Beanie Sigel — The Solution

Beanie Sigel out of prison after ten months, he's acquitted of a charge of attempted murder, but his legal problems are not over yet. He has to pay child support expenses, reason that brings him back to prison for a short period. Then in May 2006, Sigel was shot multiple times during a robbery in Philadelphia, making it out alive. The emcee strikes a new deal with Roc-A-Fella and starts recording his new album.

Production is one-third handled by Dre & Vidal, the other beats are provided by The Runners, Kevin Cossom, Dame Grease, Cool & Dre, Eric Hudson, Reefa, Rockwilder, Chad Hamilton, Don Cheegro, Dirty Harry and Boola. The chipmunk soul sound has faded out of fashion, behind the keyboards there are neither Just Blaze nor Kanye West, who was intimated by Sigel to come out of the closet. The guests are Jay-Z, R. Kelly, Styles P, Rock City, Diddy, Peedi Crakk, Ghostface Killah, Scarface, Raheem DeVaughn and James Blunt.

With this effort, Sigel goes in search of an unrealistic pop success, each song has a totally different sound in order to attract the largest possible audience. After the introductory pop rap track "All the Above", chosen as the only single on the album with guest singer R. Kelly, which becomes the last song by Beans to enter the charts, with poor production of The Runners and Cossom, the record varies towards music reminiscent of chipmunk soul ("Bout That"), heavy synths ("U Ain't Ready 4 Me"), reggae ("Go Low"), pop rap ("Gutted", "Dear Self"), lo-fi ("Shake It for Me"), chipmunk mixed with jazz ("I'm In"), jazz ("H.H.E.H."), rap metal ("The Day"), jazz and rnb ("Rain") and gospel ("Prayer").

The production is never memorable and the drum is too heavy and thick. The lyrics center around materialistic themes, money, cars, clothes, women, as well as violence, threats, hustling, street, gangsterism and brief conscious, introspective and personal moments. There is a long list of guests who add nothing to the record, with the exception of Scarface, who gives his friend Sigel another gem in his discography, "Dear Self (Can I Talk to You)", which boasts a sample from one of James Blunt's most acclaimed songs, also credited as a guest on the track. "H.H.E.H." and "Prayer" are among the best choices on the tape.

This Beanie Sigel comeback album looks tired and bloated, despite maintaining a tight tracklist and condensing fifty minutes of music. Its questionable quality is appreciated by both music critics and the public, achieving comforting sales results and becoming one of the best-selling hip-hop records of the year, also reaching the third place in the dedicated chart and entering the top 40 of the Billboard 200.

Rating: 6/10.