Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 09/16/2003
For a New York-based label,
TVT has certainly put out a lot of
Dirty South releases -- some of them violent, totally thugged-out
gangsta rap, some of them party music. One might wonder why a company with a Manhattan address would be so into the
Dirty South; after all, some Northeastern
hip-hop heads can be quite provincial and act like they're oblivious to rappers who live below the Mason-Dixon. But then, the folks who run
TVT are entrepreneurs, and they obviously realize that the
Dirty South market is huge -- and that Southern rappers can make a fortune from the Southern states alone. How well
Me & My Brother does in Brooklyn, the Bronx, or Philadelphia is almost irrelevant; this 2003 release is primarily aimed at
Dirty South audiences, and the material has the familiar crunk elements -- barking vocals, chanted choruses, and explicit lyrics celebrating the pleasures of sex, decadence, intoxication, and hedonism. Occasionally,
the Ying Yang Twins get sociopolitical; the Atlanta-based duo addresses inner-city problems on
"Hard" and the
rock-edged
"Calling All Zones" (which aims to be a regional theme for Atlanta the way that
Petey Pablo's
"Raise Up" was for North Carolina). But for the most part,
Me & My Brother is a party album, and exuberant, hook-filled tunes like
"Salt Shaker" (which features fellow Atlanta resident
Lil Jon) and the single
"Naggin'" are straight-up club-bangers (that is, crunk jams aimed at Southern
hip-hop clubs). And even though
the Ying Yang Twins aren't terribly original -- countless other
Dirty South artists have done this type of thing --
Me & My Brother is a cut above most of the crunk-oriented releases that came out in 2003. The duo is entertaining more often than not, and the jams are generally infectious on this fun and likable, if derivative, effort.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
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