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Kurt Rosenwinkel
Guitar
(New York, NY, USA)
Kurt has taken the evolution of jazz guitar improvisation and composition to the next level.
Web Side:
http://www.kurtrosenwinkel.com/
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1. INTRO
This is a pretty good intro, on the level of some of Shawn Carter's album prefaces, but any and all references to Avril Lavigne in a rap song should be verboten.
2. #1
I honestly can't remember anything about this song, and I just heard it.
3. PUMP IT UP
As I wrote in the past, producer Just Blaze first gave this beat to Jay-Z for The Black Album, and Shawn declined, so it ended up going to the first runner-up. Joey tries his best to turn this track into a radio-friendly jam, but it just never took off around my way (although it was a minor hit elsewhere), even though he deliberately dumbed his lyrics down for mass appeal. However, because of that dumbing-down, I didn't really like this song, either. I suppose there is no winning here.
4. PUSHA MAN
The contrived hook almost ruins a perfectly serviceable song, even though the White Boy instrumental is very dull to listen to. Sigh...
5. U AIN'T GOTTA GO HOME (FEAT DJ CLUE)
This song sounds like a fucking mess, and the fact that DJ Clue appears makes it that much worse. Pass.
6. WALK WITH ME
I first heard this song after beating Def Jam: Fight For NY, and I remember thinking that it sounded good over the closing credits. Taken out of that context, this shit is still really good. Joey describes his paranoia in a pretty effective manner, and the instrumental is perfect for walking with your thoughts in a downpour. You may want to take an umbrella, though. Hey, it's your health.
7. SHE WANNA KNOW (FEAT LIL' MO)
The fuck is this shit?
8. SURVIVOR
My God, I was fucking bored to death. I suppose it doesn't really help that I was also bitten by the undead mailman while listening to Joe Budden. Hopefully my zombie self can finish the write-up before my mind deterioracsfcnsdklcfnkcvneneivn
9. FIRE (FEAT BUSTA RHYMES)
A Just Blaze-created pseudo-club banger that, to my knowledge, never banged in any clubs around my way, but is still way better than “Pump It Up”. I was pretty surprised to hear this song pop up in a house party scene in Lindsay Lohan's Mean Girls, but I'm sure Def Jam payed a pretty penny for that product placement. There's a remix that features fellow Jersey resident Redman spitting a lark of a hook: the re-do is completely useless, since apparently Reggie couldn't find the time to actually write a verse. Stick with this version instead. Oh, and Busta Rhymes is on here, too.
10. MA MA MA (FEAT 112)
Meh.
11. CALM DOWN
I hated the hook, but lyrically, this song is fascinating. The beat sounds a tad bit too energetic for anyone to actually calm down, though.
12. FOCUS
Over an unorthodox White Boy beat, Joey spits random shit, but sounds good doing so. Everything about this track screams “album track”; it's one of those gems that you tend to find only after letting the disc play from the beginning. (And yes, I'm aware that a small part of this song appeared at the end of the “Pump It Up” video and made its debut appearance on mixtapes. I still stand by my statement.)
13. GIVE ME REASON
This Just Blaze beat is godawful for Joey, since it forces him to spit in an insipid fashion in order to match it. Groan...
14.STAND UP N---A
Although Joey didn't actually spell out the word “n---a” in the traditional manner, that is still clearly the word he wanted to associate with, so that's why I edited the title. The one long verse is really good, and the beat accompanies it pretty well, since it reminds me of a 1980s cop buddy flick, but the coda at the end is fucking terrible.
15. 10 MINS
Usually I believe that there is no reason for a song ten minutes in length to ever appear on any rapper's proper album (mixtape remixes, no matter how boring and unnecessary, are exempt from this rule): the Wu-Tang Clan has nine members, and they never made a song that was ten minutes long. “10 Mins” does not change my mind. Joey's rhymes are actually decent (and the fact that he wastes the first minute of the song by chatting and otherwise not rapping is a plus for my attention span), but the beat is not engaging enough to captivate any audience for any length of time, although to producer Lofey's credit, the instrumental at least tries to engage, switching itself up frequently.
The following are considered to be Joe Budden bonus tracks.
16. REAL LIFE IN RAP
Joey takes the popular route of calling out studio gangsters (rappers who in no way have ever come close to living the life they rhyme about) and spins it in a pretty funny way. The beat straddles the fine line between decent and corny, but with the topic at hand, it works regardless. The hook is predictably awful, but this is still a hip hop album we're talking about.
17. PORNO STAR
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this vapid track was forced onto Joey by the label, in an effort to reach as wide of an audience as possible. This is a terrible way to end an album. Even a pretentious outro shouting out God (for making this all possible!), your mother, your weed carrying crew, and random rappers who you may admire but still had nothing to do with the creation of the album, would have been more appealing than this shit.
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1. FREE
I appreciate the fact that Freeway avoided including a rap album intro, opting to start Philadelphia Freeway off with an actual song. Sadly, I was pretty bored with this option. Not that an intro would have ever been preferable, mind you.
2. WHAT WE DO (FEAT JAY-Z & BEANIE SIGEL)
Beardy completely dominates this Roc-A-Fella posse cut, outshining both his boss and his contemporary, as it should be, since it is a Freeway song, after all. Shawn's reference to Freeway's beard also made me laugh out loud. This is actually the best Roc-A-Fella posse cut to come out of the camp, and its accompanying The Wire-inspired clip (with a few of the actual actors from the show) only adds to the proceedings. I'd bet that Memphis Bleek cries himself to sleep every night, wondering why Shawn didn't let him jump on (read: ruin) this track.
3. ALL MY LIFE (FEAT NATE DOGG)
Overall, I liked this track, but some of Beardy's lines are funny for all of the wrong reasons. Otherwise, not bad.
4. FLIPSIDE (FEAT PEEDI CRAKK)
I first heard this Just Blaze banger while playing Def Jam: Fight For NY. The beat pretty much rocks, and it also proves that Justin creates better beats for everyone who isn't named Jay-Z. That said, the clean edit is the one which appears in the game, and this song is decidedly not clean. Then again, most of the songs I review are decidedly not clean, so there you go.
5. ON MY OWN (FEAT NELLY)
I'm not a fan of Nelly as a rapper. He has a couple of okay songs (both of which are produced by The Neptunes), and his videos contain some decent imagery much of the time (I can think of one scene in particular in the clip for some recent Nelly track featuring Ciara and Jermaine Dupri), but for the most part, I couldn't care less. Thankfully, he only appears on the hook, doing his sing-songy shimmy-shimmy-cocoa-puff thing, and the song itself is not ruined because of it. This actually isn't bad.
6. WE GET AROUND (FEAT SNOOP DOGG)
This isn't bad, either, although a collaboration between Free and Snoop doesn't exactly feel like the natural order of things. The hook is all sorts of awful, though: I suppose some of you may consider that a small price to pay to hear Calvin Broadus sound entirely comfortable over a Just Blaze beat, but that's on you two.
7. DON'T CROSS THE LINE (FEAT FAITH EVANS)
Meh.
8. LIFE (FEAT BEANIE SIGEL)
I just listened to this track, and I can't remember a thing about it, save for the fact that Sigel does, in fact, make an appearance.
9. FULL EFFECT (FEAT YOUNG GUNZ)
I really liked this track. Justin's beat goes a long way toward making the Roc-A-Fella seat fillers sound good, and Beardy comes across as a thoroughly engaging emcee. Which is all you can ask for, really.
10. TURN OUT THE LIGHT (FREEWEST) (FEAT KANYE WEST)
Kanye West's beat sounds similar to the stuff that he gave to every other Roc-A-Fella artist that wasn't named Jay-Z. Which is to say, it's alright, but it's not real.
11. VICTIM OF THE GHETTO (FEAT RELL)
Decent, but nothing special.
12. YOU DON'T KNOW (IN THE GHETTO) (FEAT OMILLIO SPARKS)
Two songs in a row with the word “ghetto” in the title? That's usually not a good sign, and Beardy doesn't say or do anything to persuade me otherwise.
13. ALRIGHT (FEAT ALLEN ANTHONY)
Justin Blaze creates a beat that sounds like one of those 1980s songs I tried to avoid (because I'm a New Wave guy, through and through), but, honestly, I liked this shit a lot. Its sound brings back a pleasant form of nostalgia, and both Free's lyrics and Allen Anthony's singing mesh well with the music. Good show.
14. HEAR THE SONG
There wasn't anything objectionable about this song, but the only comment that I can make without re-listening and re-forgetting the song itself is this: what is with Freeway's obsession with selecting Kanye West instrumentals that sound like leftovers from The Blueprint? Free sounds great over the harder stuff, so filling Philadelphia Freeway with mostly soulful beats has officially mystified me.
The following tracks are considered Philadelphia Freeway's bonus songs.
15. YOU GOT ME (FEAT MARIAH CAREY & JAY-Z)
Raise your hand if you feel that Mariah Carey Mrs. Nick Cannon has been irrelevant since that “Heartbreaker” song she did with Hova. Okay, put them down: you're wrong, anyway. Mariah had a pretty good minor comeback with both versions of “We Belong Together”. Oh, this song? It sucks balls. Why do you ask?
16. LINE 'EM UP (FEAT YOUNG CHRIS)
Wasn't bad at all, until Young Inexperienced Chris spit his guest verse, which brought my IQ down by a couple hundred points. Now I'm not even sure I can dress myself, let alone finish a rev
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July 28th, 2009Uncategorized