Buckshot & 9th Wonder - Chemistry: Album Review

Buckshot & 9th Wonder, Chemistry (Duck Down, 2005)
As part of Duck Down's plan to finally finish off payments on Dru Ha's MasterCard, or whatever it is they think that they're doing, Buckshot has teamed up with upcoming Little Brother and Jay-Z producer, 9th Wonder, to do an entire album.

INTRO

Some woman talking about chemistry. Whatever.

CHEMISTRY 101

I'm pretty sure one of the RZA's weed carriers flipped this same sample on that second (or 3rd, depending on how you look at it) GZA album. I would consider this pretty lazy beatmaking though regardless of whether or not I was already familiar with this.

HE'S BACK

I should probably also mention right off top that this whole album has a very lo-fi sound to it, and not 36 Chambers-style "so lo-fi it's charming either" - this is just cheap-sounding.

NOW A DAYZ (THAT'S WHAT'S UP)

Conceptually, this is Biggie's "Thing's Done Changed" redux, only much less worth listening to.

SLIPPIN'

It's also probably worth noting that this summer I've been bumping Big Pooh's Sleepers and LB's Chitlin Circuit 1.5, which is probably why I'm not feeling this as much as I would otherwise. These are some real throwaway-sounding 9th Wonder beats.

SIDE TALK

Also, Buckshot sounds as awesome as ever delivery-wise, if a little bit quaint and outdated in terms of content, which, I guess, is to be expected of a 12 year veteran of the game.

THE GHETTO

I can appreciate though that attempts to go all topical on so many of these tracks rather than just rappin' about the same old silly bullshit.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Case in point, you might expect him to rap about actual food here, but he doesn't. Because he's fucking creative like that.

NO COMPARISON

Beyond just being underwhelming in a general sense, these 9th Wonder beats start to grate after you've heard the first 4 or 5 of them in a row.

BIRDZ

Even though, I might blame that on Buckshot's "incredibly consistent" delivery more so than anything else. Case in point: Phonte's appearance on this is a welcome respite from 10 straight tracks of wall to wall Buckshot.

U WONDERIN'

And in fact, where as the first 9 tracks were an all Buckshot all the time affair, the last 5 all feature guest appearances. Hmm...

OUT OF TOWN

That last one featured Big Pooh and Sean Price. This one features two fellows who call themselves Legacy and Joe Scudda. This one's better than that one.

I DON'T KNOW WHY

Some nasty R&B-sounding shit. I didn't bother.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND

The best track on here by far, actually. Featuring Starang Wondah, or however you spell it.

COMMENTS: While it's nice to see Buckshot (and the rest of the Duck Down crew, for that matter) back in the game, it's too bad they let 9th Wonder saddle him with all of his leftovers like that. This is alright for what it is, but when you compare it to any of the other LB-related shit that dropped this summer, it just doesn't stack up.

That Sean Price album is better, too.

BEST TRACKS: That last one was really pretty good.