producers: swizz beats, teflon, mahogany, p. killer trackz, tj beatz

guests: snoop doog, method man, redman, scarface, busta rhymes, twista, trick daddy

Sometimes pop music is as annoying as pop ups on the internet. While with the latter you can only deactivate java to get rid off 'em, it's harder with pop music, as this is marketed to you through many pseudo-labels and ridiculous, but nifty misleading names, that trick you into believing the propaganda. Case in point, the whole Ruff Ryders hoopla. They claim to be hardcore, to be the streets, and eventually they claim to deserve the success they have. But it's only a thin line between hype and history, and if you take away the excitement of the first time hearing an energetic Swizz track, subtract the sometimes clever punchlines by Jadakiss, the easy marketability of Eve and DMX, as well as the latter's looks and Tupac updateism, then you pretty much got nothing left that will not be worn out in a few years to come.

Of course people bite Swizz, as some of his stuff is actually good. But he now declares to have moved forward, putting into the credits 'produced by Swizz Beatz Pt. II'. And what should sound like a revelation, sounds like a Casio keyboard with new plug ins. Even though "WW III" works, despite the strange combination of a motivated Yung Wun, a lackadaisical Snoop Dogg, a legendary Scarface and a saving Jadakiss. Of course at the end of this cut, you get the obligatory crowd chanting thing going, but leading up to that, it's Scarface who sounds the best. The Ruff Ryders still loiter in the periphery of the tracks, as only Sheek is on "2 Tears In A Bucket", along with Method Man and Redman. The beat is okay again, and there are two interesting lines being spit: Sheek does "fuck heat, Sheek walk around with an oven / who you gonna kill with that little Foreman grill?" and Redman kicks "Swizz Beats you can ride Amtrak on it / but I'm on it, grilling with George Foreman / you peeps is at the Grammy awards corning".

Eve and Jadakiss team up on the very popish and weak Teflon produced "Got It All". While the chorus on the track leading up to this was catchy, this is hard to bear. The next generation Ryders, Larsiny and Yung Wun, give us "Ryde Or Die Boyz", and while the first kicks clever lines like "all talk, no show, Jerry Springer / I don't care if you a skinny or a burly nigga / I'ma have you face looking like a blurry mirror", the latter struggles to write two consecutive lines that actually make sense together. The beat by Mahogany should have allowed the sample to spread out more than it does, what hurts the overall soul. After the unnecessary "It's A Holiday" skit, Styles is served with a solo track ("Holiday"), and equipped with a Swizz beat, he tries to step out the shadow of the Lox' most prominent rapper. But he fails miserably, using nursery rhyme words, and rhyming about nonsense. Luckily, Swizz didn't serve him with something wack, but actually musical, what prevents this track of being a disaster. And pretty much the same can be said about "Weed, Hoes, Dough", that has an okay beat, but Drag-On does neither unfold his usually cool flow, nor does he say anything worth quoting.

Scratch the next skit "Fuck Da' Haters" that only shows the lack of self-criticism, and the behind the scene friendships that alters the supposed to be honest opinions other people depend on. So after this ego wanking, "Fright Night" by Swizz Beats and Busta Rhymes comes on. Then again the touching themselves continues, as Swiss calls himself the 'black Mozart', what is pretty ridiculous right there. The beat is okay with the low keys, but as soon as the keyboard is rising high, it sounds unappealing. Still, hopes are high that the Jadakiss solo offering "My Name Is Kiss" will change things for the better. Unfortunately he's not able to do that. While his deliver is straight, it also sounds basic in todays world of bred flows. What makes us listen up though, is when 'Kiss spits "and I'm way better than them other dudes / but I'm stuck wit, what I'm stuck wit / cause I don't suck dick", and if you want to misinterpret that, it would be to easy. Not easy on your ears is the horrible "Twisted Heat", that teams up Twista and Drag-On. Straight up doo-doo.

But The Lox track "Go Head" is quite alright, at least the beat is. A melancholy TJ Beatz production, that again is too synthetic to amaze. The gun references are used in abundance and don't annoy anymore, but seriously piss off the listener. All feminists will be pissed off by the ignorant "I'm A H-O-E" skit. For a strange reason the stomping sound of "Stomp" produced by TJ Beatz and featuring Yung Wun and Trick Daddy is having us bob along, and so gets our thumb up. Something we can't give to "The Great" by DMX, that does not do anything different than what this dude has been doing for three albums. Even his fans have to start to be getting bored by tracks like this. What leaves us with the conclusion of this record. "It's Going Down" slaughters The Gap Band's "Yearning For Your Love". But this Parlé track has to be considered to be one of the tracks on here, as it's solid R'n'B, that not only works because of the magical sample.

Of course these are harsh words. And they are coming from a person that's not part of the sought after audience of the Ruff Ryders. But this reviewer here has given praise to several of their songs, beats and a few lyrics. So this can't be dismissed as the rambling of a frustrated avant garde backpacker that's just hating. No, this seriously is weaker than it could be. And you don't even need to go to other records for the proof, as if the quality of some elements on here could have been upheld throughout the record, we'd have a tight one in our hands. But in actually it feels like we don't have the right record in our hands, and when we drop it, then not because it's hot.