West Coast Connection Forum
Elements => Tha Vault => Album Review => Topic started by: verbalassaulta on September 17, 2002, 11:00:30 AM
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someone who's got it... a review please..damn all those dre tracks...i didnt even know it was out...
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Only too happy to help homie
1. Intro (feat. Ice T)
An old fashioned intro, with Ice T spittin' some game over a Fred Wreck beat that's halfway between gangsta and gothic. Nice, but too brief to warrant a rating.
2. Speak On It
Wow. What a hot Dre beat - reminds me of 'Just Dippin', with that real gangsta bounce that almost recaptures the g-funk days. T's lyrics are straight gangsta, just about riding really - the hook is simply "That's that G shit, mobbin' through yo' hood / groove on gangstas, groove on" 5/5
3. Stay Down
I never realsied T's story-telling skills were this good. He rhymes about an OG he ran with back in the days, all the game he taught him and how he still has his back to this day. The hook is tight- "God please shine you light cuz my people are sightless / And nothing's positive when you're far from righteous." Buddah brings in some nice strings on the chorus, a little reminiscent of X's 'Papparazi'. Dope track. 5/5
4. Skweeze Ya Balls (feat. Baby S)
Battlecat produces this, and you can tell immediately from the drum track, although the cinematic strings sweeping in and out of the mix are a little different for him. Baby S and King T go back and forth on the mic. Can't say I'm fond of Baby S - he always sound a little too much like ex-Row inmate Top Dogg to me. Still, he holds his own, and T's lyrics are dope - "Peep it how we deal it, keep it if you feel it / all tha set trippin' kill it, it only takes a minute." 4/5
5. Monay (feat. Dre)
An eerie, mysterious beat from Dre, with some BIG ASS kicks - definately one that needs to be cranked up loud. T and Dre rap about - you guessed it - money. Tight hook and both rappers deliver dope verses - T outshines Dre on the mic as you might expect, with lines like "Straight bout it / building ideas with self-made millionaires to get the dancefloors crowded." 4/5
6. Da Kron (feat Dre)
A different kind of beat from Dre - sounds almost east Coast, with uptempo drums and wah-wah guitars, but is so addictive and will have you bobbing your head in two bars. This is basically T's theme for Aftermath. The hook is "I got the chron', talkin' bout the bomb, say what? / Cuz Dr Dre laced me with the shit that won't fail." Nuff said. Oh, and if you listen carefully in the hook, Dre mixes in the same "the bomb!" sample that he did on Snoop's 'Who Am I'. Nice touch. 5/5
7. Big Boyz (feat. Too $hort)
Ant Banks provides a funky, thick Oakland beat, laced with some smooth bongo drums in the back. T delivers while Short Dos sounds exactly the same as he has for the last 15 years, so you know what to expect there. 3.5/5
8. Let's make A V (feat Quik, Frost and El Debarge)
Wow. One of those addictive Quik beats that makes you think of sunshine and women - ain't a thing wrong with that. T and Quik mack to the women for two verses before Q switches the beat to some old Latin-style shit for Frost's verse. It souns dope, but a little clumsy when it switches back for T's fourth verse. Still, Quik can do little wrong for me, so it has to get the big...5/5
9. Tha Game (It's Ruff) (feat. Playa Hamm)
T and Hamm make a great combination on the mic - just here them flippin' back and forth and you'll know what I'm talking about. Battlecat's beat is SO funky and west coast and quite simply hot that it's not even funny. The drum track is banging and the voice box in the chorus is a wicked finishing touch. 5/5
10. Reel Raw (feat. Killer Ben)
"THE AFTERMATH IS READY TO WORK IT OUT!!" Great Dre beat - sounds just like those early tracks off the Aftermath compilation, Dre's signiture sound immediately after leaving Death Row. Not sure who Kiler Ben actually is - the rapper on the track is Sharief, also off the Aftermath CD. Hmmm. Not the greatest track on the CD - I would like to have heard Dre on this beat - but good none the less. 3/5
11. 2 G's From Compton (Feat. MC Ren)
Not the kind of beat I was expecting at all. It's much jazzier than anything I've heard Ren on before. Speaking of Ren, he totally steals the show with line like "The villaim be down wioth the king like Joey Simmons" (geddit?) and "My niggas be the coolest, now we make the pussy hot." Dope. 4/5
12. Shake da Spot (feat. Shaq O'Neal)
Amazing samples of 'California Love' here. Buddah delivers a fucking hard beat with sparse pianos, then laces Roger Troutman's accapella vocals from the end of Cali Love in and out of the mix. You really have to hear it to appreciate it. Even Shaq sounds dope over this beat, and that's sayin' something... 4/5
13. 6 N Da Mornin' (feat Dawn Robinson)
Damn, what the fuck is this shit? The beat is a loop of Dre and LL's Zoom, with some Biggie vocal samples over the top. The production is terrible - you have to turn the volume way up to put the sound quality on the same level as the rest of the album. I don't believe Dre intended this for the album - he's pretty strict about quality and he wouldn't just re-use a beat like this. Low point of the CD. 2/5
14. Step On By (feat. Dre, RC & Crystal)
A wack attempt at commercialism. Dre's beat sounds like the kind of stuff he did on The Firm's album, where he was tryni' to fool us that he was a Big Willie and no longer a gangsta. Dre's verse is hilarious - he's trying to convince us he's a playa, but do these lines sound like the Dre we know and love? "I'm into chillin', sippin' wine, not illin' / Intellectual conversation, let's talk plans of buildin' / Clean-cut, whut, how does that sound? A gentleman / Plus a spiritual background is how I get down." Er, right Dre - whatever you say. 2/5
15. Big Ballin' (Playin' 2 Win) (feat. RC)
Phew, back on track. Yet another Dre beat, but back to some gangsta shit - slow, low and rolling. T sounds cool and confident, and RC sings the chorus to the tune of Rolling Stone's "Miss You" (Think Dre's remix or Snoop's "Y'all Gone Miss Me") Dope. 3.5/5
16. Where's T (feat Dre)
A strange chorus, but then after Dre produced Eminem's "My dad's Gone Crazy" nothing surprises me! Not Dre's best beat, but Dre's verse is dope, probably his best lyrics on this CD - "Nobody gets looser than this producer / 48 tracks that's live, three or four cars to ride / Comin' out of LA, regulatin' the West Coast / The East Coast, the between coast and I'm ghost... Aftermath - ain't no need to ask" 3/5
17. Nuthin has Changed (feat. Kool G Rap and Tray D)
What a combination. All come correct over Buddah's East Coast-styled beat, complete with clever sampling of George Clinton in the hook. Too many lyrics to quote, but what would would you expect from these three together? G Rap's verse is just bananas... 4/5
18. The Original (feat Who's Who)
Mike Dean takes T down south for the final track, all about the gangsta life. Not the best track to end with really, as it's a little laid back, but it's cool for some pimp sounding ish. 3/5
Overall - Wow. A solid 4.5/5 for me. Having only spotted this in shops the other day, I had to bring up a thread about it in the main board just to see if it was worth getting. Having copped it I can safely join the voices that urged me to, and from the number of people posting about it now a lot of people are fiending for it. My advice is to beg, borrow or steal a copy, cuz it's nothing but the bomb baby! Dre should be kicking himself for not releasing this in 98. I'm sure he had his reasons, but I'm damn glad someone did it for him in the end.
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NIce review, but i got some questions/comments......
1st off, that 6 n tha mornin was recorded way before Zoom Zooms, and since it wasn't released Dre used the beat first for the unreleased song with Snoop....when that wasn't released either, then he used it for the song with LL. I thought the one with King Tee was incredible......
Second, are you sure Shaq is actually on that song? Haven't listened in a while, but i can't remember Shaq spitting on there.....
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Shaq is just doin tha hook fo it
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Lord Funk - Tight review. You made me wanna get this Cd even more. Do yo uthink you could snag me a copy over hwere you live, and I'll pay you back for it? Help me out, I've been waiting on this CD for ages.
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damn...i am looking for this one this weekend
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Teecee - thanks for pickin' me up on 6 N Tha Mornin'. You're right - I got the chronology wrong (nice word, huh ? :)) I still think the sound quality is shitty, and certainly wouldn't describe it as incredible - I'd personally rather hear Dre and LL over it ( I loved that joint)
Murrow - Shouldn't be a problem if all else fails. The thing is it would take a week or more to get it over to you from the UK, and then we'd have to fuck around with you payin' me back. There's bound to be someone on the board in the US who could cop you a version or suggest a mail order website, so I'd ask around. If you have no luck, holla at me via this thread or somethin' (just bump it up or whatever) - maybe you could cop me somethin' hard to find over in the UK and send it in return?? See how it goes homie, but don't trip cuz it ain't hard to find this CD in the UK at the moment. Peace.
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Teecee - thanks for pickin' me up on 6 N Tha Mornin'. You're right - I got the chronology wrong (nice word, huh ? :)) I still think the sound quality is shitty, and certainly wouldn't describe it as incredible - I'd personally rather hear Dre and LL over it ( I loved that joint)
Murrow - Shouldn't be a problem if all else fails. The thing is it would take a week or more to get it over to you from the UK, and then we'd have to fuck around with you payin' me back. There's bound to be someone on the board in the US who could cop you a version or suggest a mail order website, so I'd ask around. If you have no luck, holla at me via this thread or somethin' (just bump it up or whatever) - maybe you could cop me somethin' hard to find over in the UK and send it in return?? See how it goes homie, but don't trip cuz it ain't hard to find this CD in the UK at the moment. Peace.
Okay, thanks.
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i agree with the review, except for the song Step On By, i really liked that song, Id give it a 4.5, so I guess I felt for that commercial attempt...dre's flow is off the hook, yea the lyrics are funny, but the flow is dope..you can easily tell that the song was made in 98. before and after these years he had a completely different flow
her body jester gave her the name groupie
so i played her like a movie extra
lol
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I think this is one of the best releases this year, togheter with Quik and the new Devin. Nice production, good lyrics and good features, pick it up if u aint got this...
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this is album is bangalangin all the way thru
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classic...most slept on album ever...4.75/5....so many classic cuts...still dont understand why dre didnt release it years ago...so what if it didnt sell 5 mill +
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I bought this album from hip hop site. I know that this album was supposed to come out in 1998 and I was looking forward to hearing it. With that being said, I knew it would sound a little dated. King T comes nice on this album, with a slightly more gangsta bent than he has in the past and Dre, Bud'da, Battlecat, Ant Banks and DJ Quik provide the production.
Where this album slips IMO, is Dre. All of Dre's beats to me sound boring, monotonous, uninspired, and terribly dated. I know this was made during the "Been There Done That" era were Dre did not seem at all motivated. If he had left the bulk of the production of Battlecat, who was nearing his prime as a producer, and Bud'da, who was in the midst of his prime (remember 3 card molly, ghetto vet, deeper than that, I Beez the Hardest), this would have been so much better. DJ Quik dropped a masterpiece and Ant Banks track is tight too. Dre dropped the ball on this one in more ways than one, first by giving King T lackluster production and then not releasing the album at all.
With that being said, there are a few definite bangers, such as Squeeze the Balls (yeah Baby S sounds like Snoop but Battlecat came through and I like the song dammit), Let's Make a V (Quik is a genious), Nothing Has Changed (nice soul sampling by Bud'da), and Shake Da Spot, also produced by Bud'da. These songs make the album worth purchasing and I feel I got my $20 worth just for that. Plus I've been a King T fan for a long time and it was cool hearing him again.
With that, I'd give the album a 3.5 rating and I recommend folks at least check it out.
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You can tell the album was incomplete but the songs that sound complete like 'Shake Da Spot' and 'Nuthin has changed' are dope like you say and i give them the replay value.
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would been tighter if it was mixed better for sound quality
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damn all y'all that say dat this one's not a classic need to stop hatin'
the cd got absolutely no promotion and was released through a unknown label...it sounds fishy to me, hope Tee got some money of it cuz he definetely deserves it for makin' this record
dre's beats on this one may not be the best, but they still pretty good, budda and battlecat dont have bad songs on this one, its all straight up heat, quik's song is just off tha chain, KRAZY :o i keep nodding my head to dat one
and the features on the album are not bad at all, ima give it 9 out of 10 points ;D
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I copped this on Friday, and DAMN is it good! Some of the Dre beats are hit-and-miss, but they're not bad at all.
I'm probably in the minority as someone who likes the 96-98 Aftermath Dre beats, but the RnB styled ones are good, some beats remind me of Sam Sneed's style.
That "Original" track is some funky smooth ish, "The game" is fucking smooth too with Playa Hamm. I agree that Too $hort sounds exactly the same on this as on every other track he's done, but that's not a bad thing....
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Why wasn't "Got It Locked" on this album? It was the first single.
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becuass the album was releaseed on an indpendeent germna label, tats y the tracks are oddly spelled, the kron - the chron etc
got it lockerd (video on u tube) and thats drama are not on the album
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The BEST ALBUM NEVER RELEASED
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"The Game" ..... Battlecat killed it!
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Damn i didn't know it was a kingdom come was a aftermath release i'll edit when i get and put a rating
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i haave this cd... i think it only has 3 really good tracks on it... rest id never bang out... worth buyin for a collection
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dope ! :D