|
|
|
|
 |
| tracklisting |
| 1. Luv Allah feat. Kinetic |
| 2. We Got It freat. Freemurder |
| 3. Skit feat. Calvin Cooler |
| 4. Red Rum feat. Shacronz, Don |
| 5. Skit feat. Calvin Cooler |
| 6. Crazy feat. Tonebone, Midnight, Shoshot |
| 7. Nuttin feat. Ninth Prince |
| 8. Skit feat. Calvin Cooler |
| 9. See Me feat. Freemurder |
| 10. 64 |
| 11. So So Serious feat. TMF |
| 12. Duckie |
| 13. Ballin feat. Suga Bang, Solomon Childs |
| 14. Destiny feat. Kinetic |
| 15. Black Knights Of The Northstar feat. Doc Doom, Midnight |
|
 |
|
|
| The whole thing of 'Bobby Digital presents…' works in both ways: it will attract some, while others will exhale a quick disgusted yap before leaving the record behind on the shelve. Cause that Bobby concept only really made sense to RZA in the first place, and second, the resulting
album was either liked, or well, not. But what Bobby was supposed to be was an ignorant alter ego to the superconscious persona of the RZA. So when Bobby now presents this record, by the west coast Wu affiliates Northstar, it probably is to gear you up for some less than serious music. |
| The album starts with "Luv Allah", and as the title suggests, the above mentioned theory is proven wrong, as the words are rather inspirational: "ya listening to some king man with king plans / to fertilize the land
is the first demand / that's why I work the land with a force of energy / knocking down barriers that they had marked for centuries". And even though Christ Bearer says "RZA looped the beat up and just told me to come with it", the song is actually credited to House producer Armand Van
Helden. Who returns later with "Nuttin". Here he does that quirky voice chorus sample thing (not as excessive as others do though), and creates a good coming and going feel. Although the good is quite flattering, as it's pretty standard.
Or like P.R. Terrorist says "Hip-Hop is in a fucked up state". And if it wouldn't be, then this song, heck, this whole album, would give us one big yawn. But rap's quality control is slacking and that's why this album, still appears kinda listenable. |
| And that's despite the fact that we get beats by Mathematics ("We Got It" and the standard "Duckie"), RZA (the severly boring and simple "Red Rum", the okay "See Me", the westcoastish "64"
and the wack "Destiny") as well as D.R. Period on the smooth "Ballin". Here we get Suga Bang Bang and Solomon Childs, who team up with Christ and Meko, who lines out the modus operandi: "and Friday niggas usually throw
a party, hit the club / unless they pockets tore up / then we parking lot pimping, drinking smoking a dub / and that's just the life on the west coast / where niggas stay popping them bottles, doing the most / pouring out liquor from my niggas R.I.P / while listen to the sound of Pac and B.I.G / Northstar's
in the place to be / shockin' all you funny ass niggas scared to see / L.B. is where we put it down consciously / constantly, stomping fleas". What's obviously rather simple. But the words are actually recited comfortably, what saves a lot of ground. |
| In total, there's just two songs without guests, what makes the album to be one long posse cut. Again on "Crazy", where Christ shows the struggle to find anything to say when he rhymes: "The Wu don't give two fucks,
Clan like Klu Klux / lace the digi with the 'dro / Tai Bo, bust ya fo-fo, let ya hair down, ho / ya gotta get a little sick / let niggas try to play you like a step-child and click / fuck the dumb shit, nigga, trip / lose ya grip, pull a semi-automatic out the whip / get psychotic, neurotic, they want
it, they got it". At least the Mix Jive Musick beat give a slight distinct feel, to create the appropriate determination. |
| If anything, this album gives an interesting look in a new kinda of west coast sound. A good example for that is "Black Knights Out The Northstar". But with the two Northstar cats, and their many, many, many guests really circling the food like a blind chicken, it's
a rare occasion when they find the proverbial lyrical corn. The beats further lack character to either piss off or please enough, giving the whole album the previously mentioned listenable quality. But that's about it. |
| review: tadah |
|
