Rich Boy's 2007 self-titled album was the kind of just-good-enough debut, both in terms of quality and commercial performance, that can keep a rapper from getting dropped from a label but won't guarantee a second album ever getting released, unless they really keep things moving with singles and mixtapes. And given that Rich Boy got a lot of juice out of a producer as big as Polow Da Don being in his corner, I didn't expect him to turn around and end up with one of my favorite mixtapes of last year, Bigger Than The Mayor, with a bunch of lesser known producers. Still, his first shot at a lead single, the messy "A Milli" rip "Drop," was kind of uninspiring and never quite got the reaction it was aiming for, so now he's still plugging out mixtapes, and while I didn't hear the Pac Man one from a few months ago, the new Kool-Aid, Kush & Convertibles isn't real encouraging.

The biggest problem with Kool-Aid, Kush & Convertibles out the bat is the awkward mouthful of a title, which he actually tries to make into a chorus on the title track. But in general the songs just aren't that great and the beats aren't nearly as good as they were on Bigger. "Send For Me" and "I'm In Love" are the kind of iffy R&B rap that he managed to avoid on his album even with Polow on the boards. Still, there are signs of life; the snippet-length "Country Club" could end up being an album highlight if it's ever released in full, and the Shawty Redd-produced "Don Dada" is like an amped sequel to his beat for Young Jeezy's awesome "Who Dat." But if Rich Boy doesn't murder some guest spot or, who knows, make another hit single soon, I don't think I'll be able to muster the curiosity to even go the two or three clicks that it'd take to download his next stopgap ziptape.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 09, 2009 at 11:48 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.