Full blown sophomore jinx for Black Sheep, a hip-hop duo formed in the Bronx made up of NY rappers Andres "Dres" Titus and William "Mista Lawnge" McLean, both of whom grew up in North Carolina. The production is entirely made by Black Sheep, while Showbiz & AG, The Legion and Sweet Tee are the guests.
The intro boasts a beautiful rhythm, with a lean light syncopated drum and a good piano, the beat is let to breathe, then there's a spoken intro: it's perhaps the only good thing about the whole LP, then the record collapses immediately. "Autobiographic" is a cut of over five minutes: ridiculous sample, skinny drum, slow pounding syncopated, good bridge with eccentric piano for the chorus, however, the joint is bad from a musical point of view. The performers drop the lyrics with a slow, light-hearted, effortless, almost decent rapping style, but at times annoying, their voice isn't good: it's an exhausting song, even two minutes would have been excessive. An even worse track follows: good jazzy sample, essential and pounding slow syncopated drum machine, decent rhythm, slow syncopated delivery. Then comes a rnb chorus, it's a big downfall of this pseudo-hip hop. "City Lights" has a rhythm made up of intro, quirky samples, lean slow syncopated drum machine, functional hook and slow syncopated delivery: it's still a bad cut, despite everything.
"Do Your Thing" succeeds in the great feat attempted by all the other tracks in this long disc: it's the worst of the edition. Boom bap cheap and scarce, poor drum, skeletal, very slow, ridiculous sample, spoken intro, slow syncopated delivery without energy of the two boys, here they've no desire, then functional hook. The song stretches beyond five minutes, exhausting. Showbiz & AG save their cut in "E.F.F.E.C.T.", first song with a guest: intro, cheap boom bap, slow skeletal syncopated drum machine, ridiculous samples as usual. AG, the same rapper who after the second decade of activity will have lost all his energy on the mic, here he sounds slightly more energetic than the other two amoebas, but probably, he has the same level of desire and energy as they do, almost as if he were a missed third member of the Black Sheep. He sounds bland like the next two rappers, he's not great, he's not good, and he doesn't even sound good, but somehow, he's better than the others, here as bad as usual. Unfortunately, the only one who would have the energy to ignite this shoddy production is Showbiz, who stays on the bench until injury time, when he brings out an outro that has ten times more energy than the entire previous three verses. It's one of the best cuts of the edition and is a quite weak and sluggish piece.
Choice number seven features a piece of nearly five minutes: poor and cheap skeletal production, the drum sounds bad, and there's a decent sample sax, plus, it always takes a shoddy intro to every track, here lame. On this beat, the two rappers spit out bars with a lazy style. In "Gotta Get Up", Dres & Mista Lawnge also remember being a rap group and deliver slowly hardcore for nearly five minutes on a cheap jazzy boom bap, with weak skeletal slow drum and mediocre samples. The cut stands out among others, the style of execution seems to be one of the few things thought of in these 76 minutes. Then, the album regains its comforting mediocre and ridiculous nature: intro, functional hook with wacky sample, fast skeletal and annoying syncopated snare drum, good sample, slow-flowing syncopated delivery in this tasteless cut.
"Me & My Brother" is a bad track, almost five minutes long: economic and jazzy musical carpet, anticipated by the usual ridiculous sample — but where do they find them? Damn. Who's in production, Teddy Bear? — slow syncopated skinny drum machine, functional hook, lazy delivery. It's yet another bad piece of the edition, but Black Sheep will also be able to do worse towards the end of the LP. The next track features a thumping skeletal drum and an inaudible sample, overshadowed by the slow shouted delivery from the boys, with functional hook and another poor sample, perhaps the same as the previous track. Choice twelve is the last almost decent thing before a vertical collapse: weak drum machine, slow pounding syncopated, indecent sample, cheap rhythm, slow flowing delivery of the group, spitting thing out for over five minutes. The song takes the listener to the final section, simply one of the worst of the year. "Summa the Time" is a rnb filler: simple rhythm, lean slow and pounding drum, light in the background, sample rnb let to breathe, intro, then slow syncopated delivery of the duo, with functional rnb hook. There's a good sax sample in the post-hook, but it can't save this mess.
"We Boys" presents the second guests of the album, The Legion, Bronx hip-hop trio affiliated with Black Sheep, discovered by them and then signed with Dres' own label One Love Records: ridiculous sample left to breathe, then intro, slow syncopated skinny drum, poor rhythm, slow syncopated delivery, guests who perform with a decent style, but the tune is confused and poor in the its six minutes. Sweet Tee is the last guest on the tape, in "Who's Next", choice of over five minutes: decent jazzy rare sample, intro, lean slow syncopated drum, lean rhythm with good bass line, slow syncopated delivery, functional chorus. The host performs better than the other two, and it was a fairly straightforward task, however, the cut sounds like a rnb filler. Track number sixteen is made up of a poor rhythm, mediocre samples and a lean, slow syncopated drum: hummed intro, functional chorus, slow, smooth syncopated delivery of the performers. The disc is finally closed by the outro: finally, after 73 minutes, there are the last three to listen to. accessible rhythm, light drum, decent jazzy sample, too bad there is that annoying voice in the background that says things and ruins the best joint of the record.
Distributed by PolyGram, via Mercury, the record achieves little commercial success for being a Native Tongues album in one of the moments in which the collective is most popular (top 15 rap records, out of the top 100 in the pop chart) and is ignored by critics. Musically it's embarrassing, with cheap and poor rhythms, poor samples, dull and weak drum machines, while lyrically, these guys spit things out randomly and for 76 minutes they say nothing. The record is exhausting and nonsense, there are intro, outro and 15 very long cuts, all over four minutes without exception, many times going beyond five minutes, absurdly: these kids can't make songs under this minute, and that fact is horrible. With this ridiculous length, it would be an only accessible LP if the music was good, but it isn't: three years after debut, Black Sheep made a very bad record and fell off the debut pedestal.
Due to virtually no promotion by the major label and with a bad critical reception, the album is a flop in sales, despite being launched by two singles that become minor hits, "Without a Doubt" topped rnb and rap charts, "North, South, East, West" reaches #14 spot on dance chart. Black Sheep broke up shortly after the release of this sophomore, disbanding in 1995 also citing creative differences between the two members.
Rating: 4/10.
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