South Central Los Angeles rapper Ahmad Ali Lewis makes his debut in the rap game with an album produced by Giant and Reprise, released by Warner Bros.
The production is made by Kendall, moniker of Stefan Gordy, son of the founder of Motown who goes down in history about fifteen years later for making bad music under the name Red Foo, in the LMFAO duo formed with his nephew. A rhythm is left to Brian Walls and DJ Moe. The beats produced by Kendall are amateurish and simplistic: funky boom bap, with slow syncopated drum, sometimes vibrant, with some random bass line, and weak samples.
Already in this record, the producer, on his debut behind the keyboards, enjoys making fun of the listener and the disc is filled with hip dance fillers in the central part, with extravagant and commercial choices. Ahmad's delivery style doesn't help: the guy, not even in his twenties, spits generic bars with a slow, lazy, listless, rarely fluid rap. If there's anything worth listening to is the remix of the hit "Back in the Day" (#3 in the rap song chart; certified gold by RIAA in the same year), which by a curious coincidence is one of the few not produced by Kendall: relaxed lounge beat, skeletal slow syncopated drum machine, great light funky boom bap rhythm made by Ahmad, Jay Supreme and DJ Moe, with sublime samples, Ahmad provides lazy hook and lazy delivery.
Also interesting is the second remix of the song, "Jeep Mix", which has a rhythm equal to the previous one: nothing changes and I don't understand what the difference is, compared to the previous five minutes. The entire LP stretches up to 55 minutes, which for 10 tracks plus 2 remixes is excessive: there are several grueling tracks beyond four and five minutes, the performer hardly ever makes things interesting, I don't care what this guy says, and the production is forgettable, at best. Not recommended, 5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment