Aiiiight, so now I got the 40 CD (well two in fact :classic: ) in my hand, shipped over the Atlantic with the quickness, and I changed my mind on some things and am even more sure on some others.....
Shit always sounds better when you get the proper CD press and the beats really bump. A lot of cats tripped after listening at Northern Ridaz. That site is a blessing but you can't judge an album until it starts bouncin the speakers. And this shit does.
Its a new sound in some ways, I feel it how some people is complainin but we aint never gonna see a Major Way or Federal again.... Okay it takes some adjusting, but I way prefer to hear 40 over these beats than see some boring ass East coast emcee eat them up.
The Bay sound may have gone but with 40 over these beats for the most part it is still one of the hottest things I'ma cop this year. And so what if the beats be soundin East Coast or club oriented - I get a kick out of hearin 40 do this whole shit way WAY better than x amount of identical East coast or pop-made wack emcees who have flooded rap.
End of the day, how anyone can hate on an album with tracks like, Act Da Ass, Hot, Gasoline, Northern Califoolya, Quarterbackin, and If I Was A Fifth, all clean as fuck, all certified head nodders, all solid and tight enough to make the 40 don't-knows take notice.
OKAY.... so that is the good shit... it aint all good though... First up, I can agree with the idea this and Grit and Grind are weaker overall than his previous work. The thing I notice straight away is these past two albums I can never throw in the player and let them play.
Maybe he's tryin to appeal to too many people on these last two, but Loyalty & Betrayal and everything before it I can play the whole way through. But on Grit & Grind and Breakin News when theres a weak track, maaan its fuckin weak.
On this one I got to be honest, I ain't really feelin 'I Got Dat Work' or 'This Goes Out', or the Lil Jon track. In fact 'I Got Dat Work' is horrible. There were some similar tracks that just fell flat on the last one too, and of course its a shame.
I'm still laughing at anyone who calls Breakin News a weak album, but yeah 40 has had some bad moments on the last two albums, though I think Breakin News is better than Grit & Grind, not by a lot, but its definately an improvement.
Neither has the longetivity of 40's older albums but they're still tight. And ya know if 40 had just gone with 12 tracks on this one and dropped the weakness I could talk about it like a classic. The best 7 or 8 tracks are fire.
It's more original and experimental in places, some of the beats are tight as fuck, he may have gone even more to the East coast look with Rick Rock, but he also brought it right back with Northern Califoolya, Hot, Gasoline, and especially that 'If I was a fifth' - thats my favourite cut on the album...
...lol, Rick Rock does 12 beats, Bosko does 1 and its the one that comes nicest.... maybe 40 can take it back some more and throw the production duties around on the next one, get Bosko, Sean T all on the boards.. Rick Rock overdid it on this one, he diluted his game....
But overall, now I scooped the real thing I'm still convinced people dissing this album are either hating or expect someone to drop 15 consecutive tracks of fire. Over half of this is clean as hell, I'm happy with that, it still destroys 99% of the other major label CD's.
Oh...one other thing, I dissed some cat on here a while back for saying he wouldnt buy the album because of the cover. I still think that is a dumb thing to say, but now I got it, I got to admit the front cover is lazy as hell. The lettering looks like it was done in Wordpad lol.
Now let me just spin that Northern Califoolya and If I Was a 5th tracks again... the hottest shit I heard this year. A solid album for 40.... it has some weak spots, but when it bumps it shakes, rattles and slumps too.
