Pitbull f/ Twista - "Candyman" (mp3)
Before Koch Records was the biggest fish in the small pond of independent rap labels, TVT held that position, highest selling indie for at least a couple years thanks to a few mid-level hip hop stars scoring hit after hit and breaking through the big (five? four?) monopoly. But Koch's M.O. could theoretically keep them in business forever at this point, since the majors are desperate and dropping anyone who isn't going platinum, and Koch can just swoop in to pick up the ones that still do have an audience. TVT's reign was never meant to last, since they seemed to stumble into hip hop powerhouse status by accident, landing Lil Jon before he blew up and then snapping up half the crunk movement in the aftermath. So when Lil Jon's hit parade dried up, the whole damn organization kinda lost its footing in the mainstream, taking once-successful acts like the Ying Yang Twins and Pitbull with it. Bohagon can forget about ever dropping now.
Of course, the rising and falling fortunes of his label are just the larger context of Pitbull's faltering career, which at the end of the day is on him. I was almost mad at Elliott Wilson for including him on this list, but he's not wrong. His first album was a near-classic for anyone who thinks Southern party rap can be worthy of classic status, but El Mariel was a sophomore slump that I already kinda regret including on my '06 year-end list. And whatever I said in this review last year goes double for The Boatlift, which came and went a month ago without it, or its shitty single "Go Girl," making a blip. It even features remixes of two songs from El Mariel as if we needed that. In a year when every other rapper from Florida is zooming up the iTunes chart with a T-Pain feature, Pitbull can't even get a spot on a DJ Khaled cut (I'd say he couldn't get arrested but, well, obviously he can).
The Boatlift isn't completely worthless, I have to admit. The Lil Jon tracks are pretty good and reaffirm that he's finally come up with a 2nd type of beat in his downtime. "Candyman" is a suitable sequel to his first great Twista collabo, "Hit The Floor," this time with an awesome fake Timbaland circa '98 beat. And "Midnight" is interesting because it's pretty much straight up cheeseball rave, as opposed to the stylized urban version of rave elements as used by recent TimbaHandz, Kanye, etc. productions. But almost everything else that could go wrong does, including guest spots by Yung Berg and Jim Jones. Pitbull's as good a rapper as he ever was (which is better than you probably think), but he doesn't grow or reveal anything or even just measure up to his best guest spots. And I'm not gonna keep being generous with him on the basis of his first album, this shit's not even touching my top 50 this year (which I'll have on here right after Christmas).
Before Koch Records was the biggest fish in the small pond of independent rap labels, TVT held that position, highest selling indie for at least a couple years thanks to a few mid-level hip hop stars scoring hit after hit and breaking through the big (five? four?) monopoly. But Koch's M.O. could theoretically keep them in business forever at this point, since the majors are desperate and dropping anyone who isn't going platinum, and Koch can just swoop in to pick up the ones that still do have an audience. TVT's reign was never meant to last, since they seemed to stumble into hip hop powerhouse status by accident, landing Lil Jon before he blew up and then snapping up half the crunk movement in the aftermath. So when Lil Jon's hit parade dried up, the whole damn organization kinda lost its footing in the mainstream, taking once-successful acts like the Ying Yang Twins and Pitbull with it. Bohagon can forget about ever dropping now.
Of course, the rising and falling fortunes of his label are just the larger context of Pitbull's faltering career, which at the end of the day is on him. I was almost mad at Elliott Wilson for including him on this list, but he's not wrong. His first album was a near-classic for anyone who thinks Southern party rap can be worthy of classic status, but El Mariel was a sophomore slump that I already kinda regret including on my '06 year-end list. And whatever I said in this review last year goes double for The Boatlift, which came and went a month ago without it, or its shitty single "Go Girl," making a blip. It even features remixes of two songs from El Mariel as if we needed that. In a year when every other rapper from Florida is zooming up the iTunes chart with a T-Pain feature, Pitbull can't even get a spot on a DJ Khaled cut (I'd say he couldn't get arrested but, well, obviously he can).
The Boatlift isn't completely worthless, I have to admit. The Lil Jon tracks are pretty good and reaffirm that he's finally come up with a 2nd type of beat in his downtime. "Candyman" is a suitable sequel to his first great Twista collabo, "Hit The Floor," this time with an awesome fake Timbaland circa '98 beat. And "Midnight" is interesting because it's pretty much straight up cheeseball rave, as opposed to the stylized urban version of rave elements as used by recent TimbaHandz, Kanye, etc. productions. But almost everything else that could go wrong does, including guest spots by Yung Berg and Jim Jones. Pitbull's as good a rapper as he ever was (which is better than you probably think), but he doesn't grow or reveal anything or even just measure up to his best guest spots. And I'm not gonna keep being generous with him on the basis of his first album, this shit's not even touching my top 50 this year (which I'll have on here right after Christmas).
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on Monday, December 24, 2007 at 9:31 PM.
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