John Whitfield might be funny as a comic MC but not as a Rap MC. He blew me away with his pure hardcore gangstar street rap in his album “curb music”. I have been an ardent follower of wild n out and DC young Fly is one of the characters that I look forward to seeing in every episode but listening to his album for the past two days brought to acknowledge the serious side of him. DC Young Fly is a voice of the street because unlike many rappers who are in the same age range as he is who go about singing of girls and money; this dude does one better by talking about the street where he grew up and live in. It obvious the young man is made because he has a good job, and lives fine but going real original with his song is food for the soul. If any of you readers is looking for a rap album which you can relate to the hard life you going through or you have been through then you can listen to this album from start to finish.
THE THEME
The album was compiled having hustle, loyalty and family as the baseline. Track seven which is “got my back” talks about love loyalty. It is a song which discusses how hard it is to find a good lady once the fame is out there. DC takes a dig at a girl who didn’t even say hi! when he was broke in the hood. The chorus goes ahead to solidify he claim that when you are up there in fame, people will always want to what you want to hear to be in your good books. He further goes on to buttress his claim by saying that a girl who you know has a man could go having an affair with a made man just because of the money. In a track like “on my own”, he talked about fake guys in his hood, and the general problem boys in the hood do have with the police.
In track one he talks about a friend who turned hater back stabbing him and even putting him in arms way. He gives advice to people to never trust people too much because they people change. In the song; “from the getto” he talks about the troubles in the street, the hard life in the ghettos and projects that many hustling people live. He talks about the drugs, death and the problem of trying to eat. He talks about people having to own the steel (gun) for protection because the hunger and hard life is always brings out the worst in people. This album is all about the street. It is about things we face every day, the suffering and the troubles surviving day to day.
THE PRODUCTION
I must applaud Young Fly for sticking to the 1990s sound pattern of Hiphop. He did some very original rap, sticking to his style and dropping nice lyrics in very bar. He was pure 2pac on the mic fusing some elements of big Shawn in his vocal in “soul Tape”. Soul Tape for me is one the best songs because of the chorus and dual rap verses from two different persons who rap on different pitches.
The beat of all the songs in this rap album follow all the three basic elements of rap music. The steady beats that flows from one bar to bar made this album you can play and get lost in your thought. The selection of intro instrument sound pattern for a song like “soul tape” is epic. The selection of lead keys or guitar songs is really perfect. This album for me is the purest hiphop sound I have heard this year in terms of the beat creation. There is no rock guitar, no octave harmonizing keys on play but hi-hats sound and drum sounds from a sampler or a drum machine with very few keys. This approach to production is only undertaken when a rappers has too much real talk to pour on the mic.
POSSIBLE HIT AND FLAWS
Music like this hardly make it in the commercial market because of the crude traditional rap style of music. But however if this album was in an equilibrium market where an album is supposed to be judged by the quality of production and the message the songs has then all the songs in this album will make this album hit a double platinum level. This album has real messages that was dished out in the shortest track time. The longest song on this album is three minutes, fifty-nine seconds, showing some class because those few minutes can still captivate persons. All the songs in this album can be felt by an average person who is hustling or who already made it out of the projects. This album does not need to be rated on the billboard because even though DC young Fly is funny; his album is not funny.
