Rhymefest: Blue Collar

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I'm feeling this... It's rather poppy and Kanye-ish (no surprise), but works nicely, and the choice of samples is great ("Devil's Pie" samples The Strokes - and it works). As a rapper Rhymefest is clever enough, though the usual misogyny could've been less stereotypical, considering he avoids most of the other obvious clichés. Anyway, if nothing else, you gotta love ODB singing "Build Me Up, Buttercup" on the last track, which is both fun and bittersweet.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 20 July 2006 08:09 (nineteen years ago)

The last song feels really awkward with its assumption that ODB is alive and well, but yeah, Dirty singing "Build Me Up, Buttercup" is great.

I like the album but Rhymefest isn't quite as personable as he seems to think he is. I get the feeling he places so much weight on his constructed persona that he kinda gets buried under it.

He's got plenty of the kind of corny-funny punchlines I fall for though. My personal favorite being "Archaeologist, nigga/ I gotta bone to pick".

Did the world of rap really need another minimalist whisper-rap or another song that sampled the "Mardi Gras" break? Marrying new rap cliche w/ oldest rap cliche in the book = not a winner. I think "Work It" and "Touch It" respectively were the last time those tricks could be used successfully, but you never know.

The part in the "Fever" video where the chick shakes her maracas literally is corny as fuck.

The first track is great.

Kanye's great on "Brand New", but kinda annoying on "More". No big surprise.

"All Girls Cheat" is great, too. And "Devil's Pie".

The gorilla sounds on "Chicago-rillas" = lame, lame, retarded.

I liked that song Malik Yusef did w/ Kanye & Common a couple years back. That was the summer jam. But, uh, that spoken word thing he does here is doo-doo.

That was really disjointed, but fuck, I'm tired. I might kinda be picking this apart (its only cause Rhymefest is bit of a corny fux0r and he lets it get the better of him) but I do like this album more than I dislike it.

― It's Rodney, currently unemployed! (R. J. Greene), Thursday, 20 July 2006 08:45 (nineteen years ago)

The last song feels really awkward with its assumption that ODB is alive and well

Yeah, that was kinda weird, I was at least expecting Rhymefest to say "Rest in peace" or something in the end, but he didn't. Does anyone know if ODB's vocals were originally recorded for this tune (probably not)?

For me, what was most disappointing that the album wasn't as political as I expected... The liner notes talk about "working class", and I guess there is a blue collar theme running through the album, but Rhymefest doesn't seem to have any better answers to the working class's problem with racism/capitalism than "do your best and make money", which is rather tired.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 20 July 2006 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

Of course that applies to 90% of mainstream rap, so I'm not sure if it's a flaw rather than something that comes with the package.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 20 July 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

but I do like this album more than I dislike it

Switch this around and it's where I am with Blue Collar. There are a couple of nice enough songs, and I like "Brand New". But 'Fest does not have a lot going for him, IMO. I see his problems thusly:

1) Can't write a hook to save his life.
2) Too reliant on punchlines that wear thin upon revisiting.
3) Irritating voice.
4) Bites Kanye's & Big Boi's flows, hard & often.

There are exceptions to all of these on this album, but I find they are mostly true. "Chicago-Rillas" is a horrible fucking idea for a hook. And on "Brand New", I like the idea that he's trying to mock materialistic culture, but until I really read into it, I thought he was just affirming it. That is, he seems to have some trouble executing his ideas. So at the moment, this is just hugely irritating to me.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

I can't hear too much Big Boi in Fest's flow... And who's to say Kanye isn't biting his style, since they're old friends or something? :)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

I forget the Big Boi song right now and don't really want to return to the album to dig it out, but I have considered the possibility of Kanye biting his flow and came to the conclusion that K's voice is much less annoying to me and so ends up ahead of 'Fest in this respect.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:21 (nineteen years ago)

I think in general Big Boi has this (literally) off-beat, speed-up-and-slow-down flow, whereas Fest's (and Kanye's) are more strictly rhythmic. If anyone. Rhymefest reminds me of Redman, though maybe it's just his voice.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:34 (nineteen years ago)

After listening it for a week or so, I feel that the album both starts and ends strongly, but the middle part is uneven. The first three and the last four or five tunes are very nice still. I like Fest's flow (and it's definitely Redman he reminds me of) and choice of words, but a lot of his morality plays are pretty much worn out ("wear condoms or you'll get HIV", etc), and he doesn't always manage to come up with a new angle to them.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 27 July 2006 09:44 (nineteen years ago)

This is a very good album. Tuomas and Rodney and Daphima are working very hard to be annoyed by it but maybe they haven't played it in their cars at 7 a.m. doing errands or something.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'm really enjoying this record at the moment. Sure, it's got moments of filler, but what mainstream hip-hop record from, say, the last five years hasn't?

'Stick' annoys the shit out of me and 'Devil's Pie's novelty (Strokes sample) is wearing thinner and thinner with each listen, but I think that 'Fest more than makes up for the odd lowlight with tracks like 'Brand New', 'Dynomite', 'More', 'Fever', etc.

The Big Boi thing makes sense as 'Tell The Story', even though it cribs the piano refrain from Nilsson's 'One', doesn't half remind me of 'The Whole World'.

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Thursday, 27 July 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

As we all know by now, my highly-anticipated and critically-acclaimed debut album BLUE COLLAR sold about 15,000 copies during the first week. As it stands now in the mass-marketing, single-driven genre of Hip-Hop music, this is considered a flop or a failure. Or is it?
-Akon, the well-known R&B star, sold about 5,000 copies his first week. And now, he holds a platinum plaque for his debut album TROUBLE.
-Lyfe Jennings: 6,000 copies his first week; also platinum.
-Maroon 5: 3,000 copies their first week; now multi-platinum.

While none of these artists that I named are rappers, they all understood the ingredients for success:
1)good music,
2)touring & great stage shows,
3)humble attitudes (checking their ego at the door), and finally
4)never giving up.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 13 August 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, I was probably the only person who bought in Finland then...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

"bought it"

I find his point number 3 kinda doubtable, especially with rappers.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, if you really want to appear humble, you shouldn't specifically emphasize your blue collarness. Not that rappers really need to be humble.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

I really like the album too, but he's muuuuuuuch better live. I saw him open for Tribe Called Quest last year and he was really cool. the cd is too.

I also like Consequence's solo debut.

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 23:49 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

I just realized that dude sounds like Dee from What's Happening.

― expletive for lady parts (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 18 December 2008 19:56 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

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― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 25 February 2011 09:16 (fifteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Just elected to the Chicago school board

― jaymc, Tuesday, 12 November 2024 00:31 (one year ago)

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