Albums:
Featured
Album Reviews:
Alicia Keys:
As I Am
DJ Unk:
Beat 'n Down Yo Block
The-Dream:
LoveHate
The Homie Jaz:
SUPACALI-
GANGSTAWITIT
J. Holiday:
Chocolate City Mixtape Vol. 1: (They Don't Sing No More)
NWA:
Straight Outta Compton 20th Anniversary
Nas:
Hip-Hop Is Dead
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"Welcome to the wonderful world of The Dream..."
I made that quote because it sounds like The Dream wants to bring you into his wonderful world. I challenge any listener who doesn't see him/herself entering into a kind of wonderful world with The Dream's fantasy-esque beats and vocals playing in the background when listening to this album.
This album reminds me of an updated version of Jodeci. And I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. And one thought that kept occuring in my mind was how similar some songs on this album were to songs by Pretty Ricky (whom, if I'm not mistaken were influenced by Jodeci themselves).
When I first heard "Shawty Is The Sh*!", I thought to myself that the title was a little too vulgar for my taste. (you probably don't know what I mean, but that's ok) I had the same reaction to this song as I did to Akon's song "I Wanna F*ck You". But then, I saw the video. I've got to say that I was VERY very impressed by the music video for "Shawty is a Ten" (tiiiiinnnnnnnnnnn). And that was when I was re-introduced to the song. To me, the video is one of the most flavorful videos in hip-hop in a long time. I love how the colours and the black and white colours contrast. Never mind that the gay panelist on Video-on-trial (Muchmusic) bashed the video and claimed that Fabolous looks gay in the video. You did yo thang boy! (no, homo) -- "Shawty is the sh-sh-sh-sh-sugar honey ice-tea"
"Luv Songs" features the same sound bytes (notably "squeaky A" and the "AAYY"), and so does "Playing in her Hair", that could be heard in The Dream's first single. The "Livin' A Lie" track feat. Rihanna sounds too much like Ne-yo feat. Rihanna -- Hate That I Love You. What else can I say about the songs? All the songs sound too similar on this album. If I was a pessimist, I would say that this album sounded like one long song. The freshest songs on there are "Shawty Is Da Sh*!" feat. Fabolous and Falsetto.
This album is a good listen, but was a let-down for me; I thought that there was going to be some fresh material on there.
3.5 'Sh--Sh--Sh--Sh--Sugar honey ice-teas' / '2007 updated Jodeci vibes' out of 5
Reviewed by Yuze P. Yuan
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