Mobb Deep - Amerikaz Nightmare: Album Review

Mobb Deep, Amerikaz Nightmare (Jive, 2004)
Drinking on the job is great fun, especially if you work at a place where not only will you not be FIRED ON THE SPOT, but you're pretty much encouraged. But, as I've discovered in the past week or so, it's not especially good for one's work ethic. I mean, it doesn't really hamper my ability to scoop baked beans onto a plate (which is what I'm usually doing when I'm not here), but by the time I get home I don't really feel like doing shit but cracking a coupla mo cold ones and calling it a day. Hence the reason why I haven't posted since Monday. Also, I haven't reviewed any albums since waaayyy back before I retired. I should probably be trying to do that more often, but with my current "busy schedule," of course I can't make any guarantees.

AMERIKAZ NIGHTMARE

This sounds a lot like the shit they were doing on Murda Muzik, which is weird because nobody has really made anything that sounds anything like that since Murda Muzik. Even that last Mobb Deep (I actually liked that one too) was kinda different. As you can probably tell from the song title and the frickin' album cover, subject matter hasn't changed one bit. Thank God.

WIN OR LOSE

This is the best shit I've ever heard before in my life. I know I say that pretty much anytime I hear something that's really good, but this time I actually mean it. There was never a rap song this good. Even if the Alchemist is a fucking faggot.

FLOOD THE BLOCK

A song about the time the craptank on the Mobb's RV burst. I could see how some people could listen to this and be like, "Man, what the fuck is this bullshit?" but I like the jacked up BPMs, the cymbal crashes and whatever that guitar noise is. Surprisingly musical for a song about flooding the block with shit.

DUMP FEAT. NATE DOGG

If I had to guess, I'd say I probably like about every other song Nate Dogg sings the chorus to, on the average. I like this one. I think the key is how FUCKING HARD it is. Now is probably as good a time as any to mention that, unlike Infamy, ain't no motherfucking songs for chicks on this album.

GOT IT TWISTED

The first few times I heard this, I couldn't fight the urge to shout, "Science!" My latest obsession (other than porn and Miller High Life Light, which has a really cool can) is to all of a sudden, for no apparent reason start singing the chorus to this shit, especially the part that goes "Get rid of that ring get rid of those cuffs, we about to___, girl!" Happened earlier today at Burger King.

WHEN U HEAR THE

Hmm... Here's another song where one word is deleted from the chorus. In this chase it's "When you hear the___, it's on!" This might be one of Prodigy's better vocal performances on the album, not that that's saying a whole lot. But you can't really blame him, his sickle cell was probably acting up that day.

REAL N***AZ

Havoc, on the other hand, is a motherfucking beast. Dude carries this album the way Ghost carried that Theodore Unit album (more on that later). Prodigy, at this point, is like the shitty sidekick of the group. If we could only get him to the point where he's still in the group but he rarely if ever raps, like D-Nice or some shit.

SHORTY WOP

Every once in a while Havoc will do this thing where puts an extra emphasis on the last syllable of every bar so that it sounds like he's rhyming in double time, but he's not really. I'm sure you wanted to know that.

REAL GANGSTAZ FEAT. LIL JON

I'll take this song as proof that "Crunk" music would be 10 times more, um... listenable if people actually rapped over it rather than dance around and make the kind of noises retarded people make when you play 'em that fucking Black Eyed Peas record. I should probably also mention that all of these Lil Jon records sound just alike.

ONE OF OURS PART II FEAT. JADAKISS

Says Havoc: "You know, sometimes you have to give back to the community. You have to show 'em how to wipe their motherfucking things off. Teach 'em something." I don't even want to know what that means. Also, Jadakiss raps on this one. If it had a better beat, it'd be fucking incredible.

ON THE RUN

See, they could've just had Jadakiss rhyme on this and got rid of that last song altogether. Not that this one sounds that much different (to tell you the truth, all of this shit is pretty similar), but at least it's less Swizz Beatz (ca. 1999) sounding.

THROW YOUR HANDS (IN THE AIR)

But nevermind those last two songs anyway. You know how every once in a while Kanye West will make a really good song? Well, the motherfucker did it again. No wailing saxophones and violin solos, no gospel choirs, no Michael Bolton samples, no fucking John Legend or whatever his name is. The drums on this thing actually hit and that guitar, or whatever it is, actually has a bit of an edge to it.

GET ME FEAT. LITTLES & NOYD

From the sublime to the ridonkulous. The beat is another one of Hav's really fast and repetitive numbers, but I don't like whatever that fucking "ding ding ding" sound is. It's actually pretty annoying. If I had to listen to it all day, I'd eventually have to break something.

WE UP

Here we go. This shit actually doesn't sound that much unlike their old school, mid '90s era shit. And if that's not a ringing endorsement, then I don't know what the fuck is!

NEVA CHANGE

Again with the old school sounding shit, except this one doesn't sound as much like old school Mobb Deep. It actually kinda sounds like what an early '90s rap producers take on this current fascination with sampling old soul records might sound like, if that makes any sense. I like it because it fucking hits.

GOT IT TWISTED REMIX FEAT. TWISTA

It's not fucking with the original, but it's kinda cool in its own way. You know they only threw Twista on there because they figured maybe a few jigs out in Chicago will pick this shit up and be like, "Hey, Twista's on this!"

So like I was saying, this is a pretty fucking dope Mobb Deep record. Not up there with their mid '90s shit, but way better than I would've expected in 2004. Actually, this shit sounds a lot like Murda Muzik, which is weird because, remember, between these two there was Infamy, which, as far as I can recall (having not heard it in a minute), was a bit of a left turn for them production-wise, but still dope in its own right. The collabos with Lil Jon and Kanye West were both surprisingly dope and Havoc's and that fag the Alchemist's shit was usually pretty solid if not surprisingly dope itself. I need to find some new adjectives.