Foxy Brown - Broken Silence

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Music reviews of Broken Silence

Music Review: **~~**~The Silence is Broken~**~~**
Rating: 4 Stars

After her 1999 sophomore release Chyna Doll (which was considered a huge commercial disappointment), I was expecting an album that would make up for its mistake and still provide material that would make this album a success. Sure she has grown lyrically but that's about it. The reggae influenced "Oh Yeah" & the blazing hometown banger "BK Anthem" are the album's first 2 singles and they are hot as all hell. One of the album's best tracks though is "The Saddest Day" featuring guest vocals from dance hall superstar Wayne Wonder. She shows promise on the follow up single "Candy" with Neptunes producing and Kelis singing an irritating hook, but the thing that makes this track intolerable is that is EDITED. She starts off scorching on "Run Dem" but as the third verse comes around she seems to lose her fire. "Broken Silence" is a very touching track, but her attempts to become the "female 2pac" has lead her to sample his most recent work "Until the End of Time" to explain her recent drama, as does 2pac. The "The Letter" with the legendary Ronald Isley is one of the album's more personal tracks. She turns actual suicide notes written to her family into rap verses and then performs them over this piano laced beat. Her best work to date though is "7:30" (street slang for crazy) in which she address every situation dead on. In this song, she touches on her old rivalry with Lil Kim as well as her newest feud with pop rap princess Natina Reed of the group Blaque.

The real treat of the album though is her reggae tracks. She shines on "Tables Will Turn" with Baby Cham and rips up "Na Na Be Like" a re-make of her own 1999 classic from the Blue Streak soundtrack. "So Hot" another reggae track is just as hot as the title boasts, and is my personal favorite track on the album. Yet Brown's biggest misses are mistakes of her own. The addition of Kori (or Chyna White) to her record label is a huge mistake, and so is her guest cameo on the irritating "I Don't Care". She uses A LOT of Jay-Z lines through-out the album especially in "Fallin" in which she re-words one of his verses from his smash with Mya "Best of Me" (remix). She spits "the best sh*t ever written" on the haunting "Hood Scriptures" one of the albums biggest treasures, that is sure to be looked over.

Another plus is that this album is full length. Unlike typical Foxy album's she only has one interlude ("Broken Silence Intro") which really doesn't count as an interlude since she raps in the song. In this song (originally titled "Why Doesn't Everybody Just Get Off My Back") she spits an amazing 16 bars that sets the pace for the album. Basically if you've been living under a rock, Brown sums everything up in a nutshell on this track. The actual news broadcasts are thrown in here before her rap scorches the track, which is probably what makes it the best. "Run Yo Sh*t" with fellow bad boy rappers and new found friends Capone and Noreaga is the most unusual Brown song to date with a beat that can only be simply described as "Super Mario Brothers". Though Brown doesn't spit her best on this one its still worth the listen for C-N-N's appearance. Another unusual team up is Foxy and down-south screamer Mystical on the sure to blow up "Bout My Paper". Mystical's show stopping cameo is hot to death, as is Foxy's sexual approach on this one.

Overall Brown fixes a lot of the same mistakes that made her 1999 album Chyna Doll flop. She has matured and has stepped up to the throne left for her. She doesn't get to deep into the spirits and problems that surround her everyday, yet she rather brushes them off. The album is far from a disappointment, and after waiting around for two years, and fighting past numerous release date push backs I couldn't expect more. Brown really shows the reasons why she decided to come back and proves that she can hold it down (a lot better) without someone writing her rhymes for her. Bottom Line: Guaranteed Satisfaction.

Music Vibes: 4 of 5 Lyrical Vibes: 4 of 5 Album Review: 4 of 5

Description of Broken Silence

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• Music > Styles
• R&B
• Rap & Hip-Hop