A friend of Freeway since high school, the Philadelphia rapper got the fellow to sign with Roc-A-Fella Records in 2001, after Freeway had joined the label through a friendship he developed over the years with Beanie Sigel. The following year, Pedro Luis Zayas aka Peedi Crakk released his first single, "One for Peedi Crakk", a song created in collaboration with some guys who will later be part of the State Property group such as Sigel, Freeway and Young Chris: the single entered the rnb charts and ended up on the soundtrack of the film "Paid in Full", released the same year.
The rapper continues to make several high-profile appearances on albums such as Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 2", Freeway's "Philadelphia Freeway" and Beanie Sigel's "The B. Coming". In this period he takes part in the two albums of the State Property group and releases a series of mixtapes that keep his name warm in the circuit, to then change his moniker to Peedi Peedi. In 2005, the Roc-A-Fella splits in two, some decide to follow Jay-Z to Def Jam and others choose to go with Dame Dash to Universal label Dame Dash Music Group: Sigel follows Dash and the group State Property dissolves.
Peedi is among the guys staying with Hova and after a stint as a free agent, Shawn Carter re-signed him with Roc-A-Fella after becoming president of Def Jam. The Philly emcee begins work on his debut studio album, "Prince of the Roc", however the work is continually delayed and never released. In 2006, Peedi Peedi guested on Philadelphia group The Roots' first release with Def Jam, "Game Theory", critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of the year. A year later, the rapper released the only single from his album "Prince of the Roc", "Take Me Home", but following the numerous delays of the project, he decides to openly go against Jay-Z, starting releasing numerous diss tracks about him, exiting his label contract in 2008. Having become an independent artist, Peedi signs with Amalgam Digital and plans a new album, which however is rejected by the label. Before that, in the early days of 2008, Peedi releases this tape.
The tape features guests such as Black Thought, Ghostface Killah, Diddy, MOP, Cassidy, Q-Tip, Memphis Bleek and State Property members Beanie Sigel, Freeway and Young Chris. I don't know who did the production, but it's not a good one, let's put it that way. DJ LRM is credited with mixing. 18 cuts, 53 minutes.
The album is opened by some of the most simplistic, scarce, embarrassing and southern productions of the season. And when, after the first two songs, the production suddenly begins to be melodic and accessible, Peedi Crakk's lean ignorant rap sounds almost decent. The boy can't rap, but his friendship with the Roots is curious, which he reciprocates by placing Black Thought on one of the worst rhythms of this messed up tape. All the well-known names, from Freeway to MOP, surpass him with ease, quite blatantly in "Shake It for Me" where on a scandalously bland and bare production you can see the difference between real rappers and fakes: Ghost Face Killer is clearly superior to all of them over a weak beat like this. That said, the tape doesn't suck, I mean you don't notice how bad, derogatory and insulting it's towards hip-hop until Peedi Crakk spits on the rhythm of "C.R.E.A.M." without being ashamed (towards the end of the "Green Lantern Show" freestyle mix, track number nine). 3/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment