Post by fugees-online on Jan 7, 2006 15:08:51 GMT 1
Notorious B.I.G.
Duets: The Final Chapter
Bad Boy Entertainment; 2005
According to Merriam-Webster, a duet is a composition for two performers. How ironic that an album titled Duets only features three duets out of 17 songs. But that is only scratching the surface for an album so disastrous in nature.
Once upon a time, the ghost of Christopher Wallace had bragging rights over the ghost of Tupac Shakur, in that his legacy hadn’t been tarnished by unnecessary bastardized posthumous releases put out to capitalize on how well dead artists sell. Thus is not the case anymore. Diddy (or whatever name he goes by this week) has successfully pulled off a Loyalty To The Game with the Notorious B.I.G.’s “new” release, Duets: The Final Chapter, cramming up to five artists on newly produced tracks featuring rehashed and reused Biggie verses. And to be blunt, it sucks. Badly.
The set commences with “The Most Shady”, featuring Eminem rapping and his terrible production “talents”, Obie Trice, and Diddy doing his best to read a verse that Slim Shady so obviously wrote for him. Somebody forgot to tell Diddy to put a Biggie Smalls verse on this song. Yes, the opening track of a Notorious B.I.G. album lacks a Notorious B.I.G. verse. But hey, at least we get to hear a few ad-libs from him in the background!
The new single, “Nasty Girl” is a sort of sequel to Life After Death’s “Nasty Boy”, and features one of Big’s verses from the track. Jagged Edge contributes a wonderfully tasteless chorus, as Diddy and Nelly show us how to be outshined by someone who died years ago. Equally disgraceful are “I’m Wit’ Whateva”, an awkward collaboration with Lil’ Wayne and The Diplomats, and “Spit Your Game” with Twista and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Swizz Beatz’ lackluster remake of “Notorious Thugs.”
Duets: The Final Chapter is too overwhelming a beast to enjoy. This is an album made to please as many people as possible and has little focus, as Diddy crams as many artists as possible on the disc, including Jay-Z, The Game, Korn, Big Pun, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Mobb Deep, T.I. and Bob Marley. The one main highlight comes in the wonderful orchestral production provided by Just Blaze on “Living in Pain”, which features 2Pac, Nas and Mary J. Blige. Otherwise, Duets is an album that: (a) the masses will likely eat up; but (b) die-hard hip-hop heads and Biggie Smalls fans will loathe. I choose to proudly bubble in (b).
– Adrian Ru
Duets: The Final Chapter
Bad Boy Entertainment; 2005
According to Merriam-Webster, a duet is a composition for two performers. How ironic that an album titled Duets only features three duets out of 17 songs. But that is only scratching the surface for an album so disastrous in nature.
Once upon a time, the ghost of Christopher Wallace had bragging rights over the ghost of Tupac Shakur, in that his legacy hadn’t been tarnished by unnecessary bastardized posthumous releases put out to capitalize on how well dead artists sell. Thus is not the case anymore. Diddy (or whatever name he goes by this week) has successfully pulled off a Loyalty To The Game with the Notorious B.I.G.’s “new” release, Duets: The Final Chapter, cramming up to five artists on newly produced tracks featuring rehashed and reused Biggie verses. And to be blunt, it sucks. Badly.
The set commences with “The Most Shady”, featuring Eminem rapping and his terrible production “talents”, Obie Trice, and Diddy doing his best to read a verse that Slim Shady so obviously wrote for him. Somebody forgot to tell Diddy to put a Biggie Smalls verse on this song. Yes, the opening track of a Notorious B.I.G. album lacks a Notorious B.I.G. verse. But hey, at least we get to hear a few ad-libs from him in the background!
The new single, “Nasty Girl” is a sort of sequel to Life After Death’s “Nasty Boy”, and features one of Big’s verses from the track. Jagged Edge contributes a wonderfully tasteless chorus, as Diddy and Nelly show us how to be outshined by someone who died years ago. Equally disgraceful are “I’m Wit’ Whateva”, an awkward collaboration with Lil’ Wayne and The Diplomats, and “Spit Your Game” with Twista and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Swizz Beatz’ lackluster remake of “Notorious Thugs.”
Duets: The Final Chapter is too overwhelming a beast to enjoy. This is an album made to please as many people as possible and has little focus, as Diddy crams as many artists as possible on the disc, including Jay-Z, The Game, Korn, Big Pun, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Mobb Deep, T.I. and Bob Marley. The one main highlight comes in the wonderful orchestral production provided by Just Blaze on “Living in Pain”, which features 2Pac, Nas and Mary J. Blige. Otherwise, Duets is an album that: (a) the masses will likely eat up; but (b) die-hard hip-hop heads and Biggie Smalls fans will loathe. I choose to proudly bubble in (b).
– Adrian Ru