Slaughterhouse — Slaughterhouse

In 2008, joe budden is working on his third solo studio album. It's another one of those albums that won't buy anyone and there are no guests. I don't think anyone would really want to be there. He has a beef with Royce da 5'9" right now, and besides, what rapper hasn't had beef with this guy? The following year, he cried with the reporters after Raekwon managed to reach him in person. Going back to beef with Royce, budden manages to convince him to end the feud and work together because "it would be good for the Internet" (what?); Royce has no intention of doing it and knows he doesn't have to, however, he decides to collaborate with budden on his track, "Slaughterhouse", exclusively because there will also be Joell Ortiz, Nino Bless (who will later be excluded from the group) and Crooked I. The song gets a very positive response among fans and many on the internet ask that a group be formed among these rappers, the suggestions are listened to, and the group is born.

The three MCs and budden come from different moments before the release of the album. The corny dude comes from three studio albums, having debuted six years earlier with Def Jam who made him the new puppet of pop rap before liquidating him. Joell Ortiz signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath, but released his solo album with Koch Records, left Aftermath and now is looking for a new label. Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s, Crooked I is under contract with Noo Trybe, a subsidiary of Virgin, DPG Records, a subsidiary of Death Row and with Death Row itself, he collaborates with some of the biggest names on the West Coast, without being able to publish a solo album. The advent of the internet is a showcase for his talent in marketing and hip-hop, and allows him to build a remarkable fanbase online, attracting the attention of major hip-hop magazines.

Finally, Royce da 5'9", his name is linked to that of Eminem with whom he collaborated, written for him, with him (Bad Meets Evil), argued, then made peace. Meanwhile, he also made his debut in 2002 under Columbia, before continuing as an independent with two more records, and hasn't released an album in four years. In summary, these four guys come after tough times in the music industry, have lived in the annoying and discouraging mixtapes circuit, have been rejected or used by major labels, have had to struggle with their drug and alcohol addictions. Slaughterhouse's first album, released by E1, relaunches them all and is a notable commercial success, reaching the top 30 among pop records and second place in the rap and independent charts. Furthermore, it's universally praised by critics.

First studio album by hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, consisting of rappers Joell Ortiz of New York, Dominick "KXNG Crooked" Wickliffe of Long Beach, and Ryan "Royce da 5'9"" Montgomery of Detroit. There's also the "media personality", which is a term that means that for some reason you are on television even if you can't do anything, joe budden, from New York. Production is handled by Streetrunner, Focus, The Alchemist, DJ Khalil, The New Royales, Emile, Mr. Porter, RealSon, and Filthy Rockwell. Guests are Kay Young, The New Royales, Fatman Scoop, Pharoahe Monch, Novel, Melanie Rutherford and C. Brown.

Production is the huge problem of this product and it's the right place to start: the rhythms are chosen exclusively by Royce, a rapper who has shown in his albums that he doesn't have one of the best ears on the circuit. The sound chosen by the Motor City artist, made by a dozen different beatmakers, is too hard, closed, dull, cheap and simplistic, it's the equivalent of a gray brick wall. The producers seem to be all scarce, they bring out poor generic productions, in which the jazz and soul samples should mitigate that brick wall, simply ending up bumping into their heads uselessly. The Alchemist is the most gifted behind the keyboards and takes down one of its most generic beats. The production really hurts you and drags the whole record down.

To counterbalance the musical side of the record, there's rap, provided directly by the three artists, as well as budden, one of the weakest in history to do this thing, this guy is a mockery for the game and for the players (cit. Prodigy). The lack of imagination definitively annihilates the project: title, cover, lyrics, hooks, guests, flows, rhythms, even the formation in the single songs is repeated over and over again. Royce is often first, then there's Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and finally, often last, the other. Therefore, many tracks end in the third verse. Sometimes the second and third performers are reversed, or the third and fourth, it changes little. The album is totally structured in battle rap between the four, in which the topics revolve around braggadocio, violence, weapons, women, and weed, where misogyny and homophobia run freely. The delivery of the guys is fine, they're fast, they're fresh, they're energetic, the punchlines are there at times, and the lyrics say nothing, they often fall flat despite the hardcore inflections. Everything sounds hurried, erratic and generic, as if it was done in a work week: it's very disappointing to be labeled as the debut album of one of the best rap supergroups of its time. 5/10.