producers: clue & duro, x-treme, rockwilder, rick rock, others.

There's not a whole lot of reasons why to hate DJ Clue. But there's one very, very valid reason, why not to be too content with the guy. You know, that whole unnecessary screaming that he does, when you are listening to this dope track, with a dope beat, a dope rhyme, and then that fool is spoiling it all, by screaming and yelling that stupid ish that he screams and yells. Like case in point, and what he did is almost blasphemous, the first track on here. Bypassing the Puffy is talking to you "Intro", you'll get "Back 2 Life 2001". This is Mary J Blige taking the Soul II Soul classic, and starts the singing. And Mary is dope, she has the voice to do it, she has the soul to do it and not to make it corny. So everything is perfect for this cut to be as dope as it has to be to not be dissing the original. But then comes on Clue with all that stupid, annoying, wack, and fucked up ranting, laughing and babbling. And he does it throughout the song. See, we could have forgive the added Jadakiss rhyme, even though he isn't saying anything worth quoting, we could have overlooked that, but we gotta give a 'fuck you and shut up' to Clue that seemed to have tried everything possible to spoil this song.

So basically we are mad, and that only after the second track. That never is a good thing. But as we are nice guys, we give Clue a second chance and are letting him convince us why this album is worth checking out. Well, maybe a reason could "Ja˙-Z Freestyle" be, as he spits over "Who Shot Ya". And first he goes addressing the whole court ish, as he spits "D.A. act like a nigga starving for Jay / if they lock me in a cage, fuck it, party away / I'm still hot, I'm still S dot y'all / still got Millions buried in the sock drawer / still holding my own on the corner nigga / what can't kill me can only make me stronger nigga / and when I get back home / get your ass up out the throne", before he then ends with "listen to how niggas is rapping, that's due to who? / but I'ma let niggas live 'cause it's beautiful". Another reason to check this record could "Who's Next (X-Clue-Sive)" be, that features the X man. DMX is ripping over an actually dope beat, done by X-Treme. So while we are still mad, as that first song is too corny to forget like that, we are fair enough to let it give a bad taste to all the rest of the album.

The album is able to do that by itself, as the bubble gum beat o "Coming For You" feat. Beanie Sigel and Freeman, produced by Bernard "Big Demi" Parker is not happening. Much better is the lyrical assault track "Fantastic Four Pt. 2" by The Lox and featuring Cam'ron, Nature and Fabulous, that adds up to 6, but who's counting. The quality of rhymes is somewhat declining from the beginning to the end of the track, while still everyone is coming correct, well, maybe minus Fabolous. It's Cam'ron though, who spits "I don't deal wit cheap blow / when I shoot no block / sort of like a free throw / can't miss / and one of you bitches burn me and I cant piss / got me itching like its dandruff" and him and Nature definitely spit the top two verses. Rockwilder is then acquired to produce a track for Busta Rhymes for "Getting It". Rah Digga is also on this here, that does feature a pretty unique beat, making this sound enough different to stand out, and not in a wack way too.

Usually when a classic is tried to be repeated, it happens to be a disaster. And what is billed as "Cream 2001", a track by Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, can never repeat the goose bumps of the classic. But as the Rick Rock beat bumps in a bouncy fashion, and it sounding good too, you do not care to start dissing this, but have to note that the Wu has come a long way, considering the difference of styles from then to now. The Wu stays around as Method Man is featured as what for business reasons is made an Eminem track. And on "What The Beat" all three emcees do come dope, with Em going "I'm only as crazy as people made me / believe me, there'll be just as many muthafuckin' murderers / and heroin users without Marilyn's music / but I figure I make my music I don't care if you use it / to murder somebody, I just wanna be there when you do it" and Royce The 5-9 is going "I suck my own dick like if I had a rib removed" and do some thinking on the line as it's deeper than you think.

After the unnecessary ego wanking "Lil' Mo Interlude", "Fuck A Bitch" by Snoop Dogg and Kurupt is featuring a bubble gum Clue and Duro beat, so we continue on to "Change The Game (Remix)" by Ja˙-Z that features the army of Daz, Kurupt, Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek. Taking a trip down to the south, Trick Daddy & Trine are doing "My Niggaz Dem", over a weak Righteous Funk Boogie beat. "Live From The Bridge" features them tango hi hats that Nas enjoys, but not many other people besides him. Marketing strategy decided the order of the next two cuts, as first Foxy Brown sounds very bored on "So Hot" (that is pretty much everything else, but 'so hot'), right before Lil' Kim is featured on "Chinatown". And she brought the Junior Mafia and Lil' Cease with her. Now this face off was won by Kim, just because she actually bothered to sound interested when spitting her verse.

With the beats being weaker lately on this record, it's to our relieve that a still dope "I Shot Ya", you know, the LL cut, was used for "Bathgate Freestyle" that introduces this newcomer. Memphis Bleek is then repping his hood on "M.A.R.C.Y." before Clue and Duro give us the first truly dope beat by them with "I Don't Care", that is handed to Capone -N- Noreaga to do the spitting. We are staying in the area with "The Best Of Queens (It's Us)" by Mobb Deep, before we hop over to Jersey for "Red" by Redman. He is handed a rather confusing track, what doesn't help the job. And how someone dares to call himself Muggs, with this name being used for years by someone else, is even too ridiculous to understand. That's why "Dangerous" by Muggs and Lady Luck gets the ignorant label. What then only leaves "Phone Patch" that is Ty Shaun rhyming through the phone over "Incarcerated Scarface".

And so basically we can conclude that the album's quality is dropping towards the end, while at the beginning, surprisingly many things were very well. Now if we could only get Clue to shut up.