Beanie Sigel - Reason

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Music reviews of Reason

Music Review: A step down
Rating: 3 Stars

His follow-up, "The Reason" is more of the same, only with a lot less of the straight-forward lyrics from the first. The lead-single "Beanie" has an excellent synthesizer beat and some tight lyrics, but with no real underlying point. Following is the "So What You Saying", a duet with Memphis Bleek. It's a follow-up to their duet, "Who Want What" from The Truth, only this one is a lot tighter lyrically and beat-wise. Over an old-school soul sample, Sigel and Bleek spit tough lyrics and metaphors. The winner here however is Bleek. Pure energy in which he spits. Definetely an underrated MC. Beans comes through pretty good as well, and the track is a classic. Next, one of my favorite Beanie Sigel songs, "Get Down", has insane scratched samples and some of Beans's hardest lyrics yet. The beat reminds me of some of Havoc's work. Defienetely a standout.

Unfortunetely, the album is followed up by the relentlessly simple "I Don't Do Much". Over a rather familiar yet slowed down beat with a synthesized organ or something, Beans starts to get tired and spts mummbled lyrics about his day. It is pretty boring (at least his flow is), but his casual treatment of getting others in trouble with the law or setting people up in his neighborhood is disturbing. Suffice to say, the track isn't bad by any means (since it seems to be the lazy, drugged-up brother of introspective lyrics, if you understand what I mean), it's just too laid-back for it's own good. Things get really bad with the west-coast imitation "For My...". I usually don't mind club songs, but this is just disgraceful. Someone like Beanie Sigel shouldn't make these types of songs, because he doesn't fit in the west-coast club music. There is absoluetely nothing good about this track (note: Kurupt and some others make an appearance talking at the end). It only gets worse with the excruiciatingly horrible, "Watch Your B****es". Beans's attempt to try and be a pimp fails miserably. Is this the same person that The Roots discovered. Over an annoying sample, and a crude chorus, he spits awful mysoginistic lyrics. Simply horrible. It gets a little better with "Think It's A Game" (with Lil Chris, Jay-Z, and Freeway), but the beat is too commercialized, and the chorus is dismal and annoying. Jay-Z spits decent, and Beans recovers some respect I lost after the last two songs, I don't know about the others. "A Man's World" is a track in the tradition of The Truth, with more of the critisism towards sloppy drug-dealers and wannabe killers. Unfortunetely, the braggadacio gets out of hand, and so it isn't a great track. "Gangsta Gangsta" (with Kurupt) is where things pick up again. Over a piano loop and 30's horns, Beans spits some great lyrics. Kurupt does the chorus, which is not too impressive.

"Tales Of The Hustlers" (with Sparks) is another classic. Sparks has a silly voice but he had some good rhymes and energy. Beans does a good job as well. It's a bit similar that "Tales From The Darkside" that DMX did for awhile. "Mom Praying" (with Scarface) is a more religious type track about his family. Scarface seems pretty sad in this one. "Still Got Love For You" (with Jay-Z) is probably his most heart-felt track. It touches up on several topics, and I think it might have something to do with either Canibus or Jadakiss, but I could definetely be wrong. Jay shows some emotion as well.

At this point, I start to notice that the last 3 track have been very heart-felt, and even a bit depressing. "What's Your Life Like (part 2)" is quite interesting, and it couldn't be more different from part 1. Part 1 was almost completely dark, full of anger. But part 2 appears to be sorrowful. It focuses on prison-time and him trying to live his life afterwards. Of course, it is about other people in the streets like him. The beat is sort of depressing, with pianos and gospel crooning. Although the rough language is rather unneeded, it's as good an outro as can be.

It's difficult to rate "The Reason" since it is so uneven. It's certainly not as good as The Truth. There are some true classics on here that have introspective topic-matter, but there are some savage cons on here that take away from it. I think the thing that Beans did wrong here was attempt to crossover into the commercial zone. I don't mind commercial music depending on the sound, but the sound here that Beans puts through doesn't fit his normal subject-matter about his life, and his ghetto surroundings.

While I do recommend "The Reason", I strongly believe there is room for improvement. Get rid of all the west-coast club jams, add in a bit more topics than just violence and drugs, and we can have a solid next album from him.

Rating: 3.0 stars

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