Matty's Blaqkout Review

[Matty]

Ok so i wrote most of this a while back when I was high as fuck and felt like putting something to paper on how I was appreciating this album. This is not a properly written or objective review or anything, more a 'fanboys' musings on the record. And as with a lot of my comments, the emphasis is more on the production and musical vibes than the lyrical content. I know a lot of people were dissapointed with the project or thought it was straight up poor, so I welcome responses from all sides of the fence. Format is a track by track account:

1) Blaqkout Intro - A big, extravagant intro. Uptemo, lounge vibe with a lot of high, sparkling drum sounds. Vocals are mixed to suit this perfectly and a fast, groovy bassline. This really sets the vibe for the album nicely. It's big, bright and clear. Lyrics stay on some general flossing. Great instrumental outro too.

quotable: Quik - 'And even though I don't win no grammys, I still get love in the streets, From the papis and mamis'

2) Cream N Ya Panties - Bombastic funky bounce hits you hard with a classic Quik bassline. Quik really steps the mixing up here with the drum sounds and guitar licks jumping all over the place. This has all the bounce of the most classic Quik records, but with much sharper, clearer sounds. Crazy wailing synth on the hook. Lyrics stay on an explicit, over the top, party, female vibe. The back and forth between Quik and Kurupt works well, stays on a funky tip.

quotable: Kurupt - 'See its a contest, This fool wanna check me, His girl got the perfect contour breasts'

3) Do You Know - Epic skyscraper music. Quik shows his sampling skills using strings from Tony! Toni! Toné!'s 'Anniversary' and chopped up vocals to create a big, airy atmosphere over the boomy 808 style loop. Similar to Snoop's 'Press Play' in the extreme laid back mood. Lyrics stay on the flossing but more of a high-class, romantic, celebrating life vibe.

quotable: Quik ‘I like them outta towners, Who come from the Copacabana, This beat is bananas, It hits your antennas, Cause DJ Quik’s more gifted than Santa’

4) What Cha Wan Do - First questionable track. The drum loop on here is bouncy enough and the extreme low-end is mad but the main melody is really annoying. The content of the song itself is crude/silly to match the sounds and repetitive melody. Drinking, fucking, repeat. Not disliking it as much as at first cause the drums are cool, but this is still very skippable.

5) Ohh - Chopped up vocal sample and Quik with another ‘crunk’ inspired rhythm. This one is real fresh though, layers some nice synths under another over-the-top, repetitive melody. This is what the Fixxxers material should have sounded like. Content is more flossing and females, fits the vibe perfectly though.

6) Fuck Y’all - Now we get into the serious musical genius territory. Quik uses that classic funky guitar, a stuttering clap and boomy keyboard bass. The way this record is mixed together so crisp is really something crazy. There is a whole load of strings stuff going on under the verses which is mad subtle. Massive amount of bass on outro too. The vocals are on a big, funky fuck the haters vibe. Quik sounds at ease over the beat:

quotable: Quik: ‘We We let it go, You gotta get it though, Kurupt is the venom, And Quik is the antidote’

7) Hey Playa - Not sure if this genre of music has been invented yet. Quik takes an obscure sample and builds a westcoast safari of a soundscape around the wailing Moroccan vocals. This track is a sonic masterpiece, no two ways about it - huge drum sounds, a ridiculously low melodic bassline, familiar synth effects and the sampled Morrocan horn effects on the hook. Even one-off jungle noises that leap out from the background. Classic from top to bottom, even non hip-hop listeners can easily appreciate the innovation on offer here.

8] Exodus - Kind of like a Quik’s groove, with the ‘Jump, Stomp’ chant from Kurupt repeated over a fast, reggae inspired, synth-laden instrumental. It’s quite the head nodder, but the vocals become highly repetitive and annoying very quickly. Woulda been really nice as an instrumental or with less of the chanting.

9) 9x’s Outta 10 - Experimental production with a basic metallic drum loop and chopped up choir sounding vocals. Innovative rhythm (think Clipse's 'Grindin') and it’s pretty much Kurupt spitting through the whole track. Comes with a lot of intricate rhymes compared with the rest of the album and on the whole a good, slow burn track.

10) Jupiter’s Critic & The Mind of Mars - Very experimental - fast, almost grime sounding metallic beat. Quik dons a robotic voice and creates a pseudo-alter ego which is used to delve a bit into the more eccentric side of his personality. One of those tracks you might turn you off immediately. Have to admit I’m not feeling it too much, but I appreciate the creativity of it.

11) The Appeal - Wow! Classic west coast sounds here. Sharp rattling snare, boomy bassline and licks of guitar paint an epic, laid back picture. Kurupt’s first verse is accompanied by increasing instrumentation and culminates in a female vocal hook where the bassline really opens up. Then a shift into Quik’s verse with a meandering strings section as he raps about the temptation and obvious appeal of the female gender. The ultra laid-back, dreamy atmosphere then closes out the track with more female vocals.

12) Problem Skit - Problem on here, sounding drunk and talking about some random shit to do with women. Not funny or anything, instant skip.

13) Wat Cha Wan Do - Same as the first time but with added Problem verse. Still skippable, waste of time adding this to the end of the disc.

14) Bees to the Honey - Bonus track. Sounds just like the Fixxxers joint ‘Can You Werk Wid Dat?’ Kind of funky, but on the whole not very good. Electronic voice effects and a repetitive melody. Bumps nicely enough, but no replay value whatsoever.

Overall - This is definitely a project I can appreciate. I give it up to Quik & Kurupt for putting it together, even though some of it I am not feeling at all. Also, it isn’t the kind of album that'll sell many copies and the fact that some different things were tried is welcome. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but there are some real gems on here that make most new music sound amateurish from a production standpoint. Quik proves that he very much still has it, especially in his specialist field of funky, west coast sounds. Kurupt isn’t firing on all cylinders as such, but this isn’t really the time or place and his unconventional wordplay coupled with sharp delivery are well suited to the music. The lyrical content is never particularly deep, but this is deliberately a fun and as Quik described it, eclectic record. A shame about the skippable tracks, but the best material on here more than makes up for it. Rating - 7/10.

[Dre-Day]

was your topic removed  

[Matty]

nah, just forgot there was an actual review section so copied it over...

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

damn 7 outta 10...high ratin IMO for a wack album...
but hey playa is one of my favorite joints from the last decade...and will go down in history...mainly cuz of the production

[Matty]

ok let me restate my logic in giving it 7/10, although its fair enough not to like it.

most the time i wouldn't rate an album like this, bad tracks would generally mean a bad overall album. there isn't that much bad stuff though - its a bit of an odd mix between some bad, some middle of the road, some great. and this is one of the rare cases where the great material is so great (like 11/10 quality tracks) that it overrides a lot of the weaker elements in the overall listening experience. for me anyway.

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

cool jus a bad album for me cept for maybe 2 traxx but hey playa is on another planet as far as dopeness and is better than the whole album

[Get It Off Ya Chest]

Matty, you praise Quik's production quite a bit.. you think this is his best work production-wise so far?

[Matty]

Matty, you praise Quik's production quite a bit.. you think this is his best work production-wise so far?

on the whole, nah. but particular tracks (like hey playa) are among his very, very best production work.

4 of the tracks and my most preferred musical directions - 'cream n ya panties, fuck y'all, hey playa, the appeal' are sonically way, way out there. its a new level of clarity, much more so than trauma. his sound has certainly changed/progressed with all the pro-tools gadgets and equipment available these days. but quik has been making sonically outstanding records his whole career, so its extra hard to argue if one iteration of his sound is necessarily better than another.

i think his new album is gonna be real interesting...

[you gon always be my latin queen bitch]

what about put it on me....I think he had alot of input on that song...but this album is really not good and its crazy cuz hey playa is so dope...but its years ahead of the album fareal
put it on me is crazy...thats some dretox shhhh right there

[Digital Pimpin']

Too lean for a detailed review...quick track by track:

1. BlaQKout - Good intro to the album, reminds me a bit of Press Play for some reason, but I tend to skip this one. 7/10

2. Cream N Ya Panties - Funky shit, up there with Quik's best. Guitars and bass are off the hook (Rob Bacon?). Good interplay on the rhymes. 9/10

3. Do You Know - Sounds real fresh and clear. Be good be hear some more of this style. 8/10

4. What U Wan Do - Crap. 2/10

5. Ohh! - This has grown on me but it's still Quik doing Soulja Boy. Like his flow on here tho so I give it a 7/10

6. Fuck Y'all - More sick guitars especially the switch up at the end. 8/10

7. Hey Playa - Loved it at first, but it hasn't stood up over time. The chorus is too noisy and crowded. 6/10

8. Exodus - More sick guitar but this time on a driving reggae beat and it works very well. But why is Kurupt leading an aerobics class over it? 8/10
                (Shoulda been Bombudd III or preferably a Quik's Groove)

9. 9X's Outta 10 - Pretty dope, reminds me of Clipse Grindin'. 09 Kurupt can't carry the whole track tho. 7/10

10. Jupiter's whatever - Experimental but not my cup of tea. Would work well with a UK grime artist, but I hate that shit so 3/10

11. The Appeal - Yep, more sick guitar use. The whole track is dope tho, bit like a 2009 Quik's Groove II. 9/10

12. Skit - Whatever.

13. There was no need to put this twice on a 45 min album!

14. Bonus track - Fixxers leftover? Not that bad tho. 6/10


The album overall seems like a sampler of new styles Quik is working on. The raps are pedestrian with the occasional highlight. The instrumentals are mixed expertly (except 1 or 2), so the album sounds real big, crisp and clear, on a par with Relapse I reckon. There are 5 or 6 decent tracks but the bad ones are really, really shit.

7/10

[Matty]

thanks for the thoughts

exodus is actually really cool, but its hard to imagine it without all the chanting rubbish. strongly disagree with 'hey playa' not being as good as the best tracks on here though.

[Mo-D]

Coulnd't agree with the review more.

I like your views Matty.

Props.

[Bananas]

It was cool to see you put each track in to creative terms, which is only deserving of a quik track.

However though, IMO I'd wanna just reword some of those descriptive terms to suit the technical aspects of the record better. Not disagreeing with any of your opinions, just saying that an artist like Quik who is so engineer-focused, it would be nice to see a review properly surmising his efforst in proper audio terms. Maybe that's just because I'm an engineer myself.

Either way, thanks for the read, I will definitely give the album another listen tonight.

[Matty]

It was cool to see you put each track in to creative terms, which is only deserving of a quik track.

However though, IMO I'd wanna just reword some of those descriptive terms to suit the technical aspects of the record better. Not disagreeing with any of your opinions, just saying that an artist like Quik who is so engineer-focused, it would be nice to see a review properly surmising his efforst in proper audio terms. Maybe that's just because I'm an engineer myself.

Either way, thanks for the read, I will definitely give the album another listen tonight.

don't think i could put into words what's going on in concise, technical terms or the like. i'd have to write loads to express any more than the above. perhaps we could get some of those thoughts from yourself, 'sumising his effort in proper audio terms'? i'd like to read it

[Bananas]

It was cool to see you put each track in to creative terms, which is only deserving of a quik track.

However though, IMO I'd wanna just reword some of those descriptive terms to suit the technical aspects of the record better. Not disagreeing with any of your opinions, just saying that an artist like Quik who is so engineer-focused, it would be nice to see a review properly surmising his efforst in proper audio terms. Maybe that's just because I'm an engineer myself.

Either way, thanks for the read, I will definitely give the album another listen tonight.

don't think i could put into words what's going on in concise, technical terms or the like. i'd have to write loads to express any more than the above. perhaps we could get some of those thoughts from yourself, 'sumising his effort in proper audio terms'? i'd like to read it

Sure, I'd love to re-listen in entirety and review it, I had the same sentiments as you it will just be in nerdier engineer talk.