Baptism Under Fire review

Review: 4 out of 5.

I'm back again people,

It's been about two weeks since my last review on Drake's album. I had a couple loose ends that needed to be tied up and have been a little busy in those weeks but I'm now in the game. Before I start, I would like to keep a notice that at some point I may review classics as well as what's new also. So, those hardcore fans out there, don't feel left out. Change the subject, let's talk about some music and today I'm going to review Phoenix Da Ice Fire.

Phoenix released his mix tape, Baptism Under Fire last year on November 2009. I know this because I actually went to one of his launch parties' to promote the CD. At the moment he's recording his new album, but I won't tell you what it is. I will save the title of that for a next review, but I'll give you a clue. If you listen closely, you'll hear a teaser of the album plus it revealed the name of it. His bars are really great and breaks the definition of true Hip Hop. His flow reminds me of Nas because he drives real deep into an almost immeasurable vocabulary, which some might say would be comparable to Busta Rhymes. Probably, even better than Rhymes. Now down to the bones of the structure.

The mix tape, for all intents and purposes, has constructive lyrics and his style has a classic theme on some of the instrumentals that make it authentic enough for older and younger audiences. Phoenix will rob your mind from all the hype before making you "baptised" in the heat that comes from his list of tracks. While others like his track "Eargasm" leaves you feeling good and takes you out of your comfort zone in your normal routine, certain tracks like "Use Your Imagination" borders on a higher level of consciousness. The songs I favour is "Purple Mist", "Coconut" (you've got to try this one), "Ecstasy", "Aryan Sky" and "Use Your Imagination". I also like "Echo" too, most of them I listed are mostly uplifting of the spirit, but there are a few that are very high thinking. Baptism Under Fire did well to balance the margin between freedom of speech and feel good tunes, which plays smooth. However, does it do well enough to value against reviews? Actually, yes it does.

The Good:

Baptism Under Fire was mixed by DJ Roast and features artists like M9, Prophet, Young Roots and J Tha Exodus. The mixes were beautifully laid out. Each track falls in line with the next and improves with each beat. What is good about this is Phoenix does not take long to make his point when it comes to higher thinking hyperbole's and metaphors in his lines and delivers it how it is in order to make your opinion from them. Another thing is the beats, which sounds very classical, but can be easily accepted with new audiences coming up rather than being trashed. In the mix tape, a description within the case tells us the journey he goes through and I do see where he is coming from. The best collaboration is with J Tha Exodus on "Most High". Like Busta Rhymes, Phoenix executes his lines with strong precision, but rather than use just hardcore rhymes, he selects different subjects to play around with. The same thing he does in every track.

The Bad:

There is not many faults to this mix tape, but I will say one thing: it's mainly style. Phoenix said to me himself that he comes from a Garage background. That is not the problem, however, Phoenix has a very fast rapping pace, which could make it hard for some to pick up what he's saying. Sometimes there is no chance for a breather and other instances we cannot pick up the punch lines when he makes them. Although this is the one part I had a problem with, the rest is fine. I give him four stars out of five because the rhymes are deep; albeit a bit controversial but that's how Hip Hop started out, incredible beats, suitable collaboration and fantastic creativity. With a little more scope, this could have been truly impressive. Another tidbit that had brought it down is the mixing is repetitive in some of the tracks, but that is only due to editing so it wouldn't be fair to judge on that sector.

Overall:

All I can say for this is I can't wait until he's new album comes out. I am confident it will be great and I have very high expectations for it. Phoenix has obviously spent a long time building this mix tape up like fire. I will listen to this until my eardrums fry. The CD has great originality, tackles interesting subjects, a good composition and has a bonus track to go with the package. If you learn from your audience you will go on clear and keep perfecting what you have. I'll leave on to say the next two reviews I will do involves a game, one from a video game console for an open world action-adventure released in June last year and a film that involves a group of mercanaries and convicts thrown onto a planet and soon realise they are playing a game and that they are the prey.

- Written by Kbon

Thank Me Later review

Review: 3 out of 5.







What's happenin',

I'm here again this time to do a review on one of the most recent and best rappers and singers' in the game now from non other than Young Money Entertainment. Yeah, that's right, Lil Wayne's crew. I'm going to do the latest album of the Canadian artist, Drake, this is his first studio album made and it's called "Thank Me Later". Now I first listened to his tunes from his mix tape "So Far Gone", his third mix tape, but it turns out he's been doing some other mixtapes as far as 2006 such as "Room for Improvement" and "Come Back Season", which I definitely need to get a hold of. Some people out there compare this artist to Kanye West. For me, this is really true and I could see the similarity between them. It is from both their mannerisms and their flow that makes them out to be very compariable. To be honest, I felt this album was pretty good, but not as good as his last mixtape. His lyrics spoke a lot of volumes but I just feel this album didn't really jump out to me in the way that "So Far Gone" did. Anyway, the artists features Lil Wayne himself, Nicki Minaj of course, a young abrasive Trinidadian diva, The Dream, Alicia Keys, T.I., Jay-Z and Young Jeezy.

This album was released on June 15th 2010, which has been signed onto the Cash Money, Young Money and Universal Motown label and one of the producers of this was Kanye West. The single is "Over", I've seen the music video of this sometime in April-May as there has been leaks going around on the Internet. That is the 2nd favourite track of mine, the visuals on that video is really good and how it was laid out was really well done. No vocoder crap, I'm thankful for that, keep it real. To me, a vocoder only works on certain artists' like T-Pain but what I'm curious to know is why do most artists' use that? I mean, is it really that necessary or just part of the cool factor the same way visual effects are carried out in some films? Anyway, off topic, let's get back to my review. There's other tracks on this album like "Karaoke", "Fireworks" or "The Resistance", which are more love orientated or independent moving songs more focused on either family and relationships between either hardships with girlfriends or thereof problems faced with friends and parents, mostly domestic. On the other hand, there are tunes such as "Over", "Unforgettable" and "Fancy" that remind us why a majority of us really love Hip Hop. The verdict? Well since there is a track on it such as "Miss Me", featuring Lil Wayne I was dissatisfied with this. I mean Mr Carter, seriously, you can do better than that. It is hard to decide because it was good, don't get me wrong but personally, it could have gotten much better. I will break this down in three stages that I have done in the 4.3.2.1 review.

The Good:

I appreciate all the different beats on it, some of them, "Unforgettable" remind me funny enough of the slow jams from the 90's that we all need to get back to. Good artists should drop the whole quick-album-run-of-the-mill cash making scheme that all have sunk to these days. As stated by David Banner in an interview on Vibe magazine, it's all of the record producers fault who get cardboard cutout musicians and it's not about how good you could rap anymore. This is true and if we don't get anyone to do something about it before it's too late the rap, hip-hop genre will be destroyed. Passion talk for another time, I love the balance in here because most albums I listened to recently don't have that, it's got feel good tunes which make you repeat the words every time and nod your head whereas the others almost tell a story through metaphorical speech which comes off as a small biography. I'm glad he's talking about variable subjects here. "Fancy" has a well good ring to it that could blast off in the nightclub somewhere. I just like the chorus on this.

The Bad:

I would have given this at least a 1/2 in front of the 3, but this didn't really do enough to value that. There was not much depth to his lyrics, not much punchlines and the music felt a little all over the place. It was as though it was contemporary R&B in this mixed with Rap and other things in this, which makes you wonder in your head "What is it I'm listening to?" before checking the label and going yeah "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content". Drake needs to stick to what he knows. No actually I take it back, be versatile with your music, but not too much that it dilutes it with a litre of water of different stuff thrown into it. This means not too many guest appearances and rap with things in good context like what he did on his last mix tape. Those are the main points that had brought this down. Otherwise it was a good listen and I wish the rapper all the best with his music. He's got potential and if he keeps it up could probably be a next Kanye West. This album has pretty good recognition out there and is received very well. He is listed on the Billboard Hot 100 at the top five.

Overall:

Drake makes up for his less construed lyrics in content with a slow paced, relaxed, rap story which keeps you wanting more as he delivers. His vocals help level the balance of his smooth base and takes all of us on a soft cruise back to what slow jams were. The good choice of instrumentals shows us what he is made of and that he cares about the quality. Although it does not help when you are thrust with different vibes meshed together. Those who are more interested in pop are not left behind. There's a little of that in there as well. I would listen to this over and over again, but it's mainly targeted at those who are looking for just a chilled out evening or wants rhymes.

- Written by Kbon