50 Cent In My Hood Explicit
Busdriver: Fear of a Black Tangent (Mush)Endlessly satirizing the world's failure to reward his genius, ReganFarquhar makes the leap from too-smart-for-his-own-good toso-smart-he's-good-anyway. Whether he's impersonating Sambo on ClearChannel or a rapper-of-the-month who fell off the wrong end of abungee cord ("I'm a dead man with golden blood in my bedpan"), hisantipop plaints counter the unlikelihood of their analyses with theintricacy of their loquacity -- 23 "or" rhymes in 13 seconds, say. Hechanges up his pained, neurotic, whiny flow with catchy-annoyingsingsong, and his low-budget beats get lots of hook out of nodiscernible sampling. If you doubt his skills, check out AbstractRude, Ellay Khule, Mikah 9, and 2Mex trying to keep up. Downloadersnote: The CD includes a lyric booklet, which is very useful.A MINUS
50 Cent In My Hood Explicit
Lori McKenna: Unglamorous (Warner Bros.)Sobriety can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially in aNashvillian who claims in so many words she expects ecstasy. If shejoked around or liked to party, it might give her country goodness thewiggle room every way of life needs. But she does like to rock, andthere's no denying her eye for out-of-the-way details or her ear for adecent tune. Of several believable love songs, I'll take thefull-bodied "Witness to Your Life" over the spartan title tune. Ofseveral believable unlove songs, I recommend "Drinkin' Problem" toAl-Anon. A MINUS
50 Cent: Curtis (Interscope)The first giveaway is a lie no less bold-faced with his Connecticutmansion on the trading block: "I ain't fresh out the hood, I still inthe hood." The second is a truth all too revealing of the lost urgencyof his aesthetic motivation: "I ain't even gotta rap now, life ismade." What the two boil down to is that a parvenu mastering pop musicfor money has turned into a made man running on vanity. I find thatthis renders his expert trivialization of murder and such rather lesspiquant, and I think he does too -- that an audacious formal delighthas become routine. And though his sex talk retains some charm,Eminem's gross-out cameo casts a pall. Is Slim trying to one-upR. Kelly or just his D12 doxy Bizarre? B 041b061a72