8 Ball and MJG haven't fallen off yet

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With so many re-hash southern albums coming out nowadays, it hard not to form a prejudice against them. So when I heard about Ridin High, I was expecting it to be another "do what's popular at the time" type albums. But it isn't. In fact, its the same 8 Ball and MJG experimental southern funk and crunk that we all fell in love with in the 'Mr. Big' days. Southern artists get offended when East Coast artist blame them for "killing hip hop"; their defense is usually that they make the "party music" that people want to just jump around and get crunk to. It's actually a compelling argument when you listen to most of the high-energy southern tracks that have been coming out recently; but when you compare those records to 8 Ball and MJG's, you really start to notice just how amateur these other artists are by comparison. Ridin High has a sophistication that is just simply missing from a Young Joc album or even a Lil Wayne album. 8 Ball and MJG have certainly found their element in this mixture of mellow southern funk and energetic crunk music, and while I'm not sure that the duo can be called the 'kings of the south', they definitely should put their application in for 'kings of party rap.
Ridin High is not perfect, by any means; no 8 Ball and MJG album will be perfect in my eyes until the group explores different subjects beyond violence, pussy, and drugs. Neither 8 Ball or MJG is a very good rapper either. The main strength of this album is in the experimentation in the composition of the songs and the myriad of sounds it has. The actual subject matter of the songs is somewhat expendable, although I think if they weren't the songs would be a lot better.
When I first heard about the first track and first single, "Relax and Take Notes" featuring Project Pat and The Notorious B.I.G., I thought to myself 'oh lord, its another song exploiting Biggie, they're probably going to sample his verse from "Dead Wrong" in the hook and it's going to suck.' Well, they did sample "Dead Wrong", but the song doesn't actually suck. The sample was mixed just about as tight as it possibly could have been, and the production is great. 8 Ball and MJG, unlike nearly every other contemporary southern artist, aren't afraid to take a energetic beat and combine it more mellow flows. It provides for a unique sound that set them apart. Project Pat isn't as interesting as he usually is, and the song isn't as effective as "You Don't Want Drama", but overall it is a sucess.
Some songs miss, like the DJ Paul and Juicy J production "Cruzin'" featuring 112 and Three 6 Mafia. I wish 112 would go away. The beat for this track is a complete rehash and 112's chorus bites the melody from Usher's "Nice and Slow" for some reason. Some songs are missing the creativity in either concept or production that make this album great, like "Alcohol Pussy Weed", which combines a standard subject with a fairly standard beat.
There is an interesting degree of experimentation with different sounds on this album with strange productions like "30 Rocks" which sounds like a combination of Houston rap and East Coast dance music; "Memphis", which uses an eerie off-key vocal sample on a "inspirational" sounding beat for a M-Town reppin' track; and "Stand Up", which may quite possibly be the first ever mainstream rap WALTZ. It's experimentation like this that puts 8 Ball and MJG over all their peers who also rap about violence, pussy, and drugs.
Ridin High is a great album in terms of exploring new ways to make party music and music to bump in your car. In case you forgot why 8 Ball and MJG are southern hip hop legends, this album might remind you. I've seen some bad review for this album, and I think that it's because we've gotten to a point where we don't tolerate experimentation anymore in hip hop (unless, of course, it's Outkast). We want to be spoon-fed formulaic productions over and over on and album, but the thing is Eightball and MJG started this whole southern funk thing. They don't do the same music as Three 6 or T.I., so why expect them to make albums like those? Three 6 and T.I. wouldn't be where they are if it weren't for 8 Ball and MJG. The fact is, a long time ago, two dudes from Tennessee made a funky experimental album that was the south's answer to West Coast G-funk artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and grimey east coast acts like the newly formed Wu-Tang Clan and Nas. While Comin out Hard wasn't nearly as successful as the albums of Dr. Dre or The Wu-Tang Clan, it showed that legitimate rap music existed in the south. And fourteen years later, with Ridin High, 8 Ball and MJG haven't missed a beat.


The Report Card

Production: B
The beats are nothing like the beats of any other southern album that's out now. The experimentation with the production is also appreciated.

Flow/Lyrics: C
8 ball and MJG are neither very good at rapping or writing. Every once in while they may spit a tight or funny line, but all in all they use the same sing song flow on every track. MJG has a better flow than 8 Ball, but 8 Ball has a more appealing delivery and persona, but neither can compare to the best flowers in the game.

Originality:B+
If they could find something to rap about besides killing people and pimpin', they might have gotten the A, but other than that, the sound of this album is completely unique. There's a fucking waltz on it for christ's sake.

Overall: B
If you buy albums based on the subject matter, I wouldn't suggest you buy this album (unless, of course, you like 19 tracks of guns, weed, and bitches [which I guess isn't far-fetched]. However, if you're looking for a unique southern record, Ridin High is probably your best bet.

Greatest Hits provides the reason why he was one of the best to ever do it

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With this year marking the 10th anniversary of the murder of Christopher Wallace a.k.a the Notorious B.I.G., the good folks at Bad Boy Records decided it would be a good time to release a greatest hits compilation of the fallen rapper appropriately titled Greatest Hits. Often at the top of many list as one of if not the greatest MCs to ever grace the mic it only made sense for a collection of Biggie favorites to eventually hit the shelves. The disc opens with Biggie's hit "Juicy" of his debut Ready to Die with Biggie rapping over a sample of Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" abou how life has changed since he got his deal. The first part of the goes through party records and some of the most well known songs like "Big Poppa", "One More Chance" and "Hypnotize". The set also includes "Get Money" which is actually a Junior Mafia song but it might as well been Biggie's because his verse is really the only one that matters. With all the light, shiny suit material out of the way the album moves to the darker subject matter that often occupied a lot of his rhymes. Songs like "Dead Wrong" featuring a less famous Eminem and "Warning" display the violence that was prevelant in his music. But these songs aren't all bad. In fact, they're great because they showcase how great of a storyteller Biggie really was. One of the album's highlights is "Notorious Thugs" featuring Bone Thugs in Harmony which features a rapid fire flow that shows how versatile Biggie's flow was. Most rappers can't match the speed of Bone's flow but he pulled it off. The collection also features two new songs. The first new offering is "Running Your Mouth" featuring Fabolous, Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg, and Busta Rhymes. While it sounds like an All-Star affair, it really just proves the saying about too many cooks in the kitchen. The next new track, "Want That Old Feeling Back", features random appearances by New Edition's Ralph Tresvant and Ja Rule. It's better but still unimpressive. Besides these two missteps, this album is a great way to introduce folks who aren't familiar and for fans to reminisce on one of the greats.

The Report Card

Production: A

C'mon some of these songs are hip hop classics.

Flow/Lyrics: A+

Biggie is truly one of the greats. Even on the songs from his first album that made the list his flows ride over the beats and his lyrics are complex and entertaining.

Originality: B

I mean it's a greatest hits collection so how original can it really be. Biggie talks about everything every other rapper of his time talked about but what saves him is his storytelling ability.

Overall: B+

The only thing that was off about this album was the new stuff. There are tracks more worthy in Biggie's catalog. Even though these are songs that have been heard over and over again, the sequence of the album is great. It makes Greatest Hits sound almost like a new album.

Late Night Special offers unique, yet unpolished sound

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What do you get when you mix sappy R&B with hardcore southern rap?
A hit radio remix? Close. The answer we were looking for is the Miami pop quartet Pretty Ricky; but you bring up an interesting point with your answer.
Pretty Ricky has created an unusual sound by combining cheesy 90's-sounding R&B with energetic, sometimes to the point of "crunk", rap verses. The effect is that "remix" sound that many acts achieve by commissioning the hottest rapper at the time to spit a verse on their R&B hit. The question inevitably arises though. Do I really want to hear a whole album of this?
Well, not when Pretty Ricky does it, at least.
Pretty Ricky's sound is unusual, and has been very rarely duplicated wholly by any act (although that may be for lack of trying); and honestly that, along with the satisfactory production, is about the only semi-positive thing I have to say about them and their latest album Late Night Special. No one in the group is particularly talented. Their lead singer, Marcus "Pleasure" Cooper, seems to bank on his decent-at-best high notes in every track. Baby Blue, Pretty Ricky's best rapper (and I use "best" only because the other 2 rappers are that shitty), shows sparks of lyrical cleverness (buyin drinks for these chicks and now they owe me/ more gin if you wine, i'm the same ol G), but mostly he relies on cliche wordplay like "do you after school like some homework" in a fruitless attempt at making up for his severely amateur flow.
If the lack of talent exhibited on Late Night Special isn't enough to deter you, maybe the lack of variety will. Every song on the album is pretty much the same song. They'd have you believe that, while every song is indeed about sex, there are still differences in the concepts of the songs. For example, "So Confused" appears to be about a guy who wants a girl, but she has a "man at home", but as soon as Baby Blue starts rapping, you see that its all been a ruse.
I need a lady in the streets, a freak between the sheets,
on the down low freak, now baby come to me
That doesn't really sound like a lametation about lost love to me.
Essentially, Late Night Special is Pretty Ricky's attempt saying "I wanna fuck you" in as many ways possible. Sometimes the ideas are fairly clever ("Personal Trainer"), and sometimes they are pretty awkward ("Peer Pressure"--I don't think "can I put a little peer pressure on you" should be used when trying to get a girl to have sex with you. It comes out all wrong.)
The production is solid. The beats are quite often the best part of the songs on the album, which isn't saying much. Most of the beats are typical-sounding R&B beats, but they aren't terrible, so Pretty Ricky's production team has some degree of talent. A couple of the beats are actually good, like "Make it Like it Was" and "Personal Trainer".
With 3 rappers and 1 singer, you'd think that Pretty Ricky would be more of a rap group than an R&B group, but all of their songs are basically R&B or pop songs with rap verses on them. The only exception to this is "Personal Trainer", which is a rap song at heart, and even though it is an obvious rip off of Kanye West's "Kanye's Workout Plan" it's the best song on the album.
Late Night Special is a pretty unimpressive effort, and really the main enjoyment I got out of it was trying to find as many corny sexual lines as I could. The album is filled with hilarious lines that I don't think are meant to be funny, but are anyway. Here are some to start you off.
"Let's make sex a holiday."
"Take them granny panties off, put a thong on"
"Yeah I met you on Mypsace"
"I'll leave it all up to you, girl. Am I hittin' it tonight?"
"I even got your name tattooed backwards on my chest, so only my heart can read it"
Have fun!


The Report Card

Production: C+
The songs are put together well for the most part. The beats are pretty average, with a few sparks. Nothing remarkable by any means.

Flow/Lyrics: D-
No one in the group has much talent. Baby Blue's occasional spark saved them from recieving an F. The song aren't well written. The lyrics are cheesy and ridiculous. The concepts are overdone and useless.

Originality: D-
Their sound is unusual, but other than that, Late Night Special offers nothing new to music whatsoever.

Overall: D-
It's just not that good an album. It's a bunch of people with little skill making a bunch of wack songs about the same thing.