TOUGH LUV - YOUNG GUNZ

Last November, Jay-Z ended an era at Roc A Fella records when he released the Black Album. After the Jigga man went into retirement it was business as usual at the ROC, however, there was one small problem with the situation. Who takes over? It was time for the Roc to make a new star like they did with Jay-Z, Beanie, and Freeway. First out the gate was Kanye West -“College Dropout”, which received critical acclaim and extraordinary numbers on the billboard charts. With this good fortune Damon Dash unleashed on the world the Young Gunz. This Philly based teenage sensation incorporated the talents of Young Chris and Neef who were journeymen in the State Property team behind all stars Freeway and Beanie. Last summer, the duo caught a lot of fire with their white label single-“Can’t Stop Won’t Stop”. The song helped save the latest State Property album from becoming a commercial failure and earned them enormous street credibility and a surprise Grammy nod. As a reward for their unexpected success, Damon decided to give the green light for a debut album which is titled Tough Luv, and gave the boys from Philly starting positions on the Roc team.

As a sign of things to come from the company, the first song on the album is called a “Future of the Roc”. Chris and Neef declare that they are the future and aren’t going anywhere. The album has a lot of energy for the new group. Songs like “Friday Nite” and “Never Take Me Alive” should be great staples for the east coast mix tape circuit.

While the Young Gunz stick with their bread and butter club tracks, they do have wonderful down tempo, soulful songs that give this group some substance. Like the touching struggle song “Time” and the reality picture “Life We Choose”, which the Gunz show thru their harsh lyrics. The production on the album fits very well with the sounds of the moment. Just blaze, Kanye West and newcomer Chad Hamilton provide a fantastic beat making job for the group to flow over.

The Young Gunz do make some missteps. First, by making a typical safe rap album which includes a couple of club hits, an r+b track with a female singer, a song about the streets and a bounce track for the down south peeps. This formula works but paints the Young Gunz in a corner and does let them think outside the box. Kanye and Outkast were able to make big leaps with their albums and it paid off in the end for both artists. It shows in their album. I can’t decipher if this is a Young Gunz’s album or another Memphis Bleek release or Diolmats LP. It sounds the same to me.

Another complaint I have about the album is the arrangement of songs. When I get into the album with a couple tearful street ballads, I get interrupted with a south bounce song that goes nowhere for me and makes me want to turn off the cd. This seems to be a major problem of lot of hip hop release as of late and didn’t stop with the new Roc-A-Fella sensation. It would be great to hear an album nowadays where the line up of tracks on an LP is purposely put together in sequence instead of filling slots on a CD. Finally, the album has a problem with unnecessary cameos. With the exception of Denim and Jay-Z, the cameos on there are more of an inconvenience than vital to the release. With “$$$ Girls” Jules Santana seems to ruin the moment on a pretty decent song with his weak verse and annoying uncontrollable talking during the chorus of the track, which makes the song a more of a disappointment than an instant hit. Ditto goes out to Cam’ron’s inclusion on “Look In Your Eyes”. His verse alone makes me want to hit the skip button and forget about the horror that just occurred.

This album is a decent release from a brand new group with a fine future ahead of them. Tough Luv has its ups and downs throughout the album but if you ride it through you discover that these boys have some talent. Only on repeat listens do you begin to enjoy the songs more and dust off the certain imperfections that make it another forgetful rap debut album.


12inch review

THE GOOD
Young Gunz-“Friday Nite”
This second single from the debut album has to be
the hottest Just Blaze song since “Flipside”

THE BAD
Outkast-“Roses”
Finally, an outkast record with both Dre and Big Boi
together makes it a must have for any atlien fan.

THE INDIE
Strange Fruit Project-“Maintain” (Liquid Mix)
This hidden gem has it all nice flow and amazing
beat from a crew that will make some noise in 2004.

>>>DISCUSS IN OUR FORUM