Ever since I heard Proof on “Under the Influence” on Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP I have known Proof was a good MC. Finally after two high selling records selling over 10 million copies world wide with his group D12, Proof just one of Detroit’s underrated rappers to come out of their has finally been released and for me it’s mixed reactions. Most haters will say he has been tailcoating Eminem’s success but it wasn’t that at all as Proof was recognized by the Source’s “Unsigned Hype” first!
Searching for Jerry Garcia starts of pretty well with “Clap wit me”.Emile supplies Proof with a quite a Kanye feel beat especially with the high pitch sampling at the hook. The song is a very nice happy feel with Proof just practically shouting out everyone who helped him to make this album. The lyrics aren’t really that great the highlight probably being “We blow you’re mind like Kurt Kobain!” but I feel it’s a nice way to begin the album with a nice beat and thanking people. “Biboa’s Theme” has it all though. With a nice electronic beat which I’m not normally a fan of but its nice with the electric piano loop and all. Proof here shows a lot of lyrics skill with many quoatables like “Having free phone sex with operators”, “Speaking at AA meetings while intoxicated” and many more. After another skit Sicknotes try to recreate the old magic with proof from hits such as how come (D12) and his underground hit Ja in a Bra. “Forgive me” has a sad depressing feel made by the piano loop. We hear Proof releasing his inner demons by repenting his sins to god. His lyrics are suppose to be addressing to God looking back how bad his life and how he is sorry for it and they are dope. It’s a nice track all together and why an early favourite but the only sin he should be repenting for is the use of an old 50 cent hook. 50 delivers the same hook from his old underground hit but is was a good hook then is a good hook now!
After this climax of dopeness the levels seems to recline sharply with “Purple Gang”. Although the purple gang provide us with some alright verses the beat lets this down majorly. I don’t know what it is made from or what to compare it to it’s like no other beat but it’s annoying at best. “Gurls wit Da boom” although the beat is made from commercial dribble the beat isn’t that bad as people make out it as to be although the lyrics are that bad. The lyrics are about the girls with the big bums which isn’t new by far as we have had Sir-mix-a-lot raving about them quite a long time ago and back then it was pretty cringe-worthy and still is but at least Sir mix-a-lot had entertainment values.“High Rollers” has B-Real (yes B-Real!) behind the beat which I’m surprised as Muggs is the usual producer for Cypress hill. The beat has a nice feel with it’s light synthesizers and outburst of horns although like Dreams by Kanye West the man grunting (who I believe is B-Real) gets on my tits though. That isn’t the biggest surprise as Wu legend Method man appears. So there’s Proof, Method man and B-real what else are they going to talk about except for getting high. It’s what most of them have made a career out of! After other skit which thankfully is the last one we have “Pimplikeness” which is the D-12 style posse cut. Here they spit about how they have attributes of pimpness. The whole lyrics side is weird as the two most likely shine come off the worse and two which normally don’t get my praise do! Swifty and Kuniva(although its pretty hard to tell as they all pretty generic) come of hilarious with that old “What do you call a chick with two black eyes/ You aint gotta tell her anything you just told her twice” while Proof comes off average and Eminem well puts on a southern style and accent. I don’t know if it was suppose to be ironic like Canibus but either way it sucks! The beat by Fredwreck has a nice funky feel with the funky bass and a nice arrangement of instruments. Saying that the whole song is average at best. “Ali” the beat is absolute boring and very simplistic at the most and brings down the nice lyrics which well be sh!tted on now. “No.T.Lose” is alright but isn’t worth even commenting about.
“Jump Biatch” is hilarious and I like the beat! I know a lot of people won’t agree and say “it’s so Slim shady style” and the beat is annoying with the Kazoo instruments but I like it all.Over a very simplistic beat made from drums and Kazoo’s proof supplies us with a dark humour story with about some mess up wants to commit suicide and proof encouraging her by funny lines and proof ends up dying. “M.A.D” is another humorous track recalling D12 days. The track is about all the stuff you would want to keep secret as a teenager and proofs trying to upset the parents like the old D12 ways would be. The production is nice and I can’t describe it else as nice but my con on this track Rude Jude seems to be a wannabe Kid Joe (you know from Necro) or The Madd rapper shouting out random abuse. From then on it climaxes to pure dopeness with the last 4 songs being better then the next one. After the skit of John Lennons murder “72nd & Central” we have him, Obie Trice and J-hill I believe explaining the 101 on the streets which they all come off pretty nice. They are back by a nice beat made by Essman which the style of beat he would definitely use in the D12 days. Then we have “Sammy Da Bull” named after a famous snitch which “ironically” is the topic name. We have him and Swifty also from D12 rap over a very up-tempo beat made from sharp strings which also gives it a dramatic feel we have them nicely delivering verses about snitches. The hook is also dope and who else but Nate? It’s not an album if you don’t have snoop or nate making an appearance! The biggest shock is the skit at the end which to me and a lot of other heads a shot at 50 although he appears on this album and they cool. “Black wrist bros” we see the missing Purple Gang member appear with proof talking about loyality although I would have felt he should had have Eminem on this as they close buddies. The beat is nice although I can’t really describe it. Then we have “Slum Elementz”. This is the you hate me cause im famous song teamed up with another famous D rapper T-3 from the Slum village group and Mudd. The beat is supplied by his group Buddy Denaun Porter and has that Denaun feel especially with the horns and the structure of the beat. Although one con is the package deal it seems for Denaun customers “get a beat get a hook” and I’ve never ben a fan of his hooks. The album ends with “Kurt Kobain” and the album really does end with it if you get my drift. Kurt was lead singer of Nirvana and is most famous for committing suicide so here Proof metaphors himself him and he spits like he is writing his suicide note. Proof has some great emotional and spritial lyrics on this and is over a very sad beat made by Emile. People may say this is too Biggie “Suicidal thoughts” but I say this is a brilliant way to end this rollercoaster of an album.
This album gets a 3.5 in all and was a rollercoaster of a one as one minute it is very high in rating it and then its complete and utter shit. It started of nice but got very lame in the middle and was too late of regaining brownie points. A lot of production let this down although if you see pass that then the lyrics are dope! Another flaw is too many skits!
Proof has choose a lot of different production styles and has spitted in different styles due to it reflecting Jerry Garcia style was his was very varied and experimental. It’s a nice concept although the original one was much better with each song with a title and topic reflecting someone important in life songs like “Sammy Da Bull”, ”Ali” “72nd and central” and “Kurt Kobain” have still been kept which as they are pretty tight except Ali of course. There has been a lot of surprises on this album the biggest that there was no hit single from Eminem! I mean if it had one beat by him instead of something like say Ali or Girls wit da boom then that might have had enough cred to up this one point maybe one of the beats from his mixtape as all of them beats by Eminem on that are dope and I’m not a big Eminem fan especially when it comes to his production. Something like Wot up, Oil Can Harry or Brick by Brick.
Recommendation: Buy this album if you a big Proof/D12 fan or if you’re willing to experiment. Although for the rest I recommend downloading sorting ot the ones you like and don’t and get rid. One thing for sure much doper than Bizarre weird album!