LA Times: Rick Ross–”Deeper than Rap” Review
Whether labeled “Speedboat rap” or “yacht music,” Rick Ross is not deep. No one believes he is–save for Ross himself–a man who lives in an oblivious nether-galaxy heretofore reserved for Mike Tyson, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rod Blagojevich, Killa Cam, and Jim Jones–the real Jim Jones.
Even if we agree on this pathology, the “RICK ROSS IS GOOD NOW!” meme currently blighting the blogosphere remains patently ridiculous. It’s astonishing how easily a display of simple A-B-C rap facility has people rushing to Thesaurus.com, searching for superlatives. Yeah, ultimately, I agree with Sach’s assessment of Deeper than Rap. I gave it three stars at the Times, the same rating I gave to the FloRida album that I never linked to, because why would you want to read a FloRida review?
Both are well-constructured and rigorously competent corporate rap albums that lack soul, spontaneity, wit, and essentially everything that I like about music. Besides, smart money says that rappers don’t suddenly vastly alter rhyme schemes and styles at 33 years old, on their third major label effort. Cue the “Ride or Die” snippet of Jay: “for the right price, I can even make your shit tighter.” In the end, I’m fine with the coke fantasy fabrications, the hulking bombast, even the beard. OK, especially the beard. But if you’re going to re-make The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen as a rap album, at least do Terry Gilliam right–don’t give us some Michael Bay bombs and banality shit. BAWSE!
LA Times: Rick Ross–Deeper Than Rap Review
Download:
MP3: Rick Ross-”Mafia Music”
MP3: Rick Ross ft. Kanye West, T-Pain, Lil Wayne-”Maybach Music 2″
Stumble It!
April 27th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
i dunno, even when it comes to the production, i wouldn’t say the songs i’ve heard from this are that good. beats sound too clean, for lack of a better description. it’s like the producers took the sound of “Maybach Music” and “Luxury Tax” from his last album and took out everything that made ‘em interesting.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I think that’s a pretty fair assessment.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
You can basically take my review of Jim Jones Pray IV Reign and insert Rick Ross’s name where Jim Jones would be and you would have my review of Deeper Than Rap.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I’m not okay with the massive tattooed stomach and breasts.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Please, we call them “moobs.”
April 28th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Been saying this about him since the first album. He’s wack and empty just like 95% of the ‘artists’ today. There’s literally nothing in this ‘music’ and even when everyone found it he was a fraud, he denied it. Of course, it doesn’t help that I was listening to O.C.’s ‘Times Up’ on the way to work but you get the picture.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:13 am
It’s true that he’s improved since Port of Miami, but that’s sort of like saying that DJ Mbenga has improved because he no longer possesses the touch of a caveman, and instead shoots like a bricklayer.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:42 am
[…] out Weiss’ Deeper than Rap review here, and pick up a couple mp3z there, too! […]
April 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Bawse!
April 29th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I liked him much better when he was a much worse rapper. Port of Miami’s a great album. Same for Jeezy and Juelz. We have this depressing trend these days of rappers who totally can’t rap putting out really entertaining bizarro rap debut albums and then, like, going to rap school and becoming totally boring. (You could possibly say the same of Kanye but I’ve never bought into the idea that he technically improved post-Dropout.) What’s weird about it, though, is what’s driving this? You sell a ton of records your first time out, where’s the economic incentive to improve your rhyme schemes and lyrics so much? It’s baffling, really. One can only conclude that, even though there was no financial incentive for Rick Ross or Juelz to learn how to actually rap, they actually cared about what critics/people on the block thought of their awful flows and lyrics.