Freeway — Free at Last

After the great success of his debut album, which was received positively by critics and finished in the top five records in the Billboard 200 and in third place in the rap chart, selling hundreds of thousands of physical copies, Jay-Z retires and the label starts to crumple on itself. Also, Beanie Sigel ends up in prison and relations between him and the State Property group begin to fracture. In the following years, Sigel and Freeway continue to collaborate, while Peedi Crack and Oschino leave the group. Around this time, Freeway converts to the Muslim faith. The Philadelphia rapper then creates his own group, Ice City, and publishes a record that is however ignored by the insiders, and then he takes a hiatus. On his return, after a trip to Mecca, he chooses to release his second studio album four years after his debut. Guests are Marsha Ambrosius, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Scarface, Busta Rhymes, Jadakiss and Rick Ross. Production is split between Bink, Carvin & Ivan, Ron Fair, Jake One, Don Cannon, Needlz, DJ Noodles, Dangerous LLC, Chad "Wes" Hamilton, Cool & Dre, J.R. Rotem, Double-O and Dame Grease.

Actually, it starts pretty strong with two excellent tracks. "This Can't Be Real" focuses on a jazzy, heavy, soulful production, beautiful soundscape realized by Ron Fair, Carvin & Ivan. Marsha Ambrosius sings the chorus, while Freeway delivers hardcore with a great flow, facing the breakup into the Roc-A-Fella label. The second choice is "It's Over", that is formed by a heavy, simple, ignorant beat by Jake One, it wants to be jazzy production, it wants to imitate Large Pro / Pete Rock, or at worst Just Blaze, the rhythm isn't be able to do it very well, Free delivers like a crazy narrating how he tried in vain to contact his previous producers Just Blaze and Kanye West, even dissing the now-famous rap-star West, leaving empty handed and discovering that he had lost his connections built early in career. It follows a song produced by Bink with a soul sample, then the celebratory "Roc-A-Fella Billionaires" with the head of Roc-A-Fella Jay-Z over a production accredited to Dame Grease: this song is chosen as the album's first single and reaches the rnb chart, without being able to generate particular profits.

Freeway attempts to solidify its legacy greatly with "When They Remember", spitting rage and whipping the beat provided by Bink that uses a heavy sample of "The Way We Were" by Gladys Knight and The Pips, even if the sample isn't fully valorized and sounds dirty and raw. After reaching its peak with this banger, the record ditches on "Take It to the Top", the first of some songs for the club and for women: 50 Cent was originally supposed to be the co-executive producer of the Freeway album with Jay-Z, then he pulls back, however, maintaining the featuring in this song and some G-Unit productions on the album. This track is a cheesy low level rnb track with a wack hook and shoddy, light production that can't stand Freeway delivery, the main rapper tries to get it out of the club and into the street, without too much success and sounding unfit. The track stands out as the worst song on the album and certifies that Freeway isn't a mainstream rapper for the charts.

The next track maintains G-Unit sound with a poor rhythm on which the Philadelphia emcee isn't at his best and the hook brings the song back to the grave, Freeway fails to return to form even on the first of two rhythms by Chad Hamilton, a mediocre jazzy production over which the boy sounds partially unfit. The title track getting back on track this album: jazzy production by Double-O, questionable hook, not-powerful delivery by Free, this isn't a very strong cut, but is one of the best here. In the final part, the record reserves to us two of its finest songs, "Baby Don't Do It" with Scarface as a guest and Chad Hamilton behind the keyboards, and "Walk with Me" featuring Busta Rhymes and Jadakiss over a good production by Don Cannon. In between there's "Huttin' on Me", a tumble-down production by the last G-Unit beatmakers (Needlz) that stay in the half between going to the street and going to the club, the rapper tries to do something with it, but he can't do miracles.

After that, Cool & Dre pull out "Lights Get Low", struggling to create the ugliest track on the record, with a production that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the album, including the bad songs by the G-Unit boys: disco rhythm, completely half-ass done, is ignorant, is donkey, is pseudo-techno, is a kind of voluminously disgusting synthesized boom bap on which Freeway tries to unleash himself but looks like a crazed child when he sees the ice cream truck and can no longer spits out a clear syllable, hook cheesy R&B/soul by Dre, Rick Ross complete the work. "I Cry" closes the LP, light but sweet-honey production by DJ Noodles, Free delivers slow, tearful, not at his best in one of his rare emo-rap songs.

After releasing a promising solo debut, also hailed by some enthusiasts as an underground classic, which brought him much success and a good audience niche, Freeway finds himself in the midst of conflicts within his group, confusion in his label and he even chooses to create his own group, to then take a break for still unclear reasons, losing its momentum and failing to capitalize on the success of its record.

Upon his return, four years after that project, Freeway can no longer rely on the boys of the State Property group, protagonists in his debut, and in their place manages to get several high-profile guests thanks to Jay-Z, remained the only common denominator between the two Freeway CDs. Carter has already returned from retirement and has released several albums, Roc-A-Fella is already in decline and the Philadelphia emcee must also give up the help of Just Blaze and Kanye West behind the keyboards, which had helped create the identity of his debut album. Their substitutes maintain the wake of that chipmunk soul sound that had invested the circuit in the early 2000s and that has one of its freshest documents in "Philadelphia Freeway", retaining several soul samples on this CD, while failing to have the same brilliance as the best moments of Just Blaze.

Freeway maintains a powerful and consistent rapping, using a lyricism that doesn't stray from the typical dictates of gangsta rap, mixing the usual violent, menacing and street bars with more reflective ones. The disc is solid and consistent, although its regularity is compromised by club tracks and bad beats made by the G-Unit squad brought in by 50 Cent. The rest of the production is good and enjoyable and the guests don't disappoint, making for some of the album's strongest moments.

Rating: 7/10.