DJ Khaled — We the Best

WE THE BEST MUSEEEE. 2007. Khaled returns. Khaled is back for his sophomore after the horrible debut and brings thirty guests, yes, for ten tracks. Rick Ross, T.I., Akon, Birdman, Fat Joe, Jeezy, Juelz Santana, Dre of Cool & Dre, T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Plies, Pooh Bear, The Game, Jadakiss, Bun B, Paul Wall, Trina, Flo Rida, Brisco, C-Ride, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Ja Rule. The solo track of Beanie Sigel is good, the rest of the LP almost all suck, only Weezy looks decent here (but he's still in the wake of his best career period), clearly MVP of this album.

Enhanced intro by Rick Ross on jazzy rhythm, then skit. Khaled immediately places six guests to mess up a boom bap so confused as to be incomprehensible, T.I. starts like rocket, Akon's hook, then Rick Ross, Fat Joe and a passable Birdman, closes Weezy best of all. I want to summarize it like this and save you unnecessary details. It's not a decent song, it's not. "Brown Paper Bag", on the other hand, it's almost good: the boom bap chosen by Cool & Dre is quite mediocre and it's a song that remains in its mediocrity until Lil Wayne decides to give it a tone with a half-spoken delivery, Joe closes but Carter has already gone with the title of the best.

"I'm So Hood" follows which is... what is it? In production, we remain on mediocrity, still boom bap, none of the chosen performers stands out here. Beanie Sigel's solo arrives, welcomed with open arms by a dark hardcore boom bap done very badly by Khaled, Sigel pulls out some lines but the cut doesn't work completely, despite being among the best in the tape. The seventh song is "I'm From the Ghetto" (again, who chooses the titles?), another boom bap too fat to be acceptable and a revisable hook.

A little southern freshness comes with the choice of Bun B, which is anything but flowing here, and Paul Wall, this is camouflaged with the very heavy boom bap. Don't deceive yourself, the production doesn't improve, not yet: heavy and ugly, fat boom bap that mixes in mediocrity with the others, not different from the others. Carter tries to set a tone, but the Cash Money brothers don't budge here. Cut number ten, and it looks like the number THIRTY FIVE. Here Trina leaves everyone behind, with a verse delivered at twice the speed of the beat, a slow and heavy production, cumbersome, static. Props also to Brisco that fits well, the others I haven't received, this record is one of the worst performances of Rick Ross ever.

Finally we see the light thanks to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on a darker heavier and fatter hardcore rhythm than the previous ones, if possible, realized by Cool & Dre, Khaled presents the whole group and makes them perform for four minutes and quickly, you see six minutes because the rest is all introduction. This album, one of the albums with the most original titles of 2007, is closed by "New York Is Back": Jadakiss and Fat Joe in a boom bap that revises "New York" invented by Ja; there are all again, Cool & Dre's heavy rough boom bap, Joe's bad, better the others.

Heavy listening, avoid it.

Rating: 4/10.