Black Rob - "Help Me Out" (mp3)
I already posted my favorite song from The Black Rob Report when I listed it among my favorite albums of 2005, but since my Stylus review of it is out today, here's my 2nd favorite. Not as lyrically deep but the piano sample is some kind of amazing aural equivalent of a marionette's limbs flopping around. Or at least that's the visual it conjures for me.
Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain, and have included both the letter grade ratting that accompanied the original review, and an adjusted rating that I would give the record now in retrospect.
Black Rob
The Black Rob Report
Bad Boy
2005
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B
In 2005, Black Rob's reappearance is like a relic from a past society. Five years is a lifetime in hip-hop, and Black Rob's been absent from the public eye since his debut album Life Story and its massive single "Whoa!" hit in 2000. Though signed to Bad Boy since back when Biggie was still alive, Black Rob didn't drop an album until years later—part of the label's mid-period wave of rappers like G. Dep, The Loon and Shyne, who were enlisted to bring Bad Boy back from R&B singers and reality show contestants to its hip-hop roots.
But after half a decade of trials and tribulations including prison time and health problems, Black Rob is still here and, amazingly, still with Bad Boy for his second album, The Black Rob Report. Lead single "Ready" is by no means a hit like "Whoa!," but it's been one of New York's biggest street records for months, and for good reason. "Ready" sounds like a bizarre scrambled up combination of every record with militant snare drums or children singing (in this case, children who cheerfully sing "he's Block Rob / He's a thug / Fuck with him, you'll get fucked up"), with Pharrell's egg timer bit from "Drop It Like It's Hot" on a loop, assembled by Scram Jones into some wonderful new form for Black Rob to spit hostile shit over.
Aside from the obligatory exec producer credit and a "Yeah, I'm still fuckin' with Diddy" assertion on "Help Me Out," Sean Combs is nowhere to be found on The Black Rob Report. But longtime Bad Boy brass and producers are present in full force, from D-Dot to Tony Dofat to Harve Pierre. Even a few members of Da Band make an appearance (Ness on two tracks, and another that didn't make the cut for the album!). Without Diddy around to keep it jiggy, Black Rob is left to do what he does best with hardheaded but catchy traditional street rap. Even the more accessible moments like "Star In Da Hood" remain a little rough and greasy around the edges. And "Watch Your Movements" is the same dope single with Akon that everyone's got right now, but only slightly less great than the ones Styles P. and Young Jeezy have.
Though the skits and interludes peppered throughout the album slow down The Black Rob Report's momentum (some of the skits are genuinely funny, but also too long and too plentiful), the music itself is steadily consistent. Black Rob's presence is laid back enough that his tracks live and die by the beats, and here they mostly live. Buckwild, who produced "Whoa!" once again gives Black Rob one of his best beats for "Smile In Ya Face," complete with tinkly "Who Shot Ya" pianos. And out of the Bad Boy team that dominates the production, D-Dot shines the most with the insane player piano loop on "Help Me Out."
The accolades awarded to Black Rob's lyrical talent usually involve the word "storyteller," which is a broad label often thrown around blindly to describe any MC who can stay on one topic for more than a couple lines at a time. But Black Rob really knows how to spin a yarn. The album's last track, "Long Live B.R." is the best example of his storytelling skills. What begins as seemingly just another bawdy sex rhyme—"The way she filled her mouth with spit / You wouldn't believe how she was suckin' my dick / From the balls to the tip / Between me and you, I even got my saaaalad tossed," he drawls—quickly turns into a dark tale of getting framed and locked up. And it ends up as a stirring statement about the type of live he lives, and a perfect closer for the album.
Selling 27 thousand copies in its first week, The Black Rob Report seems unlikely to measure up to Life Story's platinum sales. But it also feels like a new beginning for Black Rob, and possibly the best display of his talent to date. And in a year that nearly every other New York MC whose name still draws water has dropped a mediocre album, Black Rob is the rare exception.
Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-01-05
I already posted my favorite song from The Black Rob Report when I listed it among my favorite albums of 2005, but since my Stylus review of it is out today, here's my 2nd favorite. Not as lyrically deep but the piano sample is some kind of amazing aural equivalent of a marionette's limbs flopping around. Or at least that's the visual it conjures for me.
Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain, and have included both the letter grade ratting that accompanied the original review, and an adjusted rating that I would give the record now in retrospect.
Black Rob
The Black Rob Report
Bad Boy
2005
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B
In 2005, Black Rob's reappearance is like a relic from a past society. Five years is a lifetime in hip-hop, and Black Rob's been absent from the public eye since his debut album Life Story and its massive single "Whoa!" hit in 2000. Though signed to Bad Boy since back when Biggie was still alive, Black Rob didn't drop an album until years later—part of the label's mid-period wave of rappers like G. Dep, The Loon and Shyne, who were enlisted to bring Bad Boy back from R&B singers and reality show contestants to its hip-hop roots.
But after half a decade of trials and tribulations including prison time and health problems, Black Rob is still here and, amazingly, still with Bad Boy for his second album, The Black Rob Report. Lead single "Ready" is by no means a hit like "Whoa!," but it's been one of New York's biggest street records for months, and for good reason. "Ready" sounds like a bizarre scrambled up combination of every record with militant snare drums or children singing (in this case, children who cheerfully sing "he's Block Rob / He's a thug / Fuck with him, you'll get fucked up"), with Pharrell's egg timer bit from "Drop It Like It's Hot" on a loop, assembled by Scram Jones into some wonderful new form for Black Rob to spit hostile shit over.
Aside from the obligatory exec producer credit and a "Yeah, I'm still fuckin' with Diddy" assertion on "Help Me Out," Sean Combs is nowhere to be found on The Black Rob Report. But longtime Bad Boy brass and producers are present in full force, from D-Dot to Tony Dofat to Harve Pierre. Even a few members of Da Band make an appearance (Ness on two tracks, and another that didn't make the cut for the album!). Without Diddy around to keep it jiggy, Black Rob is left to do what he does best with hardheaded but catchy traditional street rap. Even the more accessible moments like "Star In Da Hood" remain a little rough and greasy around the edges. And "Watch Your Movements" is the same dope single with Akon that everyone's got right now, but only slightly less great than the ones Styles P. and Young Jeezy have.
Though the skits and interludes peppered throughout the album slow down The Black Rob Report's momentum (some of the skits are genuinely funny, but also too long and too plentiful), the music itself is steadily consistent. Black Rob's presence is laid back enough that his tracks live and die by the beats, and here they mostly live. Buckwild, who produced "Whoa!" once again gives Black Rob one of his best beats for "Smile In Ya Face," complete with tinkly "Who Shot Ya" pianos. And out of the Bad Boy team that dominates the production, D-Dot shines the most with the insane player piano loop on "Help Me Out."
The accolades awarded to Black Rob's lyrical talent usually involve the word "storyteller," which is a broad label often thrown around blindly to describe any MC who can stay on one topic for more than a couple lines at a time. But Black Rob really knows how to spin a yarn. The album's last track, "Long Live B.R." is the best example of his storytelling skills. What begins as seemingly just another bawdy sex rhyme—"The way she filled her mouth with spit / You wouldn't believe how she was suckin' my dick / From the balls to the tip / Between me and you, I even got my saaaalad tossed," he drawls—quickly turns into a dark tale of getting framed and locked up. And it ends up as a stirring statement about the type of live he lives, and a perfect closer for the album.
Selling 27 thousand copies in its first week, The Black Rob Report seems unlikely to measure up to Life Story's platinum sales. But it also feels like a new beginning for Black Rob, and possibly the best display of his talent to date. And in a year that nearly every other New York MC whose name still draws water has dropped a mediocre album, Black Rob is the rare exception.
Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-01-05
Labels: hip hop, mp3, some shit I wrote, Stylus
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