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Album Review
by Ledsan Telstar
4-12-2002
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| Busta Rhymes' 'It Ain't Safe No More' |
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Jay Ja Busta: 'The Last...'
(Various)
Three rappers are doing it with numerous guests
Jay-Z
‘The Blueprint 2 - The Gift & The Curse’
(Roc-A-Fella Records)
Looking at the cover of Jay-Z’s ‘The Blueprint 2’, the names of the guests are much longer that the song titles. Really dunno whether the rappers ever think that all these visiting-vocalists may overwhelm music and the performer’s self? On the opening cut of ‘The Gift’ disc, ‘A Dream’, we have Faith Evans and Notorious B.I.G., later followed by Dr Dre and Rakim and the man’s own fiancée, Beyonce Knowles, on the current single, ‘‘03 Bonnie & Clyde’; among the names who feature on ‘The Curse’ part, you even find Lenny Kravitz.
Musically, it is flirting with R&B and the ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker simply proves that American society is gone OTT. Harmlessly medium-sized effort. (5/10)
*
Ja Rule
‘The Last Temptation’
(Def Jam)
The list of guests on Ja Rule’s ‘The Last Temptation’ is as impressive – Bobby Brown, Ashanti, Nas, 2Pac – and the disc suffers from the same malady as Jay-Z’s album: lack of focus, an edge… Hip-Hop used to be the poetry of black urbanity and now is – just a form of entertainment. Ja’s disc also nears to the much-appreciated (and infinitely less controversial) R&B category where everyone’s happy, with the rewards. Middle-Americana gets sanitised music and the rappers get all the dosh to get more bling-blings and then go on rhyming about it.
Not being a person who idealises past but rap of Public Enemy, NWA, Ice’s (Cube and T), made one’s ears prick-up for a serious note taking. Even Eminem, occasionally… The rest have become as effective as muzak… Mean cover, though. (5/10)
*
Busta Rhymes
‘It Ain’t Safe No More’
(J Records)
Busta Rhymes albums appear to keep the ol’-Hip-Hop-skool principles alive but still lacking on anger, psychosis, fury. It is a kind of polite ‘bad’-rappinghood and all its explicit language and sexual content have long stopped being truly controversial. ‘It Ain’t Safe No More’ drops more genuine beats (than the others discussed) and, although the title cut is a decent song, its musical punch is slight, just a sketch. Busta walks his own path but it is getting foggy out there: there is a track entitled ‘Hey Ladies’; pardon, rap gone PC? What happened to the ‘ho’, ‘bitches’? Busta is more economical with his guests but Mariah Carey on ‘I Know What You Want’ certainly lowers his cred on our rap-meter. And the track is not even funny, it’s tragic, pukesville!
In the end, he’s repeating the same message like last year and the year before… (6/10)
Ledsan Telstar
4-12-2002
Jay-Z’s CD ‘The Blueprint 2 - The Gift & The Curse’ is available now on Rock-A-Fella/Universal
Ja Rule’s disc ‘The Last Temptation’ is available now on Def Jam/Universal
Busta Rhymes’ album ‘It Ain’t Safe No More’ is available now on J Records/BMG
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