Styles - Gangster & A Gentleman

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Music reviews of Gangster & A Gentleman

Music Review: Hes no Jadakiss, But He Got Skills to Go Solo
Rating: 3 Stars

The album starts off with the album's first single "Good Times", Style's "Oh Boy" sound-a-like about getting high everyday and everynight. A theme is highly played out in the hip hop community. From their, the Swizz Beatz produced "Ya'll Know we In Here" shows how Styles can spit over any kind of beat, and that his lyrics are good, just not on the level of Jada. The street feel of the album is clearly evident though, and Styles voice and attitude help him pull this off easily. "A Gangsta & A Gentleman" is a story about his life from his mothers' first marriage to his impact on the rap scene. The chorus doesn't have much to do with what hes rappin' about though.

One of my favorite artists shows up on "Black Magic" so Styles gets major props for this joint. The soulful crooning of Angie Stone over Style's spitting knowledge is a positive outcome and makes for one of the album's best tracks. The best voice in the entire industry Lil Mo, doesn't even get to use it on "Daddy Get that Cash" where her amazing voice is barely used even in the chorus of the song which she performs. The fact that Lil' Mo wasn't able to do some ad-libs over the song like she did on tracks like "Put it on Me" makes the album lose MAJOR points.

His Lox companions show up on "Lick Shots", not surprisingly Jadakiss steals the show easily outperforming everyone on the track. Sheek & Eve of his Ruff Rydin' family show up on "And I Came To", which is atrocious, the beat is straight up terrible and all the rappers are at their worst. However the album quickly brings three blazin' hot tracks "Get Paid", "I'm a Ruff Ryder" (featuring Jadakiss) & "Soul Clap". With the addition of the piano instrumental on "We Thugz" The Lox trio (whom perform this track) put in one of their best group efforts since the Lil' Kim laced "Money Power Respect". The album however contains many pointless interludes for example: "Intro", "...Bag", "Barbershop", "N***az Flippin", "...Done Changed", "Dedication" & "Outro", 7 of them to be exact. Take those of the album and instead of 24 songs, you are down to only 17 songs, 7 of which are solos.

Overall Styles put in one hell of an album. Though it won't achieve the commercial status needed to be nominated for hip hop album of the year, its establishes Styles as a major solo artist in rap, and also assists him in gaining even more respect on the streets. Back in 1997 they said they weren't gonna flip the script and go easy by putting out an album filled with radio friendly pop anthems, and they are sticking to their word, as the continue to drop the grimeiest albums rap's ever heard. Much props to this group, because they are doing what so many other groups dream about.

Description of Gangster & A Gentleman

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• Music > Styles
• Rap & Hip-Hop