Black Rob, Life Story (2000)
This Black Rob project was in the making for a long time over at the Bad Boy camp. The Source raved about this album, and the folks at Bad Boy marketing let fans know this by putting a sticker on the jewel case with The Source's 4 and a half mics rating.
There are many guest appearances on this album and (as par for the course for Bad Boy) alot of radio airplay and club songs. Everyone in the Bad Boy camp, Cee-Lo and Jennifer Lopez is on this album. It has alot of fire power and alot of great beats, production, and coalescence. Simply put, Black Rob's album is professionally done in all aspects. I only wonder where is Black Rob these days.
Anyway, on Can I Live featuring the Lox (back when they were still with Bad Boy which is pre 2000) Black spits "This is to my AK toters, money bill folders/ bad bitch holders, whips with big motors/ on the low for years, the feds can't decode us/ we bust rhymes, all you gotta do is load us/ my night time prowlers and grimey after hours/ Karl Kani, Mar Malone wearing Eddie Bauers/ flipping cake niggas, who strip and take niggas/ upstate niggas, my Crystal Lake niggas/ we goin' hold it down if we gotta shake niggas/ and make niggas do what we say or break niggas/ survival of the fittest, it ain't me 'cause I did it/ now you see me shining 2 mil worth of diamonds/ and I owe it all to hard criming/ don't mean that I'm a stop climbing, '99 is good timing/ and I salute my thugs who rock/ with the drugs and switch guns and pay 30 thousand a slug/ make it happen, I swear to God if I don't make it rapping I'm clapping/ extorting and robbing niggas cribs and car jacking." On this same track Jadakiss says "this is a monopoly, niggas ain't stopping me, and we can't lose 'cause Puff set us up properly/ just won't settle for lesser, who wan' test us/ we be in the 5 with the goose head restes/ Lox put niggas under pressure/ you should've knew that, it's always the new cats that'll get ya/ better start looking at things from my angle/ I'm trying to be up on the board with a triangle/ next to my name with a ten or a twenty/ now that's when you really can say you getting money/ but right now all I do is sit back and listen/ to a wise young man that quickly became a rich one/ put me up on the fact it ain't hard to get some/ chips if I just keep writing with ambition/ then I could advance from the 5 to the 6 and/ house with two kitchens, diamonds plenty women/ built in pool to swim in/ but the plan is to start from the floor/ and raise it up, then you hit 'em in the head till your days is up/ you blazing what?/ playboy you frail and butt/ you know when Bad Boy drop all your sales is cut." Definately some hot, boasty rap, typical of the day.
Sure they've been better albums, but songs like Life Story featuring Cheryl Pepsi Riley & Raquel where Black Rob rhymes about his rough upbringing to a milky smooth beat, and Espacio featuring Lil' Kim and G-Dep over an electronic funk and hip hop blended beat make this album a shining example of what big hip hop labels can bring to the table. It also didn't hurt to have a series of club knockers, especially Whoa, bang for not weeks but months!
Rating: 7 Gold Teefs
Buy or Copy: Copy, unless you're into Bad Boy's commercial appeal.
There are many guest appearances on this album and (as par for the course for Bad Boy) alot of radio airplay and club songs. Everyone in the Bad Boy camp, Cee-Lo and Jennifer Lopez is on this album. It has alot of fire power and alot of great beats, production, and coalescence. Simply put, Black Rob's album is professionally done in all aspects. I only wonder where is Black Rob these days.
Anyway, on Can I Live featuring the Lox (back when they were still with Bad Boy which is pre 2000) Black spits "This is to my AK toters, money bill folders/ bad bitch holders, whips with big motors/ on the low for years, the feds can't decode us/ we bust rhymes, all you gotta do is load us/ my night time prowlers and grimey after hours/ Karl Kani, Mar Malone wearing Eddie Bauers/ flipping cake niggas, who strip and take niggas/ upstate niggas, my Crystal Lake niggas/ we goin' hold it down if we gotta shake niggas/ and make niggas do what we say or break niggas/ survival of the fittest, it ain't me 'cause I did it/ now you see me shining 2 mil worth of diamonds/ and I owe it all to hard criming/ don't mean that I'm a stop climbing, '99 is good timing/ and I salute my thugs who rock/ with the drugs and switch guns and pay 30 thousand a slug/ make it happen, I swear to God if I don't make it rapping I'm clapping/ extorting and robbing niggas cribs and car jacking." On this same track Jadakiss says "this is a monopoly, niggas ain't stopping me, and we can't lose 'cause Puff set us up properly/ just won't settle for lesser, who wan' test us/ we be in the 5 with the goose head restes/ Lox put niggas under pressure/ you should've knew that, it's always the new cats that'll get ya/ better start looking at things from my angle/ I'm trying to be up on the board with a triangle/ next to my name with a ten or a twenty/ now that's when you really can say you getting money/ but right now all I do is sit back and listen/ to a wise young man that quickly became a rich one/ put me up on the fact it ain't hard to get some/ chips if I just keep writing with ambition/ then I could advance from the 5 to the 6 and/ house with two kitchens, diamonds plenty women/ built in pool to swim in/ but the plan is to start from the floor/ and raise it up, then you hit 'em in the head till your days is up/ you blazing what?/ playboy you frail and butt/ you know when Bad Boy drop all your sales is cut." Definately some hot, boasty rap, typical of the day.
Sure they've been better albums, but songs like Life Story featuring Cheryl Pepsi Riley & Raquel where Black Rob rhymes about his rough upbringing to a milky smooth beat, and Espacio featuring Lil' Kim and G-Dep over an electronic funk and hip hop blended beat make this album a shining example of what big hip hop labels can bring to the table. It also didn't hurt to have a series of club knockers, especially Whoa, bang for not weeks but months!
Rating: 7 Gold Teefs
Buy or Copy: Copy, unless you're into Bad Boy's commercial appeal.
posted by Sean at 3:47 PM
2 Comments:
Dumb mofos, u would rather listen to drake and lil wayne right? This album is a certified banger
Almost 8 years after I originally wrote this review and I still have to say I completely agree with my assessment. I would NOT listen to Drake but have you heard some of the dope shit Wayne has done? Most of it a lot less commercial than this.
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