Grand Puba — 2000

This is one of the poorest jazz rap albums I've heard lately. What happened to Maxwell "Grand Puba" Dixon, who is supposed to be the top MC of Brand Nubian? Everything is supposed to work out on this solo record, yet nothing is really going as it should.

He's in the paddock of Elektra, which is going through a troubled period due to an internal battle between Warner executives. The production is made by a few guys, good on paper, such as Mark Sparks, Minnesota, DJ Alamo, Chris Liggio and Dante Ross, while the singer Michelle Valdes Valentin is the only guest of the disc. There's a limited number of songs whose rare flaw is excessive playing time, and zero skits.

Sparks and Minnesota bring together two thirds of the music and are the main responsible for the rhythms: the production is the strong part of the project, unfortunately it's not good enough to hold up the whole LP by itself. There's something that doesn't work from the first rhythm: the drum of "Very Special" falls tired, downtempo, without desire, pseudo-hard, there's a melodic sample by Mary J. Blige, then Grand Puba starts singing. And he never stops. He sings throughout the album. It's as if Elektra didn't really want to put the money to pay for the samples: the rapper asks for Delfonics and Isley Brothers, and after not getting them, he's forced to sing the desired segments himself. He doesn't sound good. The song doesn't sound good. There would be xmas bells in the background, but who cares? His rap is slow, limp, effortless, bored.

Things are much worse on "I Like It (I Wanna Be Where You Are)", track number two and lead single on the album, which tries to find its own way up the charts, without much success. Great production by Mark Sparks, boom bap, dirty dusty drum, lean and tight, midtempo, elegant piano sample by Cal Tjader. Then come more samples from Rudy Ray Moore and DeBarge. The rhythm, left to breathe, is destined to be a masterpiece, but the whole track collapses as soon as Grand Puba begins to speak: his rap isn't energetic, he's not inspired, he's not confident, he doesn't sound his best. He talks, brings out a chanting style and goes back to singing: Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, The Stylistics, Crash Crew, Rose Royce, Force M.D.'s. For the other forty minutes, Puba sings and spits brag in a soft, sparse, dull style, over a hard drum and some dark loops, he's mumbling things all the time, his rapping is pre-mumble, tired, lacking in the energy of previous years.

Released by Elektra, the album gained public favor, reaching the top 50 in the pop chart and fifth place among the rap releases, but critics didn't consider it. Quite disappointing, on the whole, it ends up being too long with almost fifty minutes of material in which the defects of the tape are more evident than the few positive sides.

Rating: 5/10.