The creators of legendary anthems like ‘Illegal Life’, ‘Bloody Money’ and ‘T.O.N.Y’ finally get the chance to make a whole record together. Without mentor Tragedy on deck, will this be more like The Reunion than The War Report?
‘Intro’
Here we get to remember all the classic shit they did in the 90s. Prepare for it all to go downhill from here. It’s gotta be tough for dudes like CNN and Raekwon to forever live in the shadow of near-perfect debuts.
‘United We Stand’
Solid opening. Good beat (with the exception of that annoying ‘swooosh!’ shit). Capone delivers as usual.
‘Rotate’ feat. Busta Rhymes & Ron Browz
The beat on this is pretty hard – Ron Browz on the AutoTune does his best to undo his good work with a horrible hook. Still a great ignorant club record though.
‘Talk To Me Big Time’
‘Epic’-style synth music is annoying. If you like ‘Hate Me Now’ you’ll…skip.
‘Bring It Here’
Is that a sample from The Warriors? Prolly not.
‘Grand Royal’
DJ Premier track = good times. Shit is fire. But you know that already, right?
‘The Argument’
Like I said last time, this is along the same lines of ‘Phone Time’ from the second LP, but this time ‘Pone is back in that free world. Entertaining.
‘Mirror’
CNN making a retrospective track? Something’s wrong here.
‘Wobble’ feat. Mobb Deep
This comes off as well as you’d expect a song called ‘Wobble’ to be. Actually, it’s pretty good, especially when NORE says, “Her pussy is tighter than Kanye’s shirt”.
‘Channel 10’
*blank stare*
‘Beef’
Beat is a product of the 80’s. This isn’t as ignorant as I’d hoped.
‘My Life’
NORE sez: “You want surfboard/I want a jetski”. Piano-laced track for another ‘clash of the personalities’ style concept. Works for me.
‘Stick Up’
This is quality work. Great evil video-game/phone tone beat and superior crime-time topic.
‘My Hood’ feat. The Clipse, The Dogg Pound, Maino and Uncle Murda
Who the fuck wants to hear Daz and Kurrupt in 2009?
‘Follow The Dollar’
Alchemist on some demented shit. Why doesn’t the rest of the album sound like this?
‘You See Me!!!!’
Remember when NORE used to make good/amusing hooks? Yeah me too.
‘Addicted’
Good idea over an unoffensive piano track.
Conclusion: This is tough. On one hand, Capone and Noreaga are great on the mic on this album. On the other, the music is almost unbearably bad in some spots, but I didn’t find myself skipping anything the first go round on the strength of the raps. NORE is as bugged as ever, and Capone stay winning, so with a few remixes we could be onto a winner. Come to think of it, if this record had the Sid Roams beats that HNIC2 had, it would be effin’ classic. As it stands, it’s still worth a spin for ‘Stick Up’, ‘Grand Royal’, ‘My Life’ and ‘Follow The Dollar’.
Capone-N-Noreaga – ‘Stick Up’
*begins countdown until NORE sends Capone to Unkut HQ*
*flees down staircase*
rotate my ass.
like those guys.
but them no relevant no more.
(beside of diettips n lipsync gigs)
Who the fuck wants to hear Daz and Kurrupt in 2009?
^^
Who the fuck wants to hear CNN? NORE should go back to doing reggaeton. “i’m sick and tired of nore and his ‘what, what what’, write some rhymes, nigga, or give this shit up, up up!”
didnt hear it cant judge it but it will probably be in heavy rotation in my homeboy from southsides whip this spring….
The beat to ‘Stick Up’ reminds me of Jet Set Willy/Manic Miner.
Wow, I had to stop ‘Rotate’ at 1’01” before that hook came around again.
I had to stop “Rotate” in the first 20 seconds.
This is Alien…the cat that produced Stick Up.
I wanted to thank you for enjoying the track and giving me a big ups in your review.
XXL took a doo doo when they reviewed the beat, but I am glad someone enjoyed it.
For beats by the cats that produced Stick Up..Hit up myspace.com/TheAlienz305
1
i stopped rotate within 10 seconds…stick-up joint is cool,the argument track and follow the dollar are the best joints i heard so far on this album
The album is bangin.
I did NOT expect it to be this good.
Nore sounds dope, and ‘Pone is as ill as ever.
“stick up” might be the best song on the album. “wobble wobble” is great too, nice 2 hear havoc make a good beat again. this album is pretty good
they shoulda thrown “cocaine cowboys” on there too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh66mO4BeYw
yo alien i just checked out ur myspace, good stuff man, that canibus song is crazy
Beats are Kinda weak – i was not happy anyway ..
All these comeback albums are kinda weak not one has been anywhere as good as there first one – its fuckin weird …
thank u, yea that canibus joint is old news..we have major heat in the works…look out for the squad…The Alienz!!!
who cares???
I’M WITH CENZI!!!!!!!!
Shout to Hazardis Soundz, Big Drain and the Alienz on some great production on this album.
Download free CNN mixtape at the following link: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/2wywib
I’d rather hear a Brainsick Mob reunion, seriously….
^^^^^Ohhh yeah
near perfect debut? are u fucking serious? when cnn dropped it had credibility due to queensbridge and khadafi but cmon…noreaga was off time and his cadence would be so flawed and i can recall people saying it sounds like a underground in the basement dude tryna rap but its engineered well….mind u end result is dope for what it is….but back then the bar was so high it wasnt considered amazing or near perfect…it was good enough…so the times are so bad now we look back and overpopularize things….so relax with the near perfect comments…it is a solid album and beats are put togother and tragedy worked real hard to write and anc coach noreagas shit…so good for trag…as far as cnn? they never had it…tragedy holding there hand is the only time they know what there doing…there first album dependant…
Swing through and vist,Kazie the new producer/artist on the grind.
http://www.myspace.com/kazieakacali.