NAP series Heart Attack

This is a part of the NAP series, but instead of critiquing albums, let’s do this in baby steps, shall we.

There are some songs that need to be discussed; not because they are good or bad songs, but merely because an artist or a song has been receiving so much heat.  In this case, Trey Songz has been on a tear for the last couple of years.  He has toured with Jay-Z, he’s even toured off the strength of a mixtape.  He’s been taking the risk of doing mixtapes, and it has paid off for him.  Think about all of the current mainstream male R&B artists, there may be only five of them.  R&B isn’t rap, it takes more time to create a good product for the masses, and somehow Trey has been able to prove that the hard work does pay off. Probably even more amazing is the consistency and how quickly his product is made.  Whether you yourself like it or not, obviously his label (Atlantic) loves it since the music keeps churning out.

Recently, Trey released a new single called “Heart Attack”, which is the first single from his upcoming summer album Chapter Five. Of course the summer is a big time for Hip Hop and R&B artists: the weather is hot which leads to beaches and very little clothes being worn.  So I expect a lot of this album, especially since the last two albums have escalated Trey to the upper echelon of the current R&B scene.

Now as far as the song goes; if you can get past the first 10 seconds, you will be okay. It’s a throwback 8-bit sound. I played the Harlem Globetrotters NES video game a little too much (maybe I’m showing my age a bit), but some of the cheers began with that same type of sound.  After the first 10 seconds, you see that this is a catchy little pop song about the pain of love.  After so much material about sex, in the beginning (after the 10 seconds of 8-bit sound) he says "turn the lights on" which can be taken as saying "it's time to see the truth".

It’s not like the subject is original at all.  In fact R&B singers in general talk or sing about three subjects: sex, how good love feels, and heartbreak.  The first challenge with R&B singers who stay on these subjects is how to make it sound fresh.  Trey does a decent job with this by staying away from the ad-libs that I’ve come to know him for.  He’s a bit more mature and is able to take this topic seriously (we’ll see if the maturity part continues).  There's something kind of cool with the phrasing of falling "in too deep and you can't think about giving it up" even though once you think about it, it's really sad this is a description of a dysfunctional relationship. The second challenge with singers who talk about heartbreak/loss of love/dysfunctional relationships is to not make it an angry and slowly paced song, or as I prefer to say a slow burn of a song.

At the same time, the song is not perfect, but it’s a nice teaser for what will be an interesting summer for Trey. Let’s see if he can exceed his last two efforts. Both albums, Ready and Passion, Pain & Pleasure were both certified gold, but were at times falling back on “booty calling clichés” (USA Today) and “steady mackin’ over slow airbrushed jams” (Rolling Stone).   But as I said earlier, the summer is all about beaches and scantily clad people; those things only lead to steady mackin’ and booty calls.  You know I'm right.

Take a NAP

So I've decided to critique albums.  


And with this, I've come to the conclusion that no album is perfect, and neither is every review. But I will give my honest opinion of each album I write about.  It may be an old album, it may be a new one, but I want to give you my point of view.  The type of guy that woke up at 9:30am to make baked ziti just so he can eat some for dinner. 


So I guess why you really were thinking about breakfast, I was making my dinner.


But I'm also eating the ziti for lunch too, so nevermind?


But I'm just a regular dude from the South that currently lives in New York...and most of the time, I crave to go back to the South. 


So every once in a while, sit back and enjoy this stuff I'm presenting to you.  Unofficially this will be a part of the No Album is Perfect series, also known as NAP. Inspired by people that want and need to take naps, frankly I've been trying to nap, but have been unable to.  So this will be my nap, in a manner of speaking.


So the blog is Life and Times of Me, the album review is No Album is Perfect, also known as NAP. So check out the official first entry in the series about Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV, an album far from perfect; and the second entry reviewing J. Cole's Cole World: The Sideline Story.

Back on the Sideline Mr. Cole: my issue with J. Cole's debut album

September 27 was a great day for North Carolina. Phonte (formerly of Little Brother and currently of Grammy nominated group The Foreign Exchange), Grammy award winning producer 9th Wonder (also formerly of Little Brother), and J. Cole all released albums on this day.

Even though Phonte and 9th have a strong following, they are still considered indie hip hop artists. J. Cole has been warming up ever since he signed onto Jay-Z's Roc Nation. Cole has been gaining exposure with his successful string of mixtapes and guest spots on albums (Jay's Blueprint 3 and Reflection Eternal's Revolutions Per Minute for example).

You would think that having Jay-Z as a mentor would pretty much set you up for ultimate success, but take a look back at the people Jay had on his team before. Kanye West is the only exception because he's tried to be his own man from the jump and had such a following as a producer. The others have either fallen off the planet (Memphis Bleek) or can't stay out of jail (Beanie Sigel).

Cole is a very good lyricist. His mixtapes have garnered a lot of attention. He has some of the same storytelling ability Jay-Z has. Cole makes okay songs good, really good, so there shouldn't be any problems with his album, right?

Wrong.

The album itself is good, but it could have been better. The problem is that the album sounds like his mixtapes, particularly more like Friday Night Lights, which isn't bad; but this tells me that Friday Night Lights should have been the debut album.

Think about it. Friday Night Lights did more than show promise. It showed us that he was ready, but he stayed on the shelf for a few months trying to build buzz when he was already at his peak. This album release was simply ill-timed.

There are songs on this album that we have heard for years in rap time. The song with Drake was on FNL, and there's a version without Drake floating around for years in literal time. There are old concepts that have been reincarnated again, see 'Dollar & A Dream III' and 'Lights Please'.

These are songs that are good, but it's basically old material and I would have expected some artistic growth from him. The album is basically another mixtape. I think the new mixtape era has ruined albums now. Mixtapes are sounding more like albums with original beats, and albums are sounding more like mixtapes with disjointed tracks that don't fit a concept.

What are the actual singles from this album? There's 'Can't Get Enough' and 'Mr Nice Watch'. I heard about all of these at about the same time, and that's just a bad move because then we hear these during the same hour the radio isn't playing commercials.

The fact that this album is a mainstream rap album and is backed by Roc Nation (for now, and that's depending on rumors about Cole being dropped) means that the album will at least go to the number one Billboard spot for at least one week. But an album that goes number one isn't the best album around, look at Tha Carter IV as a prime example.

J. Cole is ferocious on the mic and is another example of Southern MCs having more skill than some are willing to believe. But I think the way the album is crafted with its unoriginal thoughts makes it not a great album. It's good, because of Cole's skill level. If the rumor of J. Cole being dropped is true, I would like a label to pick him up and put a proper push behind him. A proper push and new material can work wonders.