Shareefa - "I'll Be Around" (mp3)
Surprisingly, the single best track on the new Ludacris/Disturbing Tha Peace album is the one straight R&B track, and it's not even Bobby Valentino. Salaam Remi brings the perfect horn samples and Shareefa paraphrases "How We Do" and "Release Yo Delf". She'll probably never squeak an album out on DTP after Field Mob and Playaz Circle but if she's got more like this she definitely deserves to.
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.
Various Artists
Ludacris Presents...Disturbing Tha Peace
DTP
2005
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B
s of 2004's Red Light District, Ludicrous has remained one of Southern hip hop's sturdiest franchises, with four straight platinum-plus albums to his name. And while his sales have yet to slip, it feels like at least something about him has, and it's not necessarily his rubbery, versatile rhyming skills. Early in his career, he was second only to OutKast as Atlanta hip-hop's ambassadors to the mainstream. But in recent years, that distinction has gradually been shared with several others, from Lil Jon to T.I. to Young Jeezy, to the point that Ludacris is now only edgy in the context of Usher and Ciara songs. Of course, danger has never been an ingredient of Ludacris's appeal: he's all cartoonish creativity and motormouthed charisma. There's no need for him to start talking about the trap now, and if he did it would be laughable. Nonetheless, his career seems a little lackluster these days, and one gets the feeling that if he decided to focus on movies, the game wouldn't miss him much.
When Luda first showcased Disturbing Tha Peace on the 2002 group album Golden Grain, the label's roster was comprised of only Luda and five other rappers: Shawnna, I-20, Lil Fate, Tity Boi, and Dolla Boy. Since then, St. Louis rapper Chingy joined the company and dropped the multi-platinum debut Jackpot, and then acrimoniously split from DTP. In 2004, Shawnna and I-20 both quietly issued slept-on solo debuts, and this year Luda signed R&B singer Bobby Valentino. And somewhere along the way, the DTP family got a lot bigger. Counting members of newly signed groups like Field Mob and Lazyeye, 16 individuals signed to the label appear on Ludacris Presents.
As such, Ludacris Presents gives the individual artists far more breathing room with solo tracks and fewer posse cuts than Golden Grain. And although Ludacris remains by far the label's biggest and most magnetic star and shows up on more tracks than anyone else, he keeps a low profile on the album's first half, appearing on only one song and a few tedious Ocean’s Eleven-inspired skits before track ten. Surprisingly, the mid-album stretch of Luda-dominated tracks is a slight downer compared to the album's first half of spirited newcomers. New solo tracks like "Sweet Revenge" don't leave much of an impression, nor does the remix of Red Light District's "Two Miles an Hour," where Luda's Xeroxed verse from the original is upstaged by Playaz Circle.
Shawnna, who held down Golden Grain's standouts "RPM" and "Posted," comes back to flip a Too $hort sample on the fellatio anthem "Gettin' Some," but is missed on the rest of the album. On "Come See Me" with Interscope's boring next hype Stat Quo, Smoke of Field Mob drops tired punch lines such like, "Never seen like Stevie and Ray Charles" as if you've never heard them before, but the spiky, unpredictable peaks and valleys of his voice keep his flow twisting around and around over a sick Bollywood sample. Tity Boi and Dolla Boy, two DTP lifers who combined form the duo Playaz Circle, have long been among the label's most promising shelf dwellers, and they prove their worth on various posse cuts and "You Ain't Got Enough," with Tity Boi unleashing hilarious boasts such as, "My ring look like I peed on my pinky" in a perfect matter-of-fact tone.
Although the accents won't let you forget DTP's Atlanta roots, a conspicuously large amount of the album's hottest beats come from New Yorkers. The aforementioned "You Ain't Got Enough"'s insane hi-hat stuttering beat was produced by Buckwild, and new trio Norfclk get a great look from G-Unit producer Needlz in the herky-jerk bump of "Put Ya Hands Up." Salaam Remi, who helmed the bulk of Nas' last few albums, comes through with two of the album's best beats, including Shareefa's R&B banger, "I'll Be Around."
When the album's first single "Georgia" leaked several months ago, many mistakenly credited Just Blaze with the production, but it turns out that producer Vudu Spellz was just convincingly aping some of Just's trademark sound effects. "Georgia" feels like a badly flubbed attempt at an event record, in which Luda announced the signing of Field Mob with their collaboration, making an anthem for their home state over a Ray Charles sample. But the beat is an awkward bump that fails to make crunk out of the delicate piano loop, and Jamie Foxx softly sings the hook without the spirited Ray mimicry of his appearance on Kanye West's "Gold Digger."
Although Chingy's producers Trak Starz turn in a couple beats, the simmering discontent between Luda and his former labelmate is brought up in the form of a couple of jokes at Chingy's expense. In his absence, Bobby Valentino is now the label's biggest star next to Luda, and the dull singer mercifully only makes one appearance on the album for "Table Dance." Rap-metal trio Lazyeye follow in the footsteps of Fuzzbubble and Spymob as the lone rock band on powerful rap labels, and their single contribution to the album, the bonus track "Blood In The Air" is not an encouraging preview—even though the guest verses by Shawn Jay of Field Mob and Small World of Norfclk persevere, saving the track from becoming a total train wreck.
Ludacris Presents...Disturbing Tha Peace is the kind of album that doesn't get much love in hip hop these days. As a rule, group albums sell less than solo albums, and label compilations sell even less. Consumers want more of the A-list rapper and less of his crew, even if the hungrier MCs around him are making more exciting music. So far, Ludacris hasn't had much luck turning his label into a star factory on the level of, say, 50 Cent's G-Unit. But on this album, several of DTP's artists show potential, and hopefully they'll become the kind of artists that can sell records on their own, and not just on a bigger star's coattails.
Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-01-04
Surprisingly, the single best track on the new Ludacris/Disturbing Tha Peace album is the one straight R&B track, and it's not even Bobby Valentino. Salaam Remi brings the perfect horn samples and Shareefa paraphrases "How We Do" and "Release Yo Delf". She'll probably never squeak an album out on DTP after Field Mob and Playaz Circle but if she's got more like this she definitely deserves to.
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.
Various Artists
Ludacris Presents...Disturbing Tha Peace
DTP
2005
Stylus rating: B-
Adjusted rating by reviewer: B
s of 2004's Red Light District, Ludicrous has remained one of Southern hip hop's sturdiest franchises, with four straight platinum-plus albums to his name. And while his sales have yet to slip, it feels like at least something about him has, and it's not necessarily his rubbery, versatile rhyming skills. Early in his career, he was second only to OutKast as Atlanta hip-hop's ambassadors to the mainstream. But in recent years, that distinction has gradually been shared with several others, from Lil Jon to T.I. to Young Jeezy, to the point that Ludacris is now only edgy in the context of Usher and Ciara songs. Of course, danger has never been an ingredient of Ludacris's appeal: he's all cartoonish creativity and motormouthed charisma. There's no need for him to start talking about the trap now, and if he did it would be laughable. Nonetheless, his career seems a little lackluster these days, and one gets the feeling that if he decided to focus on movies, the game wouldn't miss him much.
When Luda first showcased Disturbing Tha Peace on the 2002 group album Golden Grain, the label's roster was comprised of only Luda and five other rappers: Shawnna, I-20, Lil Fate, Tity Boi, and Dolla Boy. Since then, St. Louis rapper Chingy joined the company and dropped the multi-platinum debut Jackpot, and then acrimoniously split from DTP. In 2004, Shawnna and I-20 both quietly issued slept-on solo debuts, and this year Luda signed R&B singer Bobby Valentino. And somewhere along the way, the DTP family got a lot bigger. Counting members of newly signed groups like Field Mob and Lazyeye, 16 individuals signed to the label appear on Ludacris Presents.
As such, Ludacris Presents gives the individual artists far more breathing room with solo tracks and fewer posse cuts than Golden Grain. And although Ludacris remains by far the label's biggest and most magnetic star and shows up on more tracks than anyone else, he keeps a low profile on the album's first half, appearing on only one song and a few tedious Ocean’s Eleven-inspired skits before track ten. Surprisingly, the mid-album stretch of Luda-dominated tracks is a slight downer compared to the album's first half of spirited newcomers. New solo tracks like "Sweet Revenge" don't leave much of an impression, nor does the remix of Red Light District's "Two Miles an Hour," where Luda's Xeroxed verse from the original is upstaged by Playaz Circle.
Shawnna, who held down Golden Grain's standouts "RPM" and "Posted," comes back to flip a Too $hort sample on the fellatio anthem "Gettin' Some," but is missed on the rest of the album. On "Come See Me" with Interscope's boring next hype Stat Quo, Smoke of Field Mob drops tired punch lines such like, "Never seen like Stevie and Ray Charles" as if you've never heard them before, but the spiky, unpredictable peaks and valleys of his voice keep his flow twisting around and around over a sick Bollywood sample. Tity Boi and Dolla Boy, two DTP lifers who combined form the duo Playaz Circle, have long been among the label's most promising shelf dwellers, and they prove their worth on various posse cuts and "You Ain't Got Enough," with Tity Boi unleashing hilarious boasts such as, "My ring look like I peed on my pinky" in a perfect matter-of-fact tone.
Although the accents won't let you forget DTP's Atlanta roots, a conspicuously large amount of the album's hottest beats come from New Yorkers. The aforementioned "You Ain't Got Enough"'s insane hi-hat stuttering beat was produced by Buckwild, and new trio Norfclk get a great look from G-Unit producer Needlz in the herky-jerk bump of "Put Ya Hands Up." Salaam Remi, who helmed the bulk of Nas' last few albums, comes through with two of the album's best beats, including Shareefa's R&B banger, "I'll Be Around."
When the album's first single "Georgia" leaked several months ago, many mistakenly credited Just Blaze with the production, but it turns out that producer Vudu Spellz was just convincingly aping some of Just's trademark sound effects. "Georgia" feels like a badly flubbed attempt at an event record, in which Luda announced the signing of Field Mob with their collaboration, making an anthem for their home state over a Ray Charles sample. But the beat is an awkward bump that fails to make crunk out of the delicate piano loop, and Jamie Foxx softly sings the hook without the spirited Ray mimicry of his appearance on Kanye West's "Gold Digger."
Although Chingy's producers Trak Starz turn in a couple beats, the simmering discontent between Luda and his former labelmate is brought up in the form of a couple of jokes at Chingy's expense. In his absence, Bobby Valentino is now the label's biggest star next to Luda, and the dull singer mercifully only makes one appearance on the album for "Table Dance." Rap-metal trio Lazyeye follow in the footsteps of Fuzzbubble and Spymob as the lone rock band on powerful rap labels, and their single contribution to the album, the bonus track "Blood In The Air" is not an encouraging preview—even though the guest verses by Shawn Jay of Field Mob and Small World of Norfclk persevere, saving the track from becoming a total train wreck.
Ludacris Presents...Disturbing Tha Peace is the kind of album that doesn't get much love in hip hop these days. As a rule, group albums sell less than solo albums, and label compilations sell even less. Consumers want more of the A-list rapper and less of his crew, even if the hungrier MCs around him are making more exciting music. So far, Ludacris hasn't had much luck turning his label into a star factory on the level of, say, 50 Cent's G-Unit. But on this album, several of DTP's artists show potential, and hopefully they'll become the kind of artists that can sell records on their own, and not just on a bigger star's coattails.
Reviewed by: Al Shipley
Reviewed on: 2006-01-04
Labels: hip hop, mp3, R and B, some shit I wrote, Stylus
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on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 at 4:30 PM.
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David : 10:30 AM