This album proves there is no God.
God Did continues to drop the bar for Khaled albums. They were never consistent bodies of work, but you could count on a few bangers to keep in the playlist - think 'We Takin' Over', 'Holy Key', 'Nas Album Done', etc. One of the reasons I feel they are getting worse is the artists on them. There are too many auto-tune, wack rappers, led by Future through to Lil Baby, Kodak Black, Vory to name a few. They all sound the same with their emo-rap bars. The only decent moments are the title track, 'Use This Gospel Remix' and to a lesser extent the Jadakiss track, just because he isn't the cookie-cutter artist most of these features are. *Hearing Eddie Murphy's 'Party All the Time' sampled was a surprise.
Beats: ★★☆
Rapping/Bars: ★
Hooks: ★★
Best Tracks: God Did, Use This Gospel Remix, Jadakiss Interlude
Tank's final album took a few listens for songs to jump out at me. Many just don't build up enough or go the places I want R&B to. 'Spoil Her Alert' is a good example. The hook is catchy enough, but the song just needs to do more to go from a decent song to one that would be replayed. 'Too Late' and 'No Limit are similar examples.
A fairly consistent listen but it lacks enough high moment.
Best Tracks: Slow, Can’t Let It Show, See Through Love, Let’s Take a Ride, Summer Killa
I don't know why this was on my 'to watch list' but it was a mistake...as was the making of this movie. It's a mockumentary about a director, Adam Rifkin, trying to make an unknown actor into a star. The jokes are predictable and fall flat. For example, someone leaving an audition tells the actor that the role requires an Australian accent. He predictable does that only for the role to not require such an accent, rather a New York one. Every now and again the main-plot is broken up by celebrity interviews about what makes a movie star. When Adam and the actor have a falling out I didn't care in the slightest. The acting isn't great at times. I don't know what Adam was thinking with this but it comes across as him thinking he is a lot cleaver and creative than he actually is. You will likely get halfway through this and feel like moving on to something else.
I like the production enough, that I often do with Statik, and some of the songs have catchy moments, but too often I found myself not enjoying the rapping performance to feel like this deserved a higher score. It's too preachy at times like such amazing knowledge is being dropped. The Freeway verse is one of the highlights. We need another project from him. 2.3-3 out of 5.
Show Me the Bag: Banger. Borrows some of his classic lyrics - "My scandalous recipe..." ★★★★
Bangin: One of the catchiest hooks. Hard and dope. ★★★★
Burn Bread: The first single we heard. Good song. ★★★☆
Turn Up: Enjoyable change up of flows throughout the verses. Another enjoyable song that's grown on me a lot. ★★★★
Chappelle: Uses the famous "I'm rich bitch" line from The Chappelle Show. Overall, this is not as memorable as many songs here. ★★★
Money in the Bag: Another hard song with a catchy hook. ★★★★
Gas: T-Rock's obligatory weed song. Here we hear T-Rock croon a touch. This is the least interesting song though. ★★★
Hold Me Down: Another catchy hook with a change up of flows. ★★★☆
Hitman: A dark themed song with another nice chorus. From the man, T-Rock, himself - "Hitman is all freestyle no pen no pad." ★★★★
Go Get a Hoe: I'm not a big fan of the hook. The production including the rich horns are likeable though. ★★★☆
My Hitta: And here we have the obligatory chick track. This sounds quite similar to some other similarly themed songs he's done. This and 'Gas' are the songs I've been skipping most. ★★★
Special Edition songs (disc 2) reviews to come.
The producer, Mossberg808, has a long successful track record with T-Rock, but I'd love to see T-Rock branch out. A lot of the production sounds similar to what Rock has had recently. I even recognise some of the sounds from other songs. There is also less variety lyrically than we used to get from him. This was meant to be a double album, just like part 1 of 'I Grind I Hustle', but it's not quite what we got after a number of push-backs. In saying all of that, I'm a huge fan and I still enjoy this, demonstrated by the fact I've played it through about 10 times. It still bangs, and there isn't a bad song, but as mentioned, and as I've said in previous T-Rock album reviews, I'd love to hear him experiment with a slightly different sound.
Beats: ★★★☆
Rapping/Bars: ★★★★
Hooks: ★★★☆
Best Tracks: Show Me the Bag, Bangin, Turn Up, Money in the Bag, Hitman