After Eminem was signed to Aftermath he brought in his Friends as a group on his second album Marshall Mathers LP. They were liked by the mainstream in masses. I feel two of them shined out more and for two different reasons. Proof a very gifted mc which had his skill recognized earlier by magazine such as Source etc and was earlier Eminems hypeman. Bizarre was spotted for his “funny” lyrics and weird preferences which the mainstream went mad for.
With the new single called “Rockstar” it is recognizable as an Eminem production with the same old sound. The song should be titled My band part 2 as he raps about the same topics and even some of the same lyrics The lyrics are about him being famous, going solo and placing him as a rockstar and the wild antics rock stars would get upto. This will sell loads and get the mainstream even more in on his side. Another thing to get on the mainstream side is his featuring slots with so many it shouldn’t be called a solo. Most of these are from D-12. “Hip-hop” featuring the famous Eminem. The beat is alright and I’m guessing Eminem produced this as well as they use that squeky voice effect Eminem seems to be in love with for the hook. They both speak about how hip hop has effect their lifes but more to the point Eminem really impresses me with his verse and easily outshines Mr. Bizarre on his own track and when you really think about it that isn’t hard. Eminem verse begin with asking why and how gun has been affiliated with Hip-hop and spirals into about Eminem believing it and what he did to get a gun and to the time he was arrest when beefing with the ICP. A nice storytelling track where unlike most Bizarre speaks about something worth listening to. “Doctor Doctor”featuring Obie Trice, again this is an alright beat wise and alright lyric wise where Obie and Bizarre spits a story track where they go to the clinic to see what’s wrong. His crew D12 appear later in the ender called “Nuthin At All” where the moral is they don’t give a ***** who they offend or what they do. They do their usual thing where they take shots at everyone including Hip-hop legend “Flava flav”. Proof comes off the best. The beat is alright too. Another flaw is the hook which is sung by Mr. Porter oh why does he do it?? Another track featuring one of the D-12 members is “Coming Home” where Kuniva and Bizarre speaks about their kids over some nice guitars. This is fresh air as his not very serious. Another one is “Ghetto Music” where Swifty, Stic. man and Kind Gordy where they speak about Weed over a quite funky beat. I’m surprised with Stic.man involvement and also Devin’s and Big Boi’s on “Porno *****es”. This is the better one out of the two which has the same topic. The other one quite like this is “Gospel Weed Song” . The only difference is his trying to give a praise the weed feeling with gospel.
There is alot of same topics which is the biggest flaw in this CD. Most are either Part 2 or Bizarre version like I said about Rockstar. “Bad Day” springs to mind over a similar beat of Cube’s Good day where he “cleverly” change words to change topic of Cubes to the opposite topic. I’m surprised it taken this long to do. It’s fun to listen to. “One Chance” is like Bizarre’s version of Eminem lose yourself even the hook reminds me of Eminem’s song. The topic is pretty much the same as Eminem misplacing certain facts with Bizarre’s struggle in hip-hop. “Let the record skip”has the part from Under the influence as the hook. On this he does his weird thing and is very like “***** your life”
Like most Shady/Aftermath/G-unit affiliated record is that there is some good production on this record. There is average and also I think two terrible beats. The worse has to be “I’m in luv withchu” overall has to one of the worse overall songs I’ve ever heard.
Overall this gets a 1.5.
Bad/Gimmicky lyrics, some alright and terrible production and repetitive topics stop this from getting anywhere near a 5. I respect his style that someone has to entertain the kids and get more kids into hip-hop at a younger age but unless you have a sense of humour of a 10 yr old you wont really find this entertaining. This album is made for the mainstream
I don’t recommend this unless you like this and are very mainstream. Wait until proofs or don’t buy it.