There’s probably going to be a few folks disappointed with this album. Why? Well probably a combination of things really. It’s hardly a challenging follow up to 2005’s platinum selling, United State of Atlanta (U.S.A) if you assess it on production values alone, and the soft-core nature of it’s lyrical bent and rap content is hardly going to rip holes in the fabric of either body politic or realpolitik. It’s about girls. It’s about booty. Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say, it’s what makes the world go round and thousands of people everyday are discovering it all for the first time, but for all its obvious bravado, it fails to really penetrate on a rap level. Perhaps this is besides the point though, this album is about expanding on an already listening market. ‘Take It Slow’ should illustrate this point pretty well. Some smaltzy, croony r’n’b grooves, a little two-step, even some finger-clicks. Could be Sting and Craig David. Chemically Imbalanced producer Mr Collipark knows the score. He sees the album as enabling the Ying Yang Twins to consummate a relationship with an audience already earpricked by the pair’s collaborations with Britney Spears, Pharrell Williams, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, Lil Jon and Adam Levine of Maroon 5.
Best of the bunch though is, ‘Dangerous’ – a song built around a rather clipped soft-rock riff, some monster metal chord crunches and the ping-ponging, ying-yanging, day-nighting vocals of former Fugees man Wyclef. On paper it probably sounds a bit like a spaced-out version of ‘Walk This Way’ with a Ram Jam maneater cherry on top. Snake-hipped and minimal. Just how most of you are coming to like it.
Something for the fans: gift-rapped.