Monthly Report: December Albums
1. Gucci Mane - The State Vs. Radric Davis
I already put this in my big year-end list, but anyway obviously I’m still banging this, although it’s one of those overlong major label albums that works better if you just put it on shuffle and skip around and not make yourself listen to shit like Keyshia Cole singing the title of a Tyler Perry movie.
2. Robin Thicke - Sex Therapy: The Experience
Robin Thicke’s last album, Something Else, was a minor masterpiece that covered a pretty wide variety of musical ground while still being a cohesive work, with no guests or outside producers aside from the Lil Wayne track borrowed from Tha Carter III, which still fit really well into the context of the album. But it seems like it’s all the rage in R&B to follow up a mellow artsy record with a bright radio-friendly one (see also: John Legend, Raheem DeVaughn), and I was a little apprehensive about the direction Thicke was headed in with those Rick Ross and Leighton Meester songs, and the first few leaks from Sex Therapy, including the really terrible songs with Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. I shouldn’t have worried, though, because the album, at least the deluxe version, really hangs together well and is stylistically consistent with his previous stuff, while getting more playful and campy with the sexy slow jams in a way that allows the guest-heavy parts to fit in better. That moment where Kid Cudi and the bad metal guitars drop in is still one of the most horrifying listening experiences I’ve had lately, though.
3. B.G. - Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood
It’s depressing to think that after B.G. cranked out four albums in four years on Koch Records, culminating with The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am), which was pretty dope, the moment he hooked up with T.I. to do an album on Atlantic, his career got stopped dead in its tracks and all that momentum was lost as it took nearly four years for his next album to be released. And the worst part is, Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood is still on Koch, as part of some weird joint venture with Atlantic with no real major label-level profile, and most of the big collabs, like “For A Minute” with T.I. and the Hot Boyz reunion track “Ya Heard Me,” have been out for literally a year or two. Still, B.G. is a really underrated rapper with an awesome distinctive voice, and this album turned out pretty solid regardless of when it came out.
4. The Roots - Sandwiches EP
With all the talk about the Roots having to work up a huge backlog of original compositions to play on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” it was just a matter of time before they found a way to release some of that stuff, and it finally happened with this internet-only EP. I’m not sure I expected a bunch of dark nasty grooves in the mold of Game Theory and Rising Down, but it was kind of surprising not just how brisk and lighthearted all this stuff is, but how much random cover material they throw in (considering that the whole idea of them composing all this new music was so that NBC wouldn’t have to pay a ton for the rights to well known songs they could cover), I guess chosen either for comedy bits or as walk-on music for guests. Still, in the context of this little jam record it’s pretty entertaining to hear The Roots suddenly break into “Werewolf Barmitzvah” or the “Woman” song that Mike Myers does in So I Married An Axe Murderer.
5. R. Kelly - Untitled
It’s weird to think about what a low ebb R. Kelly’s career is at right now, given that for the first time in like 7 years he doesn’t have the strong possibility of jail time looming over his head, and his influence on mainstream R&B remains so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine The-Dream or Trey Songz or T-Pain existing without him. But ultimately that just means you can’t chalk it up to anything but the quality of his music, which is also at a pretty low point, as he continues to flail around with AutoTune way past it having any commercial benefit or yielding any creative rewards. So this album is about as undistinguished as its sales and its title might lead you to believe, but it’s still an R. album, which means it’s got some jams, and it really picks up toward the end with the awesomely funky “Be My #2” and “Religious” and “Pregnant.”
I already put this in my big year-end list, but anyway obviously I’m still banging this, although it’s one of those overlong major label albums that works better if you just put it on shuffle and skip around and not make yourself listen to shit like Keyshia Cole singing the title of a Tyler Perry movie.
2. Robin Thicke - Sex Therapy: The Experience
Robin Thicke’s last album, Something Else, was a minor masterpiece that covered a pretty wide variety of musical ground while still being a cohesive work, with no guests or outside producers aside from the Lil Wayne track borrowed from Tha Carter III, which still fit really well into the context of the album. But it seems like it’s all the rage in R&B to follow up a mellow artsy record with a bright radio-friendly one (see also: John Legend, Raheem DeVaughn), and I was a little apprehensive about the direction Thicke was headed in with those Rick Ross and Leighton Meester songs, and the first few leaks from Sex Therapy, including the really terrible songs with Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. I shouldn’t have worried, though, because the album, at least the deluxe version, really hangs together well and is stylistically consistent with his previous stuff, while getting more playful and campy with the sexy slow jams in a way that allows the guest-heavy parts to fit in better. That moment where Kid Cudi and the bad metal guitars drop in is still one of the most horrifying listening experiences I’ve had lately, though.
3. B.G. - Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood
It’s depressing to think that after B.G. cranked out four albums in four years on Koch Records, culminating with The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am), which was pretty dope, the moment he hooked up with T.I. to do an album on Atlantic, his career got stopped dead in its tracks and all that momentum was lost as it took nearly four years for his next album to be released. And the worst part is, Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood is still on Koch, as part of some weird joint venture with Atlantic with no real major label-level profile, and most of the big collabs, like “For A Minute” with T.I. and the Hot Boyz reunion track “Ya Heard Me,” have been out for literally a year or two. Still, B.G. is a really underrated rapper with an awesome distinctive voice, and this album turned out pretty solid regardless of when it came out.
4. The Roots - Sandwiches EP
With all the talk about the Roots having to work up a huge backlog of original compositions to play on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” it was just a matter of time before they found a way to release some of that stuff, and it finally happened with this internet-only EP. I’m not sure I expected a bunch of dark nasty grooves in the mold of Game Theory and Rising Down, but it was kind of surprising not just how brisk and lighthearted all this stuff is, but how much random cover material they throw in (considering that the whole idea of them composing all this new music was so that NBC wouldn’t have to pay a ton for the rights to well known songs they could cover), I guess chosen either for comedy bits or as walk-on music for guests. Still, in the context of this little jam record it’s pretty entertaining to hear The Roots suddenly break into “Werewolf Barmitzvah” or the “Woman” song that Mike Myers does in So I Married An Axe Murderer.
5. R. Kelly - Untitled
It’s weird to think about what a low ebb R. Kelly’s career is at right now, given that for the first time in like 7 years he doesn’t have the strong possibility of jail time looming over his head, and his influence on mainstream R&B remains so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine The-Dream or Trey Songz or T-Pain existing without him. But ultimately that just means you can’t chalk it up to anything but the quality of his music, which is also at a pretty low point, as he continues to flail around with AutoTune way past it having any commercial benefit or yielding any creative rewards. So this album is about as undistinguished as its sales and its title might lead you to believe, but it’s still an R. album, which means it’s got some jams, and it really picks up toward the end with the awesomely funky “Be My #2” and “Religious” and “Pregnant.”
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