Posts
Finally! It's here! After waiting about 6 to 10 months from the time he first announced that he would be dropping a new album the Chocolate Boy Wonder brings us NY's Finest. It coulden't have come at a better time, sheesh...the radio and BET are just goin' into self destruct mode man...there's nothing worthwhile out there at the moment, and it's definitely been awhile since PR blessed us with something new. I had heard a few joints off this prior to it's release and they only got me more excited. "914" with Styles and Sheek, "We Roll" with Jim Jones and Max B. and "Til I Retire", which finds PR rhyming solo. Most of the pre-release buzz surrounding this album unfortunately was for the "We Roll" single which features a lazy and uninspired verse from Jim Jones and a hap hazard and bearly comprehendable chorus from the frogman aka Max B. The highlight of the joint is the wonderfully constructed instrumental that Pete blessed these 2 clowns with, Jesus! Why wasn't that beat handed to someone who would've done it justice? Why? That I don't know, but it's tragic when beats like that are handed off to individuals who just aren't lyrically worthy. There are other shining moments on the album however, despite the mediocrity of some of the talent Pete decided to recruit for this album there's mostly just credible and long sought after people on this; Royal Flush, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Redman, Little Brother and The Lords Of The Underground all come through and drop some serious heat. Another highlight is the only joint that wasn't produced by Pete, but rather by Green Lantern called "Ready Fe War", an incessantly dope Reggae cut featuring Chip Fu and Renee Neufville that is probably second single material. All in all I gotta be honest. I felt that this album was really lacking that great Pete Rock sound man. I contribute this to the fact that Pete is primarilly using the MPC 2000 for his production these days, and you can tell...the tracks don't have the same warmth as the joints he did back in the day on the SP-1200, and the result is that the feeling just isn't the same. Now I ain't sayin the tracks ain't dope, not at all, Pete came through and gave all these new producers that use the MPC a fuckin lesson, but what I am saying is that it's definitely not the same feeling as older PR records. Still this project is miles ahead of most of the stuff that is currently dropping and actually has a lot of replay value. Unfortunately this album was subject to a lot of pre-release bullshit, that tragically saw the songs that MF Doom, Roc Marciano, Lupe Fiasco and Method Man turned in being cut from the album, that I think is another reason NY's Finest sort of feels incomplete. On the bright side of things Pete has said he will eventually release all those records and that he has a couple more new albums coming soon. Til' then I think this will be enuff to compensate my hunger for raw Hip-Hop from a top 10 east coast producer.
-BIG D O
01 00:53 Pete Intro
02 04:10 We Roll (featuring Jim Jones & Max B)
03 04:17 'Till I Retire
04 04:22 914 (featuring Styles P. & Sheek Louch)
05 02:28 Questions (featuring Royal Flush)
06 04:38 Best Believe (featuring Redman & LD)
07 05:56 Ready Fe War (featuring Chip Fu & RenΘe Neufville)
08 04:02 Don't Be Mad
09 03:57 Bring Y'all Back (featuring Little Brother)
10 04:38 The Best Secret (featuring The Lords Of The Undergroun
11 04:55 That's What I Am Talking About (featuring Rell)
12 04:44 The PJ's (featuring Raekwon & Masta Killa)
13 04:24 Made Man (featuring Tarrey Torae)
14 02:06 Let's Go (featuring Doo Wop)
15 03:27 Comprehend (featuring Papoose)
No comments:
Post a Comment