Get To Know H.E.R.

So…I know in yesterday’s entry I promised the review of the Million Dollar Backpack. Well, I guess I have to eat those words, because Christmas has come upon us in the middle of July. A couple of entries ago, I mentioned that 9th and Murs would be giving us their new (although I have heard that this album was actually recorded some time ago) album entirely for free. Well, I had no idea how soon that release date was gonna be. Less than a week from that entry, here it is. No wait…

http://www.mursand9thwonder.com/download.html

There it is. So…how does it hold up to the duo’s past contributions? Here’s a quick breakdown.

The Good:

1. The Intro - Murs and 9th Wonder albums have the greatest intros, and this is no exception. Murs hasn’t fallen off at all since Murray’s Revenge and the first 9th beat is a winner. Great start.

4. Give Us Free - Other than the monotonous chanting of I’m Free on the hook, it’s a sick track.

5. And I Love It

8. Marry Me - A very nice track for the ladies. Usually tracks like this come off as pretty damn corny, but Murs pulls it off. Doesn’t hurt that the beat is alright as well.

9. Love The Way (ft Tyler Woods) - A lot of tracks for the girls on this album. I’m not always a fan of these, especially when there’s an R&B hook coming along with it, but I’ll have to make an exception here.

10. On The Smooth Tip (Murs Inatra) - It sounds like a continuation of the intro and ties the whole album together very nicely. I do wish there was more actual rapping though, since about half the track is taken up by Murs’ talking.

The Solid:

2. Are You Ready - It’s usually a bad thing when the first actual song is worse than the intro. However, the intro was pretty freaking damn good, so I guess I can understand. I just don’t care much for the singing and the beat.

7. It’s For Real

3. Nina Ross - Almost comes off as Freak These Tales pt II, but a lot more PG.

6. Push - I actually hated this track on first listen, but with repeated exposure, this shit kinda grows on you.

The Bad:

Final Score: 8.5/8.0

Just like the two albums before it, it’s a really short album. That of course means that with the short number of tracks, you gotta hit and hit hard. Sweet Lord, while overall a good album, lacks the knockout great tracks that its predecessors had an abundance of. The Intro is actually my favorite track on this whole album, which actually is more of a testament to the greatness of the intro than a complaint about the rest of the tracks. Like I said, it’s a great album, and that it isn’t as great as Murs 3:16 and Murray’s Revenge shouldn’t defer you from listening to this at all. Besides, it’s free!

And more…

Just some old news I chanced upon in hiphopdx. In the years that hip hop has been around, certain albums have come around that managed to reach legendary status without even being released. Legendary for the number of delays it has faced in coming out, and with those delays has come hype beyond no other. It seems that we may actually see the release of two of these legendary rumors before the year is up. Dr. Dre’s long awaited Detox is now slated for a tentative November/December release that has been confirmed by the good doctor himself. The second of these, is Rakim’s Seventh Seal, which was rumored to have come out last July, 7th (7/7/07). Of course as we all know, that date passed, and we had no new Rakim. However, Rakim has confirmed a fall release date, so if we’re lucky, we may get ourselves a dose of the god MC before the year is up.

As long as I’m putting the word out that Sweet Lord is going to be a free download, I thought I might as well give people another reason to take time out of their busy schedule to listen to it when it drops. That reason, boys and girls, is this album right here. It’s not the first album by 9th Wonder or Murs, but it is the first of their collaborative efforts. 9th Wonder had done work with his ex-group Little Brother prior to this, and Murs has been releasing solo albums for a good minute before this (and group efforts as a part of both Living Legends and Felt). They’d built up quite a bit of hype in the underground, so you can imagine the excitement that was generated by bloggers everywhere when these two announced that they would release an album together. Did the album live up to it’s hype? Yes and no. But you’ll see what I mean.

The album begins with an Intro that seems like your average self hype rap intro at first. Then, the beat changes completely to become Robot Rock meets Murs (any Daft Punk fans in the house?) and our emcee drops a quick verse to give us, the listeners, one of the better post 2000 rap intros ever. Then they drop the ball completely on the second track with the ridiculously annoying Bad Man. The beat by itself would’ve been annoying enough, but the voice loop repeating “bad man” seals the deal. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: even if the lyrics are sick, a song with a horrible beat is a bad song. Thankfully for all parties involved, 3:16 is a great track that picks the ball right back up. The Pain is a track that really embodies the spirit of its title. Having one of those days in which nothing seems to go right? Just get rejected by that female coworker again? Listen to The Pain. Failed another exam? Listen to The Pain. Just in the mood to feel really emo? Listen to The Pain. Not that it’ll solve any of those problems, but good music always calms the soul. Not that this track is meant only for your emo days either. Just get a raise? Listen to The Pain. About to go for a quick run around the block? Listen to The Pain. Feel like kicking your puppy? You get the idea.

The next track, Trevor an’ Them, is pretty damn good but way too freaking short. You just start getting into the whole groove of the track when it cuts you off and leaves you high and dry. Freak These Tales provides an refreshing sound on a subject matter that hip hop has beaten 22/23rd to death already. It actually sounds a lot like an adult version of Will Smith’s “”Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble,” if that helps you at all. Afterwards, H-U-S-T-L-E comes on and I decide to completely forgive the duo for including Bad Man on this album. There’s actually a music video to the remix featuring John Cena, which is just ridiculous and funny as hell. I’ll post it at the bottom and you’ll see what I mean. The following song, Walk Like A Man, kicks ASS. Seriously, everything is just right on this track. Murs exercises his storytelling abilities in the telling of the shooting of a friend and 9th provides three separate beats that provides the perfect backdrop for each section. On And This Is For, Murs speaks his mind on a couple of things and calls out his fans for not buying his albums. I don’t agree with a lot of what’s said on it, but it’s still an enjoyable track. The album then ends with a bang with Animal. The beat sounds like something one can just chill to and Phonte’s guest appearance is more than appreciated.

The Good: Intro, 3:16, The Pain, Freak These Tales, H-U-S-T-L-E, Walk Like A Man, And This Is For, Animal

The Solid: Trevor an’ Them

The Bad: Bad Man

Final Score: 9.0

As far as 9th Wonder goes, this album was incredible. Other than Bad Man, every track was laced with an amazing beat, and it’s clear that 9th had come a long way since The Listening. However, I also expected it to be Murs’ best effort thus far and while it’s damn close, I still prefer Murs Rules The World to this on an average day. But that’s not a big complaint at all and I do think that this album oozes excellence. This album may seem a bit different from most mainstream albums that are coming out these days. For one, there are almost no guest spots at all. Two, the whole thing is only 10 tracks long. Still, I’ll rather have a condensed, mindblowing musical experience to an oversturated, 8 tracks too long, shit album any day. Besides, 10 tracks, one of them an intro, and one guest rapper spot? Sounds a lot like a classic album by the name of Illmatic to me.

And now as promised, the H-U-S-T-L-E video. enjoy

So, in the midst of all the bullshit hip hop 2008’s been throwing at us (which admittedly is not that much), the best album of the year may be a free one. That’s right, the new Murs and 9th Wonder album, titled Sweet Lord is going to be an free downloadable internet release. If that’s not the most amazing thing I’ve heard all month, I don’t know what is. Anyways, the duo has released two albums, Murs 3:16 and Murray’s revenge, which, in my humble opinion, are nothing short of greatness. If this free album is gonna be anywhere near the quality of the previous two, I’d say this may be the best thing to happen to hip hop fans all year. Here’s the youtube clip.

Every Tuesday and Saturday will be a new album review unless there is no new material to review for the week. Tuesday because that’s when most albums drop and Saturday just because.

It’s quite strange that the first new album review on this blog will actually be about an album that’s been around for almost 4 years now. So, in that sense, I’m wrong in calling this album new. On the other hand, you can’t go out to the nearest Best Buy and pick it up because, well, it’s not out yet. Jean Grae and 9th Wonder’s long awaited, heavily anticipated album never actually got a proper release. Which was a shame because from my memory (I haven’t listened to the actual album in a while) it was pretty damn good. However, we’re in luck this time, because despite the fact that every Jean Grae and/or 9th Wonder fan probably has this downloaded somewhere, Blacksmith/Warner Bros. have decided to give the album a proper release on July 8th, 2008. Heck, they even went all out with the album covers and it’s my understanding that you can buy it with one of the four covers shown there (which are in fact all parodies of classics. from top left clockwise: “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” “Dead Serious,” and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx”) Will it be worth it? Should people buy it even though they probably already have a digital copy or two? Well, that’s exactly what this review is gonna tell you.

As this is my first blog I feel that I should give you a rundown of the way I score things:
<6 - Anything less than 6, I’m not even gonna bother with a specific score. Just know it’s not worth the time and if you decide to listen anyway, you have been warned.
6 -Jusssttt worth it to give it one listen.
6.5- Not bad, probably not much replay value though
7- Decent, you may like it
7.5 - An overall good album
8 - A better album
8.5- A great album
9- An excellent album
9.5- Amazing. Some may even say classic.
10- Unf—withable CLASSIC.

So now that that’s cleared up, let’s get on wit it shall we.

1. Intro - It’s called an intro, but fortunately for us, it’s not like other rap intros you’ve heard in which usually there’s some random ad libbing over a second rate beat. In this intro, we’re treated to actual rapping and some good rapping at that.

2. 2 32’s aka Jeanius (ft DP) - Both emcees come on nicely over soulful production from 9th Wonder.

3. Don’t Rush Me - Listen to the third verse. Jan Grae’s usually a great all around rapper but the flow on that verse is a bit awkward. Either I’m crazy, or Jean’s been spending way too much time around Talib Kweli. The song itself? Pretty good.

4. My Story aka The Rain Comes Down - Listening to this track it sounds like Jean’s been spending some time with our boys Slug and Ant of Atmosphere as well. If you don’t know how this track sounds from reading that, guess I gotta spell it out for you. Atmosphere’s a hip hop duo from Minnesota that are known for being freaking amazing, regardless of their sometimes depressing as hell lyrics. So yeah..replace the first part of that sentence with “My Story is a song by Jean Grae” and you get the idea.

5. The Time is Now aka Struggles (ft Phonte) - Phonte’s been one of my favorite post 2000 rappers for a good minute now and although he’s improved vastly since the time this was recorded his verse still sounds great.

6. Billy Killer aka Each Morning - After the momentum of the first five tracks, this song falls kind of flat. Am I the only one that finds the production on this track to be annoying?

7. Think About It - Andddd the momentums back. This track hits and it hits hard.

8. 8 aka Nonsense - Lyrically one of the best tracks so far. Jean kills it.

9. American Pimp aka Stories (ft Median) - I know everyone went crazy over Median’s release last year but I never saw what they saw in the dude. I still don’t see it. He’s a pretty average rapper and this is a pretty average track.

10. This World aka This Girl - This is more like it.

11. Love Thirst aka High - It’s not bad. But it’s boring. And the second half of the song is just instrumental. Which would be fine if the beat was banging. And the random orgasm sounds are to say the least kinda disturbing. Just skip it.

12. Desperada aka Second Chance - More of this, less of Billy Killer. That’s what I always say.

13.Smashmouth (ft K-Hill, Edgar Allen Floe and Joe Scudda) - This track is actually a hidden track that comes on a couple of seconds after Desperada ends. The reason I didn’t combine it with the Desperada review is that Desperada was a great track, while this one could stand to improve. Keep it hidden, it’s not really worth finding.

Final Score - 8.5

It’s more like 8.25, 8.3 but for now, I stand by my 8.5. 13 tracks on the album. 4 of them are absolutely banging, 5 are pretty good (the intro’s actually pretty tight), 2 are average and 2 would’ve been left out in an ideal world. So, worth buying? I would say so. It’s definitely worth the money and if we buy enough, Jean might stop threatening to retire and actually release Pheonix on our asses. Besides, the album covers are worth it alone. I personally am getting am deciding between the Nation of Millions one and the Cuban Linx.