Foxy Brown - Chyna Doll

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Music reviews of Chyna Doll

Music Review: Too Much of the Same
Rating: 2 Stars

Luckily for Brown, one of the redeeming songs comes early in the recording. On the second tune, "My Life," she articulates some of her painful experiences and the downside of fame. In doing so, Brown reveals that she has more to offer than materialism and sexual explicitness (much the way she did on the unjustly overlooked "If I...," an ode to simpler days from her debut album).

On "My Life," Brown raps "...some say it's lewd, but if I was a dude, they'd all be amused. But I'm a woman, so I'm a bitch, simple as that. Double standards, call him a mack, call me a ho..." Her words are unmistakably accurate in their assessment of the sexist attitudes that women in the male-dominated rap game must face.

Brown also addresses the crumbling of her relationship with unnamed former best friend Lil' Kim. She says, "now friends (are) intimidated, hate it that I'm in the same game as them with more fame than them." Brown throws an unfair, and highly inaccurate, accusation Kim's way by implying that their friendship suffered because of the latter's jealousy.

This makes no sense when you consider that both of the rappers' debut albums went platinum, and each has had a top-10 pop single. One can hardly empathize with Brown given her unbelievably innocent air; the song only makes you eager to hear Kim's side of the story.

At times, Brown delivers her signature sassy rhymes in a way that showcases her true lyrical talents. Examples include the otherwise lackluster "It's Hard Being Wifee (featuring Noreaga)" and the crude battle of the sexes "Dog & A Fox (featuring DMX)."

Brown also displays strong rapping skills on "Baller Bitch," which features Too Short and her brother Pretty Boy, but you soon realize that this has little to do with Brown: Too Short appears only in the chorus, and Pretty Boy's weak delivery make you think that having the Pillsbury Doughboy rap wasn't such a bad idea.

The track "Can U Feel Me Baby," on which Brown's sibling takes center stage while she raps only on one verse, is simply disastrous. His attempts at sounding suave are laughable as they do nothing hide his inability to carry an entire song. You feel relieved to hear Brown come in near the end of the song. You don't even mind that her lyrics are among the weakest she has to offer - you're just glad not to hear Pretty Boy and the annoying high-pitched female voice in the chorus for a while.

While the album has its finer moments, including the cleverly smooth-yet-aggressive "I Can't (featuring Total)" and the irresistibly bumping "Hot Spot," it does not have enough to make for a solid recording. Interestingly, a few simple words from "Hot Spot" give insight into a major problem with this release. Brown utters the words, "with my grown a**," with the false air of maturity that plagues most young adults. Most of her the album's lyrics come straight from the mouth of someone who mistakenly thinks that being able to see NC17 films and having passed puberty automatically makes a person a mature adult.

Maybe by the time of her next release, Brown will truly become one.

Description of Chyna Doll

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