Doug E. Fresh did not deserve this end. This is only his third studio album, it's kind of weird, curious if you want, that most of the pioneers of the genre didn't make it to two complete LPs, many stopped their career after the second work. Doug E. Fresh isn't even thirty years-old when he releases his third studio album, many years, four years, after his last work, a classic from the late eighties. Capitol Records still believes in him — and indeed, the album enters the Billboard hip-hop chart — but hip-hop is galloping fast and Doug E. Fresh can't keep up with the pace, his album is far behind with the contemporary sound and it maintains a lyricism typical of the early eighties.
Sound of the hospital machine that keeps the vital signs as they drop to zero, skit and tense rhythm, then the patient recovers: it's the intro to the single banger of the disc, "Bustin' Out", with a heavy sample of Rick James, rhythm simple, funky dance, made for the club, cheerful, positive hip dance vibes, light-hearted cheerful syncopated delivery by Doug E. Fresh. Another hip dance cut follows, fresh and cheerful, minimal simple beat, with easygoing and positive syncopated delivery and a simple chorus.
"Back in the Dayz" has a similar, lean, positive and fresh rhythm with a lean, slow and minimal syncopated drum machine, functional hook with bridge featuring ESG's "UFO" sample, on this beat Doug E. Fresh delivers bars with a light-hearted syncopated style, a little beatbox and a positive mood. The fifth choice is cheaper than the previous ones and is so badly made that it doesn't even look like the ballad which is actually, a lean production, a skinny, syncopated and tight drum machine, with a slow and easy delivery and a ballad chorus.
"Come in from the Rain" is another ballad, very simple and mediocre. Doug E. Fresh doesn't cease to amaze and definitively sinks the album: if it weren't enough, if the two consecutive ballads weren't enough, here's a third, consecutive. Yes, another ballad, "I Need a Woman Tonight". I hadn't heard so many close by on a hip-hop album since The Real Roxanne eponymous debut album released in 1988 (and therefore justifiable), but even there I'm sure it was the label that made so many of them and put them all together and I don't think so were consecutive.
Now, this ballad is no better than the previous ones, third in a row, this guy has a problem, he can't control himself, he's probably addicted to ballads, a ballad junkie. With "Check It Out" ballads end. If you got here somehow, there's a simple and cheerful rhythm, skinny boom bap with slow skeletal tight and syncopated drum machine and a lively positive cheerful hook, female sample looped tight in the background and slow syncopated easygoing delivery. The ninth track is a decent and short funky-jazzy instrumental, precedes "Imagine Me Just Pumpin' It Up", simple song, funky rhythm, jazzy intro, frantic and cheap beat with pop functional hook and slow syncopated delivery.
The following track is one of the pretty decent albums: positive, simple, funky cheerful beat, party mood, easygoing slow delivery. "The Money Grip" is light and cheap, Doug E. Fresh no longer knows what to do and returns to venture into reggae style with a light-hearted and syncopated delivery; it remains reggae, semi-reggae, even in the next one, on the umpteenth economic beat of the disc, with a tightly looped female sample chopped in the background; "I Love Myself", "No" and "Vida Mia" are three consecutive hip dance tracks, cheerful, with a tight skin, slow, syncopated and tight drum machine, and a cheerful, easy-going, syncopated delivery by the performer, with a hook that's always functional. The last of these three choices is close to the dance-club, similar to the last track, a decent hip house / hip dance song, with easygoing slow delivery and a cheerful, positive beat.
Quite disappointing as a pioneer third effort. Doug E. Fresh doesn't start badly, but his rhythms quickly become repeated and his bars don't help the fluidity of the disc. Soon the first fillers arrive, the three ballads, the reggae fillers, the crossover new jack cuts, and the hip house / hip dance cuts with which he starts and closes the album.
Rating: 4/10.
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