Fourth studio album released by Big Noyd. There's not much to say. The first thing that's easily noticed is that, essentially, it's the first album without Mobb Deep. In any case, the author maintains the link with the group through that "The Infamous..." present on the cover, which is also reported in the images of his second and fourth solo efforts. Fizzy Womack and Ric Rude are the main beatmakers of the tape, the rest of the set is composed by Sebb, Machavelli, Prince, Street Radio, DJ Skizz, The Bad Parts and Blessiol. The guests are Rc Rude, Joell Ortiz, Serani, Kira, Jay Rush, 40 Glocc and BAM.
It looks more like a mixtape than an album, no track goes far beyond three minutes. I don't know why this tape attracted more [critical] attention than the previous ones, but listening to it, it doesn't seem to deserve it. For the umpteenth time in his career, Noyd maintains his consummate formula to extracting a sort of album-photocopy of the previous ones: tight rhythms, g-shit lyrics dear to him and monotonous flow that over the years has failed to improve / develop. Thanks to some well-chosen rhythms, listening is quite accessible, it flows quickly without high notes, although it remains fairly mediocre. To help Noyd on this effort, several producers appear behind keyboards, including Ric Rude and Lil' Fame of M.O.P.
"So Much Trouble", produced by Machavelli & Prince, offers a simple, essential, light and dark rhythm with a piano looped in the background, in this tune Serani sings badly amidst the bad lyricism provided by Noyd. There's an infernal triptych of Ric Rude between tracks 10-12: in "It's a Wrap", he improvises as a rapper on a very tense, dark, essential and tight jazzy beat provided by Machavelli & Prince, with a rather weak rapping. He returns behind the keyboards for "Trying to Make It Out", with a decent light jazzy attempt over which 40 Glocc and BAM perform worst than Noyd, and for "Nowhere Else to Hide", where Ric Rude has the genius idea to create a skeletal jazzy rhythm using a single very tight looped piano key, so annoying as to make you think that he did it to make the listener go mad crazy. By skipping this choice you don't miss anything.
Ric Rude guesses the beat in "Ghetto": excellent tense and dark rhythm, Noyd's tight delivery, here overshadowed by Joell Ortiz which brings freshness to this record. "Things Done Changed" boasts a good light, essential, tight and modern jazzy production pulled out by Lil' Fame who also places a very deep looped soul sample in the background to reinforce the simple rhythm: so well done that it practically obscures Noyd's decent rapping, to which's added a well executed Kira soulful hook.
Released by Koch, Big Noyd announces it like "his real solo album" (??). The project suffers from the problems of his previous albums and ends up sounding like yet another disk made with the cookie cutter for Noyd, despite the already noted absence of his friends Havoc & Prodigy. The music is sterile and sloppy, annoying for a good part of the time and weak in the best moments, some productions sound like faded copies of those of Swizz Beatz, and I want to remember that this guy is never a role model for producers.
The pen of the emcee from Queens is at the minimum as far as inspiration is concerned, finding benefit in the clichés of thug rap and the trinity of bravado, taking refuge in the usual themes of women, drugs and money, in addition to various gangsterisms watered down in violence, always continuing to represent his own neighborhood. Not to mention that the boy also tries the commercial route without obtaining feedbacks. Ultimately, the album isn't a must for fans.
Rating: 5/10.
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