Slide Park overall proved Itself to be a great album. It did feel lonely, it did not yet perfect Mac’s style, but you gotta hand it to him, Mac showed his skills completely on this album, and that’s what this album was about. Blue Slide Park fulfilled what Mac wanted it to fulfill, and to make things better it actually proved that Mac is an actual great white rapper, and just another great new rapper to compete and more importantly continue the streak of this new strong group of rookies and new rappers. Let’s see if this year’s other new white rapper, Yelawolf, can steal the attention when his debut album comes out.

Album Review: Wale- Ambition

Average Rating: 6.4/10

Overall Rating: 4.6/10

         1.  Don’t Hold Your Applause (5.5/10)

         2. Double M Genius (5.5/10)

         3. Miami Nights (6/10)

         4. Legendary (5/10)

         5. Lotus Flower Bomb Ft. Miguel (7.5/10)

         6. Chain Music (6/10)

         7. Focused Ft. Kid Cudi (8.5/10)

         8. Sabotage Ft. Lloyd (7.5/10)

         9. White Linin’ Ft. Ne-Yo (6/10)

         10. Slight Work Ft. Big Sean (8/10)

         11. Ambition Ft. Meek Mill & Rick Ross (6/10)

         12. Illest Bitch (7/10)

         13. No Days Off (5.5/10)

         14. DC or Nothing (9.5/10)

         15. The Way Ft. Rick Ross & Jeremih (4/10)

         16. Bait (4/10)

         17.  First Class Ft. B.o.B & Big Sean (6.5/10)

         18. Bad Girls Club Ft. J. Cole (8/10)

    It’s not common for an artist to switch record labels after their debut album, not many people do it because it’s mainly either not contracted or after a successful debut album the artist would go for another with that label. Wale is a part of that group of artists, his debut album “Attention Deficient” was pretty good and it was released under Interscope, but I guess he needed a more hip-hop based label, so he signed to Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group, and planned to release his sophomore album, “Ambition” under the label, and now that Ambition is out, how did it do under a different record label?

    Ambition had a fair concept in terms of originality. It was mainly about Wale simply showing off himself and his skill, it was basically nothing less than a cocky album, and personally, I think as a concept it’s original, but at the same time it’s a really poor concept to choose for an album, mainly because in a concept like that would have nothing to really to build on, and nothing to really talk about out of the ordinary, but who knows, only if the music’s good, the concept won’t matter as much as it normally does.

    There isn’t really much to talk about in this album. A lot of the music here is what I would call ‘bubblegum rap’ which is simply simple, effortless hip-hop music. A lot of tracks on the album had very familiar production as other mainstream pure hip-hop songs and mainly a lot of effortless lyric, but there were some tracks that had concepts though, and honestly, I wish he had more of those songs, because honestly, they were easily the best songs on the album.

   Ambition had quite a few tracks with concepts on the album. One of those tracks was “Lotus Flower Bomb”, which was a love song, and what made it stand out were its clever lyrics, slow beat and strong hook. “Focused” was a track about really smoking weed and coming off ideas through smoking, it had strong enough lyrics, great production, and a very strong hook by Kid Cudi. A third track with a concept was “Sabotage” which was about a girl who ruins her relationship with a man to go for another man, it had a great mood and feeling, but at the same time it was really repetitive. A fourth example of a track that had a concept was “Ambition”, which was a decent track that was about reaching goals and the feelings that Wale gets on his way to his goal. A fifth example was “Illest Bitch Alive” which was a song where Wale was actually parsing his sister, but due to the name in a very awkward way, the song was good, but he could have had better lyrics for this particular track though, and a sixth example of a track that had a concept was “DC or Nothing” which was easily the best track on the album, it had excellent lyrics, the mood was outstanding, and Wale’s love for Washington DC really showed in this track.

    As for the rest of the album, every track was pretty much the same, while there was no particular poor track or even any particular great track here; there was two tracks that are worth mentioning. “Slight Work” had an excellent party mood, it was clever lyrically even with its poor concept, and both flows Wale’s and Sean’s both proved to be very powerful. Another notable track on Ambition was “Bad Girls Club” which featured J. Cole, the production was a clear and definite standout, and to go with that, the track had strong flows from both artists on the track, Wale and J. Cole.

     Ambition was overall nothing but a fair album. It certainly wasn’t as good as Attention Deficient thanks to its poor concept and poor expansion towards his music in general. Ambition did have some tracks that had real concepts and some memorable moments, but honestly I think Ambition was just an album for the shelves, It won’t be remember, it will be quickly and easily forgotten, but who’s fault is it, was it Wale’s fault? Was it the label’s fault? Or was it the fans’ fault? Who knows, we have to wait for his third album to tell.  

Single Review: Yelawolf Ft. Kid Rock- Let's Roll

Single Rating: 8.5/10

   How does an artist come back from a non-successful debut single? That’s a tough question to answer, because normally, an artist’s career’s fate normally depends on the success rate or at the very least the successful response of the debut single, Yelawolf didn’t have any of those with his debut single “Hard White (Up In The Club)” which was really just a hard to enjoy club track wannabe. But with a new single called “Let’s Roll”, can Yelawolf build something off his flop? Especially given the high expectations he had since being sighed to Shady.

    

    Yelawolf tried a different approach this time for Radioactive’s second single. Instead of having a mainstream inspired track, he decided to put in a personal track for his second single. Radioactive’s second single was a motivational track called “Let’s Roll” which featured Kid Rock, and as a result, it was a great track track, it was an excellent comeback, and really the song that Yelawolf should have debuted his career with in the first place.

    

    Let’s Role had a very motivational and self-reflective theme and concept. It was about Yelawolf rising up to the point where he is now, and really just doing it all by himself. He went into various details about where he lived, how he decided to get up and rap, how he felt about his raps, and how he felt about his new found fame, putting all of those factors together would normally make a song like this a story about rising up to success, the only difference between Let’s Roll and other motivational tracks was simple, Let’s Roll was written in a more self-reflective style than the usual ‘once apon a time style’, which is something that is used a lot on motivational tracks, and honestly, that was really something that really gave the concept some strength, and was something that made the concept stronger than what it normally is on other tracks.

     
    Lyrically Let’s Roll was about almost as good as the concept. The track was presented in a more reflective way then a story telling way, but that wasn’t the only upside of the lyricism on this track, lyrically, this track had smarter lines than what Yelawolf normally has on his tracks, and despite having a few bad lines, Let’s Roll was written in a very strong way, it had a lot of punchlines, a lot of clever lines and so much more. Let’s Roll was a great track lyrically, and hopefully something that Yelawolf would grow on to and keep on his debut album and future albums.

    Yela isn’t the best rapper when it comes to flowing and really balancing his lyrics to the rhythm and the beat, but Let’s Roll proved otherwise, the track did have some off-bar lines, but even with those lines Yela’s flow and balance worked very well with the track. He was fast and he was smooth at the same time. Flow wise this song was excellent, it was just one of the many real reasons why he was signed to Shady in the first place.

    The hook on Let’s Roll was sung by Kid Rock, and like the track’s mood and feeling, the hook felt very personal and motivational, despite it having a generally lucrative rhyme scheme it flowed very well, and more importantly is sounded catchy and excellent, which basically cancels out the lucrative rhyme scheme and really made it look like something that wasn’t a big deal, which basically made the hook a generally successful and catchy hook, and maybe even a hook to remember.

    Now for the rapping of the gift: the production/ Let’s Roll had a great beat produced by Eminem and the Audiables, so already it’s shown that it’s production had a lot of star power put into it, but does star power always work? Obviously not, but in this song it did, the beat is always the motive of the track’s concept, and thanks to this song’s strong beat, it was lyrically a very motivational and reflective song, and that’s what matter with the beat, not how cool it sounds or how dancy it is, but the mood that it brings, and the beat here certainly brought the right motivational type of mood for the track.

   So how does an artist make a successful single after having his or her debut single a complete flop? With a track like this, let’s look at this song as a whole, first of all, Let’s Roll did have its share of flaws, but there was no denying that as a track it was really strong when it comes to so many things such as concept and production, and honestly, this is what people where wanting for from Yelawolf, not a mainstram inspired track, but a more personal track that shows why he is where he is, and this track showed that exactly, thus making it a stand-out single for this quarter if not the second half or the year.

Album Review: Tech N9ne- The Gates Mixed Plate

    Average Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Rating: 7.2/10

     
  1. Intro
2. O.G (10/10)
3. Fu Pay Me Ft. Makzilla & Krizz Kaliko (8.5/10)
4. Gamer Ft. Kutt Coulhoun (9/10)
5. Jumpin' Jax Ft. Krizz Kaliko & Bishop (7.5/10)
6. Keep It One Hunt Ft. Glasses Malone, Big Scoob & Irv Da Phantom (8/10)
7. Pow Wow Ft. Kutt Coulhoun, Tay Gigz, Rivv Loc, Mon E.G & The Ghostwriter (8/10)
8. Harvy Dent (10/10)
9. Tony G (Skit)
10. What's Next Ft. Craig Smith & Oobergeek (6.5/10)
12. Afterparty Ft. Deven The Dude & Kutt Coulhoun (6.5/10)
13. Too Many Girls Ft. Sundaie & Krizz Kalio (6/10)
14. Puh Wah Wah Ft. 816 Boyz (8/10)
15. Sean Tyler (Skit)
16. KC Tea (10/10)
17. JT Quick (Skit)
18. Oh, You Didn't Know Ft. Ive Da Phantom & The Popper (8/10)
19. Far Out Ft. JL, P.R.E.A.C.H & Steve Stone (10/10)
20. Paper Without Brian B Shynin Ft. Jay Rock & Joe Vertingo (9/10)
21. Loud Ft. Bizzy, Alen Wayne & Ive Da Phantom (10/10)
22. Need More Angles Brother K.T & Ive Da Phantom (10/10)
23. Doin' It Ft. Yukmouth, Chillest Illest & Ome (7.5/10)

     It's difficult to release two albums in the same year, Lil Wayne did it with "Rebirth" and "I Am Not a Human Being", but they both where failures as far as I’m concerned. Tupac did with "All Eyez on Me" and "The Don Killumanati: The 7 Day Theory", which were both successes; however Tupac was a legend, it was almost impossible for him to make a bad albums. Fat Joe did it with "The Elephant in the Room" and "J.O.S.E 2" where "The Elephant in the Room" was a success, and "J.O.S.E 2" was a failure, so how did Tech N9ne do with his second 2010 album "The Gates Mixed Plate" after releasing one of his best efforts, "K.O.D"?

    "The Gates Mixed Plate" was generally a much lighter, less horrorcore themed, and a more of a raw hardcore club themed album than Tech's previous albums. The lyrics, production, and the entire album in general was a lot less dark and horrorcore than his previous albums, and they were all a bit more party/club themed, the lyrics circled around partying and drinking more and Tech tried to provide funner than less more serious flows. Now that the theme of the album is given, how did “The Gates Mixed Plate” work out for Tech? especially because Tech is known for his really strong and aggressive style, and not the KC club theme which was used a lot on this album.

     Even though Tech got more club themed tracks, the album was still pure Tech N9ne hip-hop, and most of the tracks here where still hard hitting and over the top along with a concept to match the rhythm, they may not really some of Tech's best, but there was a few stand out tracks on the album like "O.G" which was about the Kansas City part scene, “K.C. Tea" was a Kansas City drinking theme song, "Far Out" which was about getting all the attention, and "Loud" which was about Tech not caring about anyone, and just playing as much loud music as he wants. Those few songs jump in as the album’s best tracks, they were all fast lyrically, the production on each of those tracks was hard hitting, there was nearly nothing wrong with them, but they were just simply not quite Tech’s best tracks, they were excellent songs, but not exactly the Tech people are used to.

      Tech still had a couple of horrorcore themed tracks on the album, which still had some kind of sad, dark K.O.D styled message. "Harvey Dent" was the best on the album, it was about Tech’s second, darker side, it sounded like a K.O.D leftover, which for some reason wasn’t on the album, and "Need More Angles" was dark, it had a really dark and clear message, and it was one of the best track on the album.     

    Like every album, The Gates Mixed plate does have it’s worst tracks, but here, the worst tracks where decent at best, which is good, because normally ‘worst tracks’ are bad songs or just filler. "What's Next", "After Party" and "Too Many Girls" all sounded a little dumbed down, which was okay, I don't mind dumbed down music when it's good, but compared to Tech they are not nearly up to his level, and as expected, those tracks, and a few more on the album where not up to Tech's level, they could have been a lot better if Tech and company paid a bit more attention to the lyrical strength on the album.

     "The Gates Mixed Plate" was not by any means a bad or even mediocre album, and at the same time it's not even near being something up to an amazing album. It was good, it had its highlights, it’s great tracks, but it wasn't really up to Tech N9ne's level, and honestly the album kinda disappointing when it comes to looking Tech's past work as a whole. Still, it's one of the better albums that came out in 2010, and one of the better second albums that any rapper had in the same year.

Single Review: B.o.B Ft. Lil Wayne- Strange Clouds

Single Rating: 9.5/10

       

     B.o.B had an excellent run in the last two years, debuting his mainstream career with his #1 hit single “Nothin’ On You”, where after that he gained a lot of attention and some very high expectations, and honestly he lived up to those expectations with his album “B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray”. In that album, he proved that he can be really diverse with his music, switching up to many different styles on the album from alternative hip-hop to many sub-genres of pop music and rock music, ever since then he’s been having excellent verses on features, and it kept looking like his wide-range career was a winner. Since now his career’s chopped up and reviewed a bit, can he keep that hot streak going with the track “Strange Clouds”, which features Lil Wayne and is officially the first single of his sophomore album, “Strange Clouds”?

    Strange Clouds was moved to a very different direction and style when comparing it to a lot of his features, his work on his debut album, and even the music on his pre-album mixtapes. Strange Clouds as a song was more directed to the club-based hip-hop fans, it had a club inspired concept, as well as club inspired and club themed production to fit with the concept of the track, all in the goal of making a club track that would appeal to hip-hop fans, which is something that I think kept failing time and time again.

    Strange Clouds was all about what its name brought. It was about smoking weed, which is usually considered as an overused concept for a track, but in my opinion, an overused concept can be easily forgotten about if the lyrical style and structure was strong, and honestly, in this track, it was really something, the song was full of really strong and clever punchlines, metaphors, rhymes and to tie all those lines together Strange Clouds had a really strong flow to go with the lyrical skill and effort put into this track.

    B.o.B had two verses on this track, which were the first and the last, and both verses brought some great and memorable lines. I think he had some of the best lines in his career in this track to be honest. He had some really clever lines from begging to end, some of his best lines on the track include “Imma hit 'em with that pipe, Call that Nancy Carigan”, “Stay on the greenest green, call us vegetarians”, “I guess I must invest in the proper for of protection, and “keep your nourishment first and your mind on my lyrics, ‘caus what you’re hoping to accomplish, I already did it”. B.o.B’s knife-like lines where all easily complimented and cushioned ny his really powerful flow, which was one big reason why his verses where really memorable, and a reason why this song was really memorable.

    Lil Wayne made an appearance on the track, he had one verse, and honestly after his lackluster lyrical performance in his “Tha Carter IV” album, he really needed to get his lines right on this track, so did he do it? Well, yes and no, Wayne did have some great, but not memorable lines on his verse like “these rappers washed up, spin cycle, rinse you” and “I die in that pussy, yeah I belly flop, I jackknife and shit”, but at the same time though he had some Carter IV styled punchlines which really brought his verse down, lines like “Smoking on that strong, that Arnold Shwartzinager” or “you hot as an igloo”, both those lines, and a few more took me away from his strong flow and the song’s general groove, making me thinking ‘what?’, and just really broke the feeling of the track a bit, honestly that was the issue with his verse, while he had some strong lines and a great flow, he somehow had to jam in some bad lines to distract the listener from everything positive his verse had.

       As for the hook, I can easily without a doubt say that I loved it, it was catchy, it had a sing-a-long feeling, it was clever, it flowed perfectly and it just felt like it was put in at the right moments. The hook was golden on this track, I wouldn’t say that it was the biggest part of the song, but it was certainly something to really listen to and was a perfect way to divide the three verses this song had.

    Now for what bagged and packaged the track completely: the production. The beat felt like it was something really built for clubs, it had a drinking/dancing feeling, the base was strong and took over most of the beat, the beat transitions perfectly between the hook and the verses, and above all that, comparing to many club inspired beat, and even hip-hop beats in general, this beat really felt like something unused and unique, experimental and different, and honestly that was one of the song’s production’s one of the very best, if not the best aspect of this excellent track.

   B.o.B really provided something different yet not too experimental for the first single of his sophomore album. Strange Clouds was a flat out entertaining track, it’s production was straight up club but at the same time completely rap, it’s lyrics where nothing special concept wise but looking at the lyrical structure the song was pure magic, and above all that B.o.B’s and Wayne’s flows where both really strong, both where really balanced and both contributed with the beat perfectly. The only issue Strange Clouds had was a few lines on Wayne’s verse, but just a few lines though, but it wasn’t that big of a deal after getting passed them. Overall Strange Clouds was a perfect way to open the “Strange Clouds” album, it showed a lot of diversity, it was an appealing track to both fans of the rap world, who are the mainstream fans and the underground rap, it made a different club feel than other tracks, and more important succeeded on doing that unlike many other rap songs that failed at that part, “Strange Clouds” was just a monster, and it showed that B.o.B’s up and running, better than ever, and that he is ready again to rock my headphones.