Hopefully Not the Last from ‘Kiss

The Spin: Jadakiss – The Last Kiss
Released April 7, 2009
The Island Def Jam Music Group 2009
[rate 4]

If you’ve followed Jadakiss’ career at all, it’s easy to see that he’s consistently put out some of the most solid work in the genre since as far back as The Lox. Although every album has its fair share of what would be deemed commercial songs (and they’re just as good as anything else you would hear on the radio), he hasn’t managed to reach the type of mega-stardom as Lil Wayne or 50 Cent or even gained the type of mainstream notariety as someone like Mims or Chingy. I think plenty would argue that Jadakiss’ lyricism would have him fare well in a battle with any of these guys and the beats that pervade his albums are definitely good, if not equal to his rapping.

“The Last Kiss” finds itself again without a huge hit, but has managed to garner plenty of praise and respectable sales. But also like most of his albums, it’s sort of a mixed bag and lacks continuity. There are a couple of Neptunes beats that stick out, there are beats that sound just five minutes too dated, and then there are southern-style club bangers in the middle of it. Content-wise, Kiss is equally sporadic.

In “Who’s Real,” we hear Swizz Beats’ familiar voice and horn arrangements. For whatever reason, Swizz Beats has certainly mastered his particular brand of simple drum patterns and synth arrangements (which he’s claimed to accomplish in fifteen minutes or less), although he does add in samples, from time to time. His lyrics definitely have not received the same amount of attention for good reason. However, Swizz Beats, in collaboration with other artists, provides a recipe for very effective rap tunes. Thankfully, Jadakiss does a good job of complimenting the track. OJ Da Juiceman provides fairly weak guest lyrics.

Anyone who’s heard a Jadakiss album knows that he’s fairly obsessed with guns. “Smoking Gun” serves as a manifestation of that, but with a sort of twist. This song is a sort of Bonnie & Clyde tale, but more socially conscious and more vengeful. Yeah, actually, it’s more like one of those highly entertaining albeit cheesy revenge flicks from the seventies. At any rate, the content of the song is really interesting and the beat’s pretty nice. I don’t want to give away more than that because it’s such a cool song. Instead, I’d encourage anyone to check it out.

“Respect My Conglomerate” is a Busta Rhymes song that is included on the Itunes version of Kiss’ album. The female vocals sound like they’re sampled, but they’re not. The hook is really cool. The beat’s fairly poppy and simplistic, but effective. Busta Rhymes delivers as always and Jada doesn’t disappoint, either. “Grind Hard” and “Something Else” serve as Jadakiss’ attempt to get in good with the south, even including a verse from Young Jeezy on the latter. “Grind Hard” features a hook by Mary J. Blige and is appropriately catchy.

If I had to describe Jadakiss’ career to someone, I’d say something like, “Jadakiss is a five-star lyricist who consistently makes four-star albums.” It’s hard to not feel like if he just had an album with two or three really big hits that he could be on the same eschelon as someone like Jay-z or Nas.
I think it’s unfortunate that this isn’t the case, but I certainly keep hoping for it, and considering that he’s one of the only good hip-hop artists still doing big things in New York, his time may be yet to come. Predictably, I give this album four out of five stars.

Musical State of the Union

In giving my musical State of the Union address the headlines are endless but those of substance have grown legs. I mean that in the fact that these same headlines have become as much a part of our social cognizance as the continually changing Facebook terms of service.

It goes without further ado in presenting the most compelling and interesting story in recent weeks. I will leave all politically correct jargon aside in describing Chris Brown’s beating of singer and girlfriend Rihanna.

Infuriated, disgusted, challenged in my support of Chris Brown as an artist do not begin to detail to what lengths my disappointment extends as a result of his actions. I will leave the viewing of the beaten and battered face of Rihanna to you through your own search engine preference, but my thoughts were this after viewing the photo myself. I immediately lost all interest in hearing any spin on the subject released from Chris Brown himself, JIVE Records or Sony Music Group. In being one of the more if not the most commercialized musician in recent years. Chris Brown’s popularity without a doubt extended from the urban radios of the inner city to the stereos of suburban and master planned communities throughout the world. My opinion upon this subject is one of many that individuals will disagree with, but I believe no understanding along any lines will result from physical attacks, either alleged or documented. I guess my last sentence proves true that the before mentioned politically correct jargon could not be omitted.

With the much anticipated release date of Eminem’s new album titled Relapse there is a higher degree of interest in which 2009 album will carry the chart-topping single ‘Crack a Bottle’. In this I mean both 50 Cent along with Dr. Dre have scheduled 2009 releases of their albums as well. Dr. Dre demonstrates yet another hardcore flow reminiscent of those last displayed upon his 2001 album The Chronic. No official date has been set for his release appropriately titled Detox. 50 Cent with his expected first quarter release of Before I Self Destruct will serve as an early culmination for Universal Music Group. 2009 for UMG with the soon to be released U2 album No Line on the Horizon forecasts a calendar year the masses of the music industry only wish for.

In speaking to the fact of the ever present influence music has in our lives these contrasting stories demonstrate the consistent theme that continues to resurface. Families are touched through crime, death and various forms of legal engagement. Here it stands Universal Music Group on the eve of what could prove to become its most memorable year in recent years. The underlining story of the before mention UMG artists Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent or also referred to as the Aftermatch Trio is the fact they have all been at the center of controversy. I will leave you with this thought. To what lengths does poor decision making which may ultimately lead to jail come into our reasoning of acceptance for the actions of such artists?

G-Unot

The Spin: Lloyd Banks – The Cold Corner
[rate 2.5]

I spent about three hours writing this article. I kept writing the same things on each of the tracks. At least he’s consistent. Anyway, I found it would be pretty useless to put up all the quotables I found and then trash the beats and the content. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of gangster rappers that I like, but there has to be something charismatic about the rapper, his lyrics, his flow.

I think Lloyd Banks might end up being like that quarterback that no one knows. Suddenly he’s 29 years old and puts up record numbers and ends up with a pretty decent career, only to have so many people scratching their heads, saying, “Why didn’t anyone ever make him a starter at the beginning of his career? Can you imagine what he might have done for us?” But that’s the thing, some people need time cultivating their skill, being disregarded as not-terribly-valuable, learning the ropes, and letting the hunger build in until maybe it’s almost too late. Only then can a person take full advantage of the opportunity when given it. Jim Jones would be analogous. He was thirty when the smash hit, “Ballin’” became his breakout hit. Suffice it to say that while Lloyd Banks is, and has for a long time been, extremely lyrically gifted. There’s still plenty of potential for Banks to become a more dynamic force in hip-hop.

So here’s my thing with gangster rappers. You’ve got to be willing to have fun, willing to do some really danceable songs, willing to do some stuff for the ladies, have an overwhelmingly interesting persona, or some mixture thereof. The problem with Lloyd Banks is he has none of that. He’s portrayed as little more than an extremely serious gangster rapper. It occurs to me that the most intimidating and most interesting gangsters seem to be those that smile a lot and act like they’re in such control that they really don’t have anything to stress over. Plus, they just seem kind of crazy taking things so lightly that we all take so seriously. At any rate, Lloyd Banks’ content boils down to a few things: “I have more/cooler stuff than you,” “I’ll kill anyone at any time, any place, for whatever reason,” and “No one respects me now, but everyone will.” I figure that tough guys don’t have to try to appear tough. In fact, it makes sense to me that the tougher you are, the less it is in your interest to appear that you’re trying to look tough. At any rate, it all seems so juvenile and insecure, as Banks presents it.

All that being said, you can probably listen to any verse on this mixtape and find a quotable or two. His rhythms and rhyme schemes are varied, his vocabulary is effective, he makes good use of internal rhyme, his similes and metaphors are often surprising and usually impressive.

One of Banks’ flaws is his inability to pick out interesting beats. Most of his beats suffer from a few of the following: too many snare hits, no bassline, too much repetition of short and simple loops, and not a full enough sound frequency range. The beats on this album all sound like New York gangster beats from five to ten years ago. They all do. The method of production for most of these beats is so predictable and simple, it’s pretty amazing that Mr. Banks couldn’t find more creative and interesting backing tracks. That isn’t to say that they’re all bad, but none of them are very good. The most tolerable would be “On My Way,” “Be That Way Sometimes,” and “Do It For This Block,” which features the overused break from “Long Red” by Mountain. Other than that, the lyrics are pretty good on all the songs, so I’d say that judging the beats is the most effective way of determining the best songs.

G-Unit is dying. I can’t help but feel like ever since the buildup to his album Curtis, Mr. Jackson has seemed completely uncomfortable. The first two singles from that album did worse than expected. In fact, he only had two major hits from that album. If it hadn’t been for his previous success, his album wouldn’t have sold nearly what it did, and its sales paled in comparison to The Massacre. Combine that with The Game and then Young Buck leaving, in addition to The Game releasing a huge album in LAX. G-Unit is slowly but surely going nowhere fast. Sooner or later, 50 will have to realize that his fanbase is dwindling and even his most loyal fans will eventually get hooked on someone or something else. Tony Yayo has never done much commercially and Banks is still coming into his own, I feel. So I’m predicting that with his superior lyricism, Banks may actually be the only member of G-Unit with a flourishing career. That is, if he can get over a couple of humps, maybe. Of course I don’t see The Game falling off any time soon, but he’s no longer a member of G-Unit, either. Anyway, the mixtape’s not horrible, but it’s not good. I give it two and a half stars.