After leaving his group A-Team, Randy Jay "Ransom" Nicholls focuses on his solo artistic career in the rap game and in 2008 releases one of his first albums. The production is realized by True, Zurc, Jamie Cooley, Trackdealez Skizmuzik, Mayor, Loonatic, MoSS, Sev, DJ Trigga, Nel E Nel, Scram Jones, and Ransom himself. Stack Bundles, tied with the rap group A-Team, makes a posthumous appearance as the only credited guest.
The first track of the disk is "No Introduction": boom bap realized by True and Zurc, rough rhythm, hard drum, rough bass, synths sparse, Ransom goes hardcore with bravado rhymes intertwined with street bars and other more personal ones, dropping a single extra-verse. The same beatmakers realize the beat number two for "Grind and Hustle": cheap and chaotic rhythm, rough bass, crazy hi-hats, the rapper spits fire over this beat, with a chorus leaved to a sample from Jadakiss. Jamie Cooley realizes the rhythm for "Jersey": female soul sample looped so that it looks twisted, light minimal drum, rough bass line, shrill horn loop, the rap is partly obscured by the rhythm due to an amateurish mixing, which probably isn't even there, given the audio quality.
Trackdealez Skizmuzik realizes one of the worst rhythm of this effort: light drum, pop bass line, hi-hats that dominates the music, weak samples that don't reward the rapping style of Ransom in "Ain't Knowbody". The main producer of the tape Mayor creates a nice liquid solution for "Love Iz Life": good bass line, hard drum midtempo, well-made samples, Ransom runs smoothness over this soundscape. Loonatic produces a tight musical carpet in "Walk, Talk", Ransom guessed the chorus and spits correct over this rhythm, that sounds messed up but still livable, thanks to a nice orchestral loop sample from the "Braveheart" soundtrack by James Horner and The London Symphony Orchestra. It's one of the few cinematic rhythms of the tape.
MoSS is the mind beyond "You Know What We About", cheap drum, piano keys in loop, bass in background, Ransom tries to wrap the entire song around the chorus, something missing here, I don't know what. Mayor returns behind the keys in the joint number eight, "Young Ransom": soulful sample from "Hang Your Head in Shame" by rnb group New York City, uptempo skeletal drum, gloomy mood, deep bass that stays in background, keyboards twisted, this is one of the few cinematic beats here. Ransom flows at home, delivering a unique stanza with a silky rapping, dope. The rhythm breathes for a minute.
"Big Wheelz" presents Sev in the production: the rhythm is almost exactly 2007. Cheap, chaotic, full of random elements, hi-hats wander around the beat causing millions of dollars of damage without worrying about the consequences, worried drums, samples that struggle to fit, the bass looks the other way, the rhythm is also held hostage by the synthesizers, which do what they want. With all the effort in the world, nothing good can come out of this beat, even though Ransom shows his talent even on this messy and unsalvageable production.
DJ Trigga produces "Love". Even having realized that the song is by 2Pac, I get to the original sample after at least five minutes, "Better Dayz". The sample is rendered chipmunk, or at least it sounds like that, skeletal midtempo drum, solid bass, Ransom lets the rhythm breathes then delivers fluid, creating one of the finest track in this CD, dedicating this song to his mom. Nel E Nel is behind the keyboards for the track number eleven, "Lookin' Back": sweet strings, nice bass line, harsh drum, hi-hats sparse, discreet piece. Other cinematic / comic book rhythm for "Cash in Da Duffle", invented by Scram Jones: midtempo light drum, strings, deep bass in background, good musical carpet for Ransom and Stack Bundles.
The beatmaker Mayor offers a good beat for the next track, cheap drum, fast bouncy piano keys, nice samples, the emcee destroys the rhythm. The same Mayor takes a dope loop from David Porter's "Storm in the Summertime", song already used by the rapper a couple of years ago in "Str8 2 Da Top", while the loop is the same used by Mathematics for Ghostface Killah's "Strawberry". Light drum, cheap drum and hi-hats, rough bass, female soul loop, Ransom confronts himself with Wu-Tang emcees here.
Nel E Nel and Zurc are credited for the rhythm of "Shine", cheap solution invented by the two, chipmunk soul loop whiny and almost irritating, cheap uptempo drum, the bass line sounds very bad, this kind of boom bap is tasteless, It can't be saved by the author, who also tries to make an overly simple chorus with the help of a sample that doesn't help him. Ransom himself produces the last track of this record, "Soul 2 Keep", bouncy drums, sad piano keys, the bass stays in background, regular rapping.
The record is released by Babygrande Records in a period when the first golden age of chipmunk soul was fading, and here we find some half-baked and watered-down remnants of what appeared to be the cornerstone sound of the most popular hip-hop albums of the early 2000s, and at the same time the genre was moving toward a sound more tied to hooks, minimal production and elements drawn from Southern. The result is an album devoid of any real direction or identity, which is not a good result musically.
Rating: 4/10.
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