Casual - Smash Rockwell: Album Review
Casual, Smash Rockwell (Hiero Imperium, 2005)
Ten years after the glory days of Hieroglyphics and Casual's MasterCard balance shows no sign of subsiding. His weed carrier even had to get a real job. If ever there was a time to support the "real hip-hop," this is it.
SAY THAT THEN
Actually, this is really good for like the first third of its runtime. Whoever the TI was at his label did a good job of giving this the ol' U2 frontload.
RAP GAME
I used to listen to Third Eye Vision back in like '99-2000, but other than that I'm more or less unfamiliar with Hiero. I had the first two Pharcyde albums when they were new, but never really listened to them because I thought they were kinda fruity.
SMASH DON'T HURT 'EM
This Casual has a tendency to rap about how good he is at rapping, as if this were 1986 or some shit. But when the production is there, as it is here, you don't mind it as much.
OAKTOWN
This sounds like somebody used their PC to produce an approximation of a late '80s Too Short beat. And then they actually got Too Short to kick a verse on it. I'm sure this is more amusing if you're actually from Oakland.
STYLES
As an aside, this local white trash lingerie and pr0n shop Doctor John's has these shitty commercials that come on late night cable TV, but man is the girl in them fucking hot. Sorry.
BITIN' AND FREAKIN'
This might actually be sexy (not really) if the chick on it didn't sound so much like a guy, or, actually, a 13-year-old boy. As it is, it's just kinda gross.
IN THE WHIP
This might be an example of that Hyphie style of music that was supposed to be the next big thing, except nobody gave a shit about it. I can see why.
NICKEL AND DIME GANGSTA
Now we're sorta back to that old school homage thing he was rocking on that Too Short track, only this time more of an early '90s gangsta rap sort of thing. And E-40's on it. It didn't really do anything for me, personally.
CRITICAL
Another problem with this disc is that the styles switch up so much from track to track. It doesn't even really come off as versatile, because so much of it doesn't really work. This would I guess be some sort of avant garde underground thing.
HIEROLLER
Some Hieroglyphics dudes, maybe from the Pharcyde, guest on this. The beat's a real throwaway.
SINGLE MOTHER
A free shake of your choice - chocolate or vanilla - goes out to the first one who can tell me which group already used this sample recently.
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
This sounds like the kind of garbage Madlib would put out and people would say it was a work of genius. I actually kinda like it for that reason.
BAY VS. BRICKS
It's Casual and Young Zee in the battle of the would-be has-beens. Who wins? Who cares!
I'LL HIT THAT
An early '80s kind of thing, this might work better for you if you're 30+.
WAKEMUP
At this point, I just wanted it to be over.
COMMENTS: The first five tracks are actually pretty solid, but then it takes a turn for the worse and never really comes back. Bay Area dudes and actual Hiero fans might get more out of this than I did.
BEST TRACKS: The first three are the best.
