Black Rob: Life Story (Bad Boy)

I have only one thing to say after listening to Black Rob’s debut album Life Story — WHOA! The word is appropriate because that’s also the title of his first hit single. The album borders on “hip-hop classic” and it came just in time to save Puff Daddy and the rest of the Bad Boy posse from near extinction. With this album, Black Rob should be ready to take over the reins left behind by Biggie, Ma$e and The Lox as he is enshrined as “The Man” around the Bad Boy camp.

Now if you follow Bad Boy artists like I do, you know that Black Rob was the artist nobody knew, even though we’d heard him sample in other Bad Boy songs such as Ma$e’s 24 Hours to Live and Puff Daddy’s Jackson Five hip-hop remix. But, since deceased hip-hop legend The Notorious B.I.G. was the main man on Bad Boy, there wasn’t much room for Black Rob to flourish. When B.I.G. died, Puffy and Ma$e more than carried the load for the label as they pranced and danced their way to mega superstardom. And to top it all off, up-and-coming rap group the Lox began to make a lot of noise with its platinum-selling album, Money, Power, and Respect. So in the eyes of many, Black Rob might as well have been just another rapper wannabe.

In a matter of a few short years, everything came crashing down for Bad Boy. It’s No. 1 album seller, Ma$e, left the music scene to preach the gospel and pursue his college degree. Rap group The Lox left the label for DMX and his Ruff Ryders clique. Suddenly, Puffy was left holding the bag.

(Look! It’s a bird. No! It’s a plane. No! It’s Black Rob coming to save the day!) So Puffy immediately inserted Black Rob as the number one priority on the label. Within a few months his first album, Life Story, was brought onto the rap scene.

Life Story gives us a wonderful assortment of songs, led by party anthem and hit single, Whoa! Black Rob gives us a taste of his hard-core side with the songs Can I Live featuring The Lox, and Lookin’ at Us featuring Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob. With smooth production by veteran Bad Boy producers Nashiem Myrick and Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, the songs automatically passed that test. Blend that with the creative lyrics of Black Rob and you have two very hot tracks.

Now we all know that Bad Boy is known for its party anthems, so it wasn’t surprising to hear the dance tune Espacio, (which means space in Spanish). The head-nodding tune features rap goddess Lil’ Kim and producer Mario Winans. I Dare You featuring Joe Hooker has been spinnin’ in the clubs since last summer, giving a taste of what was to come from Mr. Rob. Also, Spanish Fly featuring Jennifer Lopez (Puffy’s girlfriend) will make you jump out of your seat and rush to the club to hear this Latino-style production.

The track that really brings this album together is Jasmine featuring Carl Thomas. Its production is excellent, giving us a unique Jamaican-style beat to groove to as Black Rob tells us an interesting story about a girl named Jasmine. Warning: To fully grasp this confusing but creative track, you must listen to it at least three times. Don’t worry, the beat and Thomas’ mellow voice will lure you in at least twice.

Although the album is superior, there is one low point; such as, him ruining (I mean, remaking) Slick Rick’s classic song Children’s World. The song is boring and very uninteresting as Rob tells us a story of a violent rampage he encounters in the song Thug Story. Did I mention he was reading this story to children? Nice try, Rob, but next time steal someone else’s work, and leave Slick Rick’s alone.

The album Life Story truly solidifies Black Rob as an official hip-hop star. Black Rob shows off his many talents on this album, such as his ability to give you not only his street-side in his songs, but his party side as well. Black Rob is a lyricist, savior, street poet, and party animal all wrapped into one. WHOA!

— JASSID TILLMAN Deerfield Beach High

Escape to Thomas’ debut

CARL THOMAS: Emotional (Bad Boy)

Carl Thomas’ new album is something to get “emotional” about. Thomas collaborated with musical greats such as Mario “Yellow Man” Winans, Karl “K-Gee” Gordon, and Harve “Joe Hooker” Pierre to produce his solo album. Unlike most new artists, the album is 100 percent Thomas, with no featured artists. This gives the audience a chance to see how wonderfully strong this young man is, by himself, and the kind of talent Bad Boy brings to the table.

Thomas creates a new genre with his love song lyrics and rap-style beats. He even shows his poetic side as well, denoting him the title Cadillac Man. As anyone who’s heard the album knows, this man is driving down his own road to success, and Bad Boy’s in the passenger seat. Carl shows potential, known only once to Brian Mcknight and Marvin Gaye. Carl revives the classic love song with his strong vocals and sultry voice. His debut single I Wish shows just one side of this multifaceted, gifted young man. His voice takes listeners back in time to the old school romance we all knew, where guy and girl met and fell in love.

Songs like Cold, Cold World and Giving You All My Love enable listeners to escape to that blue lagoon of an island and relax with his idyllic lyrics in the background, quieting their noisy and hectic lives. It is obvious this Cadillac Man is just getting started, and there is definitely more to come.

— GAYNELLE JOHNSON Boyd Anderson High

Soundtrack a mixed bag

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Road Trip: Music From the Motion Picture (Uni/Dreamworks)

Since the late 1990s, the movie soundtrack has become just another opportunity to throw together a compilation of new or unreleased tracks from popular, overplayed artists — rarely having anything to do with the movie. Each soundtrack seems to cater to a certain crowd. M:I-2 is all rock, Next Friday is all rap, Pokemon: The First Movie is all pop and so on. But Road Trip: Music From the Motion Picture does not fit the mold at all for today’s hit-filled, genre-isolated soundtracks. It’s all over the place, featuring tunes varying from rap to ska. But it never establishes any sort of rhythm.

For the rock listener like myself, Buckcherry’s Anything, Anything (I’ll give you) is one of the best songs the band has ever written. Judging from this as well as Alone from the M:I2 soundtrack, it really knows how to make a great soundtrack song. This is not the mellow Buckcherry that showed up so many times on its self-titled CD. This is more like Nirvana’s In Utero stage sung to Offspring-like fast guitar riffs. Aside form Buckcherry, the only respite in this soundtrack is the classic headbanging anthem I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister.

Any nugget of respect I had for Kid Rock was lost upon listening to Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp, a revolting train wreck of a song written pre-Devil Without a Cause. Kid proves he is clearly nothing without his band Twisted Brown Trucker. Not only are the lyrics brainless and ludicrous (“H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P … P as in pimp…early mornin’ stoned pimp”), the sound created by the turntables is worse than nails on a chalkboard. Road Trip also carries rap from the Jungle Brothers and Run-DMC. Old School rap is the only decent and listenable rap, so It’s Tricky by Run-DMC is not bad.

In significant contrast to the above, the Eels and the K.G.B. combine 1960s rock ‘n’ roll mentality with modern day ska. The sound is uplifting, catchy, pleasant, and harmonious. To add even more to this cauldron of diversity are the John Spencer Blues Machine and torturous ballads by Ash and Minnie Riperton that will wear down the “skip” button on the CD player.

The soundtrack’s biggest positive is also its worst negative. It doesn’t sell out to the traditional soundtrack mold, thus creating a boiling pot of diverse musical tastes but without enough of each type. It doesn’t have a solid target audience, which could be a major downfall when sales are calculated. At least for once the songs are actually IN the movie, proving the purpose of the movie soundtrack is not extinct, only endangered.

— JOHN THOMASON Western High