Real Name No Gimmicks. One of my favourite and definitely one of the most underrated MC's ever is back with his 6th full length album. As I hadn't heard from Obie in a few years, I was really intrigued as to what he was gonna be spitting about. I'd always describe Obie as a gangster rapper who was mad lyrical, so I was mainly just interested to see if he still has it.
One thing that I should start off by saying is, if you haven't heard Obie's debut album 'Cheers' then you have no idea what you are missing. I hold that album in the same regard as 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent. Many people believe, and I do too, if 50 wasn't around, Obie would've been as big as 50. Because they came up, on the same label, at the same time, Obie was kind of always in 50's shadow, but seriously, I'd be hard pressed to find someone who could listen to 'Cheers' and say that is a bad album.
But now in 2019 it's been a long time since Obie was part of that Shady Records crop, so it was interesting to see Obie reflecting on his time there. He seems good with Em still and paid homage to many who were part of Shady at the time, such as 50 Cent and D12.
On this album his content definitely seems to have matured to some extent. He was still greazy at points, but seemed to take things to a slightly more personal level. His storytelling (his best skill) was still as vivid as ever, particularly on the song "Letter".
His hooks were pretty strong through the album, especially on songs such as "Truth to Power" which was kind of an old-head perspective song to how hip hop is changing, and not necessarily for the best. In other songs he used kind 'singy' type hooks, these were on the more trappy beats, but I really liked the hooks, I just wasn't expecting them on an Obie Trice album. The songs I'm thinking of are "This & That" and "Take it There". "Take it There" was class to be fair. I guess I'm just more used to Obie doing more typical rap melodies for the hooks.
Technically he's still got it. Some of the album doesn't hit me like his older stuff did, but that was was always going to be a tough ask. Some of it did though. But one thing is for sure, Obie can still rap his ass off and is still sharp with the pen. For example the flow on "Space" - "Once or twice I made some whack shit, but that's it, facts spit, come back, I'm that lit, with two fifths and a black chick, with two lips on my black dick".
The beats on here were pretty safe, "ASS" had a really good instrumental. There were some weaker songs too. I really didn't care for "185+ Deuce" which was a shame because it featured a Swifty McVay verse, so that was a really good throwback collaboration for me. But I didn't like the effects put on the vocals and I didn't think the actual bars were that hard either, was good to see Swifty shoutout Proof though.
Overall, I didn't want this album to feel like a throwback when I was listening to it. Like when artists and bands from the 90's do reunion tours and middle-aged people go and see them to re-live their childhood. And listening to this album definitely wasn't as drastic as that, because Obie did manage to keep it fresh. But I definitely didn't feel as though Obie was making any music that is gonna penetrate today's music or influence today's music too much, so in that case, it did feel as though what I was listening was really removed from the other stuff that I listen too nowadays. All together, it was a tight album and there's definitely songs I'll revisit.
6.5/10
Comments
Post a Comment