Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 05/19/2009
With each having individual obligations all over the place, it took ten years for
Method Man and
Redman to record a follow-up to 1999's beloved
Blackout!, but one listen and you'd think it had only been ten days. Interplay during the intro proves that none of the chemistry is lost, then the slow-grinding
"I'm Dope Ni**a" declares that happy and horribly high days are here again, with mentions of
Club Nouveau plus
Tango & Cash putting a date stamp on the duo. Their fine vintage is displayed two tracks later when
"Dangerous MCees" spits "Even
Herbie Hancock know where to
Rockit" over a beat that's identifiably
Erick Sermon. It's topped by the
Phyllis Hyman loop
Pete Rock cuts for the preceding track,
"A-Yo," a superior weekend anthem featuring
Saukrates from
Redman's
Gilla House group. With the sound of the South having exploded since the first
Blackout!, the hypnotic highlight
"City Lights" with guest
Bun B plus a
UGK sample is identifiable as post-2000. Also of its time is the dreaded Auto-Tune device, which corrects some pitch here and there, although its polish is negated on
"I Know Sumptn" by the very
Redman lyric "Check my bowel baby/This is the mother load." Mentions of riding jet skis on land and all sorts of other absurdities sit next to innovative viewpoints on sleaze, then
"Dis Iz 4 All My Smokers" does the weed song right as the blunt brothers roll over a
DJ Scratch track that sounds heavily influenced by
RZA. Speaking of
Wu-Tang members,
Raekwon and
Ghostface appear on the key cut
"Four Minutes to Lock Down," an intense barrage of Shaolin lyrics that helps anchor an album that's often just a party on wax. The original deserves the top spot, but think of this as the
Godfather Part II of reckless boom-bap rap and you've got an idea of how well this
Blackout! satisfies.
~David Jeffries, All Music Guide
;)
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