Lil Boosie - "Tee Lady" (mp3)
The past couple years I've been pretty blasé about mixtapes, at least as they're used as promotional tools by major label rappers, mostly because there's only so much an MC can do with a gang of industry beats and no hooks or guests or concepts or anything. Despite all the Lil Wayne hype, even a really good mixtape is no stand-in for a solid album. But there's been a bunch of mixtapes so far this year that have gotten me paying attention again, mostly because they're coming from MCs who are a) between albums and not using b) dope enough that I'd listen to them flow over just about anything at least once c) probably not going to ever drop a truly great album anyway, so it's no loss when they go nuts on a mixtape. Lil Boosie's Da Beginning falls into all those categories, although it's not quite as enjoyable as a few other recent solo mixtapes by Rich Boy, Fabolous and Young Dro.
Da Beginning is easily better than the Webbie album, but not by much. Even with all the original production, not many of the tracks stand on their own as songs; turns out Boosie might be the rare MC who benefits from some guest MCs and hook singers around to distract from the monotony of his awesome but, admittedly, grating voice. The weirdest surprise of the mixtape, though, is that I like Boosie's soft R&B shit like "Tee Lady" and "Ain't Coming Home Tonight" more than his more hardcore material.
The past couple years I've been pretty blasé about mixtapes, at least as they're used as promotional tools by major label rappers, mostly because there's only so much an MC can do with a gang of industry beats and no hooks or guests or concepts or anything. Despite all the Lil Wayne hype, even a really good mixtape is no stand-in for a solid album. But there's been a bunch of mixtapes so far this year that have gotten me paying attention again, mostly because they're coming from MCs who are a) between albums and not using b) dope enough that I'd listen to them flow over just about anything at least once c) probably not going to ever drop a truly great album anyway, so it's no loss when they go nuts on a mixtape. Lil Boosie's Da Beginning falls into all those categories, although it's not quite as enjoyable as a few other recent solo mixtapes by Rich Boy, Fabolous and Young Dro.
Da Beginning is easily better than the Webbie album, but not by much. Even with all the original production, not many of the tracks stand on their own as songs; turns out Boosie might be the rare MC who benefits from some guest MCs and hook singers around to distract from the monotony of his awesome but, admittedly, grating voice. The weirdest surprise of the mixtape, though, is that I like Boosie's soft R&B shit like "Tee Lady" and "Ain't Coming Home Tonight" more than his more hardcore material.
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on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 4:35 PM.
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