Chris Brown-turned-rapper with his new mixtape "Boy in Detention" drops with 21 tracks of surpisingly dope shit. Lyrically the project is pedestrian, but I wasn't expecting any unique cadence or flow from the singer/dancer. WIth that said, he's no worse than 90% of the rappers in your ears now so don't hate on him for his flow. The production on the other hand is a definite highlight, outside of the dated sounds from 9th Wonder. For the Chris Brown fans - don't worry, he's singing too.
"Boy in Detention" jumps off with "First 48" produced by Jukebox and had my head noddin' immediately. I'll definitely be chopping the beat up and twisting it into my mixes. "Crazy" is next with production credits going to David Banner. "Crazy" has a different flavor then the lead track, but is still a nice piece of production regardless of the wack rhymes. "Freaky I'm Iz" is one of my top picks but it surprised me with a feature from Swizz Beatz yet production from Kevin McCall. The Swizz 'feature' adds absolutely no value to the song at all which is comical to me. "Body On Mine" is probably highlighted by the hooks and the production, but this is a common theme throughout most of the mixtape. "Spend It All" is another favorite of mine. "Private Dancer" is a nice flip and should have his die-hard R&B fans happy. "100 Bottles" really sounds like a reference track for Lil Wayne - it is absolutely screaming for Lil Wayne to jump on and rip it. "Leave the Club" is a bit boring, but I bet you'll be hearing it on the radio - it has that 'completely-made-for-radio' vibe. "Real Hip Hop #4" sticks out immediately, but I don't want to bash on 9th Wonder's production any more. 9th Wonder deserves so much respect for his catalog of work and contribution to Hip-Hop so it pains me to continue noticing how dated his production sounds. Hudson Mohawke's production of "Your Body" is definitely highlighted by the live drum kit flavor and the engineering on the snare hits. Those snares are just dumb crisp and I like that I can hear the sticks. David Banner comes through again with the production on "Ladies Love Me" which is an obvious twist to "Look At Me Now" but this time featuring Justin Bieber. Not for nothin, but LL Cool J should have been brought in for the collab on this one since he really was the first to brand the "Ladies Love" phrase. You get 2 more doses of 9th Wonder production with "Real Hip Hop #3" and "Real Hip Hop". I'll just skip ahead without beating the same comment into the ground. Mike Will is credited for the production of "Snapbacks Back" but I don't understand how when the beat is CLEARLY Lex Luger's signature production. "The Best Yo" has that made-for-radio vibe again and I won't comment on the "Marvin's Room Remix" other than saying I hate 'remixes'. "100%" has a beat that reminds me of Nicki Minaj's "Did It On Em", but only because of the synth riding throughout the song. "Last" got so saturated over the last year that just hearing the hook is enough for me to skip ahead. "Sweatheart" is a typical Chris Brown record so it should be received well by his fans, but I don't fuck with this record. I think the same about the "Strip" song. The last track is the "Yoko" record which is one of my favorites from the mixtape. I have to give credit to Big K.R.I.T. on the production which is seriously dope. I had slammed K.R.I.T. on his production being repetitve loops before, but "Yoko" has some actual arrangment and is honestly dope.
Overall I'm on board with the "Boy In Detention" project and would definitely recommend the download for rap and R&B fans and obviously for any Chris Brown fans. There are a grip of tracks from the project that will be in my mixes. I know there will be haters slamming Breezy for rappin and shrugging this off as a gimmick, but it's legitimately dope.
No comments:
Post a Comment