beanie sigel - the b.coming

stelfox

Beast of Burden
probably the best east coast rap record in a long, long time. pisses over kanye from a great height.
some superb rhyming ("My momma say I got her nerves stressed/ Got her waking up in cold sweats/ ... I got her screaming 'Lord Jesus', like Mahalia/ 'Son, I'm telling ya, please don't let me bury ya.' ") but the production on this album is absolutely sublime and really pushes it up to the next level.
my personal highlights are the heavy d-produced opening track, gotta have it featuring peedi crakk and twista (twista absolutely smashes it on this cut), bread and butter feat. grand puba and sadat x from brand nubian and produced by just blaze (hows that for a roll call - and it really lives up to it, for a change) and tales of a hustler #2, which actually almost brought me to tears the other night (totally spine-tingling instrumentation), but as a whole album it's just beautifully understated, incredibly soulful (i mean that in a very good way) and so good i can't see hip hop coming up with a record i like more this year.
anyway, enough of the hyperbole - anyone else heard it? thoughts?
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
is it really that good? i thought there were too many rap-ballad-type material. found it all a bit cloying really. i think its the beats that make this album what it is. beanie is still playing the hardman thug role hes been doing for ages, he doesnt seem to have acquired any sort of depth, but yeah, he did make some effort this time, for one.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
yes it is that good! cloying is totally the wrong word to use, i think. cloying makes me think of things like lonely by akon (not a bad tune either, but...) rather than this. it's not balls-out, that's for sure, but it's still great. no he's not changed lyrical personae or his scthick, either, but really i think if you're not feeling this then you're bonkers! the beats are incredible and i did mention that the production was the thing that shunted it up to the next level (with the possible exception of the neptunes' track)
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
but beanie hasnt exactly gotten better, hes still totally shallow and all hes really got i his favour is that fantastically gruff and hardcore/pissed off voice of his. his lyrics are perfectly serviceable, but i cant think of one thing that he said which made me think 'wow, he really brung it this time!' hes been doing that wimpy weepy emotional rap ballad type of song for years now, and IMHO thats not what makes him great. i need more tracks like gotta have it and flatline! as far as the beats, there seems to be a lot of live band work on here (but not in an obviously 'live' roots manner), and theyre all great, but theyre all so syrupy and slow i feel like im listening to an AOR soul album. this is the type of album i can see translating well to being performed with a symphony orchestra and ten piece band, and im not sure thats a good thing!
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
obviously coming to this from completely different angles because all the things you say are bad, i like.

(i really detest the word "serviceable")
 

DavidD

can't be stopped
Stelfox OTMFM

This isn't live band stuff at all man, its all samples. (aside from the Neptunes track?)

"Gotta Have It" I rewinded like 40 times last night (I think my favorite verse is Peedi Crack's actually, when he does that "RLLRING RLLRRRRING!" noise! Twista's verse is good too, especially that opening line, "The MAYOR of Chi, this ain't England there's no Kings and Queens!" and B Sigel's "Hol' up, WAIT, STOP, FUCK the cops, got the baby uzi WHOP, turn your cruise into a DROP, then get off the BLOCK, for SWATS surround your SPOT, we be LOCKED in the BOX, three HOTS in a COT"). The groove on that song is terrific, that delayed snare-popping shuffle. And "spine-tingling" is EXACTLY how I described the beat to "tales of a hustler 2," especially with that sax sample. The album is ridiculously poignent. "Bread and Butter," astonishingly, makes me think of some sort of rap show tune, with the cats from Brand Nubian quoting "Slow Down" and this weird movement-like just blaze production. I think it was really brave of him to open with "Feel it in the Air," totally unexpected opening track, totally relaxed way to start an album but a really divine moment. "Purple Rain" has that ridiculous Bun-B verse about the time Screw introduced him to Sizzurp: "So shit I poured it, I sipped it, then I sipped some mo'/ I fired up a green monster, and I hit that hoe/ started relaxin, and shit, to my surprise, I fell asleep lookin' at the backs of my eyes." The string-laced magnificence of "Change," the way he interacts with the sample.

Its like Sigel has this sort of working-man flow, he's not dropping pure heat or something, but his voice is convincing and honest and the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
 

dubplatestyle

Well-known member
can't get with the album as a whole (i think my tolerance for r&b bullshit on rap records is at an all time low), but "gotta have it" is easily my second or third favorite "single" of the year. and peedi crakk's got one of those amazing voices that just defies all attempts at transliteration.
 

tek tonic

slap dee barnes
i like the production but i hate the sound. is that possible? what i mean is, i like the way tracks like "Bread & Butter" are structured, but the drums sound really plastic-y and annoying. it doesn't really diminish my favorite tracks here ("Feel It In The Air", "Gotta Have It", "Purple Rain", "Bread & Butter"), but i think i'd like the rest more if they weren't so blah. this is a Roc-A-Fella-wide problem IMHO, except for most of Jay's records. can anybody explain, or am i nuts?

and WTMF is up with that bonus track with Jon Bon Jovi? hearing that shit at the end of the album is like listening to Pet Sounds while drifting off to sleep, and having your CD changer drift over to a Uriah Heep CD your roommate put in as a prank.
 

DavidD

can't be stopped
Oh god yeah the last track is fucking dreadful.

Jess the R&B tracks are some of my favorites on this album!
 
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dubplatestyle

Well-known member
tek tonic, i feel the exact same way about almost all non-southern mainstream rap these days. i think it's how they EQ it. (plus everyone has prissy, flaccid drums these days.)

re. last track...haha well, cam'ron does love his MOR.
 

DavidD

can't be stopped
dubplatestyle said:
tek tonic, i feel the exact same way about almost all non-southern mainstream rap these days. i think it's how they EQ it. (plus everyone has prissy, flaccid drums these days.)

re. last track...haha well, cam'ron does love his MOR.
I love Just Blaze drums.
 
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