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| Track list: 1. Intro 2. Y'All Know 3. Gettin' Jiggy Wit It 4. Candy 5. Chasing Forever 6. Keith B - Real I (Interlude) 7. Don't Say Nothin' 8. Miami 9. Yes Yes Y'All 10. I Loved You 11. Keith B - Real II (Interlude) 12. It's All Good 13. Just The Two Of Us 14. Keith B - Real III (Interlude) 15. Big Willie Style 16. Men In Black 17. Just Cruisin' Running time: 58 minutes Released: 1997 |
Oh man, this will be a comedy interlude. I am so not the person I was in 1997 when I bought this and I would be surprised if I can stand the 58 minutes of cheesy commercial rap contained on this offering. My excuse for owning this? Uh... I rather liked Fresh Prince of Bel Air as a teenager, and I thought Men In Black was cool. I guess.
It starts with an Intro - a self-aggrandizing piece of propaganda about how good the album is/will be crossed with crappy comedy skit. Unbelievable in its ballsiness, but so, so bad. And it goes on for two minutes. Then we're into a proper track. Though it was released in 1997, Y'All Know sounds to me more like late 80s material. I guess that's one thing Will Smith has going for him - a more family friendly image, less bad language and problematic content. Pity the beats are rather dull and the lyrics uninspired, then, because some good clean hip hop would not necessarily be an automatic cut. This is.
Looking down the track list I'm surprised how many of these tracks I can bring something to mind for. Gettin' Jiggy Wit It was, I think, a single so falls into that category. Fast and bright, I don't have a problem with the background loops and samples here but... no I cannot listen to this with a straight face and yet it is not amusing enough to warrant a smile. The "backing vocals" are awful and sound like someone asked their children to stand in for actual musicians. Worryingly this might be the high point of the disc. That's not a nice thought.
Oh dear. Lyrics that say "I don't mean to objectify" but then go immediately on to do exactly that. It's very knowing, but arguably that makes it worse than not realising its a bad thing in the first place. Here it comes across as knowing objectification is wrong but thinking that it should be OK. I am somewhat surprised that this reared its head here - I was expecting some sort of sexism to appear as it is endemic but not conscious references to it as well. A couple of bad tracks then another interlude - awful, unfunny. Ugh.
Hah! The intro to Don't Say Nothin' says "My thing is you can't say nothing nice don't say nothing" - the bewildering quadruple negative aside, if I stuck to the spirit of the line then this post wouldn't exist. The track itself is eye-rollingly dull, hook, beat and lyrics alike; Will Smith's music was always a commercial enterprise and at this point in his career that is more evident. The main effect of this is that it has not aged well, and again I find it amusing that stylistically it fits more with my impressions of 80s music than the late 90s - bad synths, cheese and the image of really bad Hawaiian shirts and luridly coloured cocktails; Miami.
OK that's a better hook. I can't imagine it will be used well (i.e. enough variation to keep it fresh) but the initial hit in Yes Yes Y'all I actually rather like. Pity that it just loops with basically no change over the whole track. The sheer constancy of the vocal is interesting, there is no break, very little pause. It would perhaps be impressive if performed live because outside of the chorus Smith barely has space to breathe but the main effect here is to blur all the words into one. This track could have been decent had there been any musical variation at all but I didn't expect any so I can't say hopes were dashed.
I get that much of hip hop is built on patterns and that paying attention to the beats and cycles may be "doing it wrong" but I have the feeling that this is particularly bland in the musical sense. All the variation within a track is coming from vocal, nothing from rhythm or the samples/instrumentation employed. Its interminable. There is difference between tracks, so its not like the album is one long loop, but the static nature of the songs themselves reinforces the impression that it is all about Will, just in case we were in any doubt.
Really? Sampling Good Times? OK. Way to make your track instantly forgettable amidst the myriad of others that have though. Thing is, you get the impression Smith didn't care how this would be received. By this point he was a mega movie star already, indulging himself or fulfilling contractual obligations? Who cares.
Just the Two of Us is at least a more positive song - this one has a bit more longevity because of its subject matter but it is just so bland musically and I can only imagine, 20 years on, the kid involved grown up and cringing whenever it is heard. It precedes the last crappy intro and then we're into the run in with the title track, intentional innuendo and all (in case you thought it wasn't, the over-sexualised utterances at the start and end of the track dispel the doubt). Just dull. Then we hit the soundtrack song that roped young-me in. There is still something pleasurable about the pure synth cheese of the hook but I suspect that is just nostalgia and now it is me cringing. I used to genuinely think this was good?! I bought the single which will appear in a later post. And then get deleted, just like the entirety of this album.
It starts with an Intro - a self-aggrandizing piece of propaganda about how good the album is/will be crossed with crappy comedy skit. Unbelievable in its ballsiness, but so, so bad. And it goes on for two minutes. Then we're into a proper track. Though it was released in 1997, Y'All Know sounds to me more like late 80s material. I guess that's one thing Will Smith has going for him - a more family friendly image, less bad language and problematic content. Pity the beats are rather dull and the lyrics uninspired, then, because some good clean hip hop would not necessarily be an automatic cut. This is.
Looking down the track list I'm surprised how many of these tracks I can bring something to mind for. Gettin' Jiggy Wit It was, I think, a single so falls into that category. Fast and bright, I don't have a problem with the background loops and samples here but... no I cannot listen to this with a straight face and yet it is not amusing enough to warrant a smile. The "backing vocals" are awful and sound like someone asked their children to stand in for actual musicians. Worryingly this might be the high point of the disc. That's not a nice thought.
Oh dear. Lyrics that say "I don't mean to objectify" but then go immediately on to do exactly that. It's very knowing, but arguably that makes it worse than not realising its a bad thing in the first place. Here it comes across as knowing objectification is wrong but thinking that it should be OK. I am somewhat surprised that this reared its head here - I was expecting some sort of sexism to appear as it is endemic but not conscious references to it as well. A couple of bad tracks then another interlude - awful, unfunny. Ugh.
Hah! The intro to Don't Say Nothin' says "My thing is you can't say nothing nice don't say nothing" - the bewildering quadruple negative aside, if I stuck to the spirit of the line then this post wouldn't exist. The track itself is eye-rollingly dull, hook, beat and lyrics alike; Will Smith's music was always a commercial enterprise and at this point in his career that is more evident. The main effect of this is that it has not aged well, and again I find it amusing that stylistically it fits more with my impressions of 80s music than the late 90s - bad synths, cheese and the image of really bad Hawaiian shirts and luridly coloured cocktails; Miami.
OK that's a better hook. I can't imagine it will be used well (i.e. enough variation to keep it fresh) but the initial hit in Yes Yes Y'all I actually rather like. Pity that it just loops with basically no change over the whole track. The sheer constancy of the vocal is interesting, there is no break, very little pause. It would perhaps be impressive if performed live because outside of the chorus Smith barely has space to breathe but the main effect here is to blur all the words into one. This track could have been decent had there been any musical variation at all but I didn't expect any so I can't say hopes were dashed.
I get that much of hip hop is built on patterns and that paying attention to the beats and cycles may be "doing it wrong" but I have the feeling that this is particularly bland in the musical sense. All the variation within a track is coming from vocal, nothing from rhythm or the samples/instrumentation employed. Its interminable. There is difference between tracks, so its not like the album is one long loop, but the static nature of the songs themselves reinforces the impression that it is all about Will, just in case we were in any doubt.
Really? Sampling Good Times? OK. Way to make your track instantly forgettable amidst the myriad of others that have though. Thing is, you get the impression Smith didn't care how this would be received. By this point he was a mega movie star already, indulging himself or fulfilling contractual obligations? Who cares.
Just the Two of Us is at least a more positive song - this one has a bit more longevity because of its subject matter but it is just so bland musically and I can only imagine, 20 years on, the kid involved grown up and cringing whenever it is heard. It precedes the last crappy intro and then we're into the run in with the title track, intentional innuendo and all (in case you thought it wasn't, the over-sexualised utterances at the start and end of the track dispel the doubt). Just dull. Then we hit the soundtrack song that roped young-me in. There is still something pleasurable about the pure synth cheese of the hook but I suspect that is just nostalgia and now it is me cringing. I used to genuinely think this was good?! I bought the single which will appear in a later post. And then get deleted, just like the entirety of this album.
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