Beanie Sigel - The Solution: Album Review
Beanie Sigel, The Solution (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)
It seemed like Beanie Sigel was approaching a certain creative peak on his last album, but that was a long-ass time ago. Since then, he's been in and out of jail and all sorts of shit. I wonder if he's still got it.
ALL OF THE ABOVE
Not bad as far as these things go (i.e. this is kinda hard for a club record), but it seems like there's been so many of these rap songs featuring R. Kelly in the past few years. I doubt this will able able to fulfill its intended purpose, and it'll probably just annoy people who don't buy a Beanie Sigel album to hear R. Kelly.
BOUT THAT
Cool and Dre at their most Stones Throw. Which is pretty avant garde, for a Beanie Sigel record. I'm not sure if it really works.
YOU AIN'T READY FOR ME
When Styles P says Ghost at the beginning of this track, I thought he was announcing Ghostface Killah was gonna be on it. I got my hopes all up. The even more pressing issue is this faux Southern rap beat, which is positively obnoxious.
GO LOW
Beanie Sigel at his gulliest, which is saying something. Who is this budget Akon on the chorus?
GUTTED
Talk about a waste of a Jay-Z guest rap. Not that a Jay-Z guest rap means a whole lot these days, but you know. You want to put your best foot forward at all times, and I'm at a loss for how Beanie Sigel thought this track was his best foot.
PASS THE PATRON
A posse cut with Diddy, Ghostface, and Peedi Crakk? Hmm... (And note that Diddy is featured here strictly in a singing capacity. The beat is some crapfest by Rockwilder.) Diddy must have pictures of Jay-Z blowing that guy from the Kansas City Chiefs.
I'M IN
The requisite "song for the bitches." Beanie Sigel in ladies' man mode = scary!
HUSTLAS, HAZE AND HIGHWAYS
Smoothed out, but boring in the way that those Diddy records on American Gangster could put you to sleep.
WHAT THEY GON SAY TO ME
Like a budget "Blue Magic."
JUDGMENT DAY
Featuring motherfucking Ozzy Osbourne, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this is kinda cool. It rocks as if it was old Sabbath.
RAIN (THE BRIDGE)
The one with Scarface. Pretty much the same story as the one with Jay-Z.
DEAR SELF
This one's chorus features a sped-up vocal sample from a James Blunt record. You know, that guy who did "You're Beautiful." And I'm pretty sure the raps are actually a Beanie Sigel letter to himself. Roffle.
PRAYER
Did you know Beanie Sigel has a personal relationship with Allah?
COMMENTS: This is probably not quite as bad as I made it sound, but not really good either. Definitely a missed opportunity. Beanie's flow hasn't lost a step, and he's obviously got some shit on his mind. But it's also obvious Jay-Z or whoever didn't bother to set much aside as far as this album's production budget is concerned. I don't like this major label, R&B minus the singin'-style rap music anyway, but the least they could have done is brought in Just Blaze or Kanye or somebody, rather than whoever these bums are.
BEST TRACKS: "All of the Above" "Judgment Day"
BONUS VIDEO: "All of the Above"
