Pete Rock - Soul Survivor II: Album Review

Pete Rock, Soul Survivor II (Rapster, 2004)
I just checked the tracklisting over at the All Music Guide and mine looks like it might be some out of order Internet version. Or maybe my version is right and theirs is wrong. Either way, it looks like both versions have the exact same songs only in different orders. I've seen a lot of different opinions about this album in the past few weeks--everything from it being better than the original (of course not), to it being a pretty weak album (it's aiight, I wouldn't call it week), so of course I had to try it out myself and see what was up.

TRUTH IS (FEAT. BLACK ICE)

Truth is, Def Poetry in general is pretty retarded. But it doesn't make for a bad album intro when it's got this kinda beat under it.

HEAD RUSH (FEAT. RZA & GZA)

Pete Rock's take on the old RZA sound is pretty nifty. Every so often you'll just hear some woman go, "Yoouuu!" I like pretty much anything the RZA and GZA touch (no homo).

FLY TILL I DIE (FEAT. TALIB KWELI & CL SMOOTH)

All 3 of the songs PR did with CL Smooth are pretty hot, even if this one has Talib Kweli doing most of the heavy lifting. I'm usually not that crazy about Talib Kweli, but then he had pretty much gotten away from making songs like these in favor of whatever that shit was he was doing on his last album.

WARZONE (FEAT. DEAD PREZ)

Fucking dead prez! The content of this song is similar to whatever that mixtape song was that they had about it costing too much to get in the club and not wanting to be patted down or what have you. The best part about it though is the way the beat keeps switching during the verses. This might actually be my favorite song on here.

DA VILLA (FEAT. SLUM VILLAGE)

I'm not even sure who's in Slum Village at this point (notice how they have SV and J-Dilla songs back to back, at least on my version), but they pretty much always end up with the best production if you're into that smoothed out sort of thing. Otherwise, I don't find them to be all that interesting.

NIGGAZ KNOW (FEAT. J-DILLA)

It's aiight, but I can't help but think that a song by Pete Rock featuring J-Dilla should have a more interesting beat than this. Did PR hear Champion Sound?

APPRECIATE (FEAT. CL SMOOTH)

This is my other favorite moment on the album besides that dead prez track. Maybe I saw this mentioned elsewhere, but this could've easily fit right in on The Main Ingredient. Something about the sound of CL Smooth over PR beats is just soothing to me on a personal level, not unlike the sound of Ronald Reagan's death rattle.

WE GOOD (FEAT. KARDINAL OFFISHALL)

I don't really care about this one at all. Kardinal Offishall is a good MC and of course PR is a good producer, but I don't think they mesh especially well here. Compare this one to "Appreciate" to see what I'm talking about.

JUST DO IT (FEAT. PHAROAHE MONCHE)

I'm not that crazy about Pharoahe Monche the solo rapper anyway, but this song pretty meh any way you slice it.

GIVE IT TO YA (FEAT. LITTLE BROTHER)

The one that supposedly sounds so much like 9th Wonder that you wouldn't guess that it was actually PR. It only sounds about as 9th Wonder to me as "Head Rush" sounds like the RZA, which is, kinda. I've heard a lot of better Little Brother, but this isn't bad.

HERE WE GO (FEAT. POSTA BOY)

What the fuck? Is this kid from St. Louis or something? Sounds like it. Need I say more? Maybe his babies' mothers will come on here to confirm.

IT'S A LOVE THING (FEAT. CL SMOOTH & DENOSH)

The other pretty fucking awesome CL Smooth feature. I don't like songs with R&B chicks singing on them as a rule, but this one I can pretty much deal with.

ONE MC, ONE DJ (FEAT. SKILLZ)

This is every other Skillz song you've ever heard, but with PR on the beat. And it's probably more meh than I just made it sound.

BEEF (FEAT. KRUMBSNATCHA)

I don't know how crazy I am about this Krumbsnatcha. This could be a pretty good song, but nothing about his delivery really grabs me at all.

NO TEARS (FEAT. LEELA JAMES)

What's this supposed to be?

While of course I can't agree with anyone who says that this is fucking with the original Soul Survivor, I can't really say that I'm all that disappointed with it either. The only real problem I could see with it is that it's the same ol' shit PR has been doing for the past 10 years now, but it's like, what else was he going to do? The songs with dead prez and CL Smooth had me genuinely tapping my feet and none of the rest of it was really that bad, just boring in parts.