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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.
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.
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