Looking at Mannie Fresh's career trajectory in the 4-5 years since leaving Cash Money Records, especially in comparison to CMR and his former boss and Big Tymers groupmate Birdman, is some depressing shit. For over a decade, Fresh was Cash Money's workhorse, producing hundreds of beats for virtually every album the label released. And right around the time he wised up and got out of there to become a free agent, when the label should've floundered, instead Lil Wayne stepped up to become the new workhorse, making hundreds of songs to singlehandedly keep Cash Money in power, while Birdman once again sat around collecting money and being successful by association. The result as of now is that Birdman just released a heavily hyped major label album with multiple charting singles (all still riding the coattails of Wayne and/or new cash cow Drake), while Fresh's new independent album Return Of The Ballin' didn't chart, and as far as most people know doesn't even exist. In hip hop, the bad guy always wins.

Of course, it's not anyone but Mannie's fault that Return Of The Ballin' sucks. It's a short, unmemorable record packed full of guest appearances by the faceless lames that I guess he's grooming as his new hitmakers, with names like The Show, Swagg Starz and Russell Lee, and a single famous guest in the form of Rick Ross. But even his own contributions aren't much to talk about, nothing with the personality and humor of The Mind Of Mannie Fresh or the best Big Tymers tracks. The man who made some of the most hilarious hooks in rap history can only manage boring "we got that Lindsay Lohan down south" drug puns now. Mannie is still one of the most prolific and successful producers Southern rap's ever seen, but his post-CMR career has always been underwhelming, and even when he got shots at lead singles for big albums, like T.I.'s "Big Shit Poppin'" or Jeezy's "And Then What," the results were nothing to write home about. He's had a pretty decent '09, with tracks on albums by Gucci Mane, UGK, B.G., Slim Thug and Mike Jones, but Return Of The Ballin' isn't part of some mounting comeback, just more evidence that his disappearance from the charts is as much on him as it is on shady-ass Birdman.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 11:27 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.