The Good:
I barely went into Tone Oliver a few weeks ago when I reviewed Mann's The Expansion Tape, a mixtape that I didn't like all that much. To make matters even crazier, Oliver is actually operating with Mann's #PeaceLife movement. And yet, despite working closely with a rapper I wasn't so hot on, Oliver manages to be quite good.
If you remember, my biggest gripe with Mann was his lyrics, or lack thereof. Mann had a pretty good mixtape in just about every other way, though. Especially in terms of production.
Oliver is a much better lyricist and raps over beats similar to those off The Expansion Tape. This makes Tone basically just a good version of Mann. But I'm not complaining.
As I mentioned, beats are very important to the likes of Oliver and Mann. Oliver shows this straight from the get-go. "Dream Last Night," the first non-intro song on Live and Let Die, is a soulful piano-backed song. As soon as the beat hits, so does Oliver, rapping, "I look in the mirror and see a miracle / As my mind travels to new worlds, Americo / There I go again on the the merry-go-round." Paired with Oliver's slick flow, these lyrics come to life.
The title track is another quality beat, sampling Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Under the Bridge." I don't know about you, but there's something about rap sampling the Peppers that just gets my heart racing ("Otherside" by Macklemore, anyone?), so I love this beat as soon as the guitar starts strumming. The song also features a fantastic verse from enimaL, as he spits clever lines like, "And they need their money like ASAP / So it's safe
to say I have a 'Fucking Problem.'"
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| RHCP make everything better. |
Oliver can take on more than just a chill beat. "Drive" features some banging drums and "Fish Tank" gets rowdy towards the end.
Plus, the song "Love is Back" from Mann's mixtape is on Live and Let Die, too. While I don't like hearing a song on two different tapes, this song is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
Tone Oliver proves just how far working on lyrics can take you. Sure, beats are fun, but lyrics are ultimately what tie everything together.
The Bad:
Okay, so this is only a six-track mixtape and I usually try to stick to full-lengths, but I just had to cover it. This is a big release and it deserves attention. Plus, how many times can I bust out some violent Chris Brown jokes? Hopefully they hit you in your funny bone.
What's black and read all over? The newspaper the morning after another Chris Brown attack!
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| buh-duh-chh |
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| buh-duh-chh |
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| buh-duh-chh |
Thank you! Thank you! I'm here all week!
Now onto X Files. It's not very good. I guess you knew that at this point. Considering, you know, it's in the bad category.
The problem with X Files is that Chris Brown tries to sound like modern R&B (think Weeknd or Miguel), but waters it down with his pop charm.
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| C. Breezy looks kind of sinister with Big Red behind him. Just saying. |
Look no further than "Sweet Caroline." He takes pages straight out of The Weeknd's book. Like the falsetto as a climax of the song. Or the heavy vocal synthesizers for emphasis. But it still sounds like "Doublemint Gum," "Forever" Chris Brown. The Weeknd's sound works because it's dark all the way through. Chris Brown just can't pull that off. Luckily, Busta Rhymes comes in for a guest verse and makes the song somewhat tolerable, but it's still far from good.
"Waiting" has more of a Miguel feel, with the hot guitar licks and the overall rock-meets-R&B feel. But there's still that corny pop Chris Brown lurking underneath. And lyrics like, "Baby, look what you do to me / Girl, I've gone crazy / And you just got me waiting" don't help in the slightest.
There are a couple extra features from big names like Ludacris and Kid Ink, but the verses they provide just seem mailed in. Especially when Luda starts his verse with "I wanna li-li-li-lick you from your head to your toes." Sound familiar?
It has to be nice for Chris to know he's not the only one running out of material. At least he's not blatantly ripping bars from past verses. But X Files isn't too much above that.
Honestly, the best part is probably Kid Ink's verse on "Main Chick" when he raps, "KO shawty when I hit her with a punch...line." Whether that irony was intentional or not, I don't care. I still love it. Thank you, Kid Ink. Thank you so goddamn much.
The Re-dic-yu-lus:
One of my favorite things about Datpiff is that artists can provide their own description of their mixtape. Low Debiase doesn't do anything worse than any other rappers when it comes to descriptions, but I just felt like sharing it.
Yes! It's finally here! I've been waiting forever for this mixtape named after a made up city! And there's even exclusive boss freestyles. I don't know how they're exclusive or even what they are, but I'm still so stoked for this! #BossLife
Maybe that's a little harsh on this little boss, but it doesn't seem so hard anymore once you start listening to the mixtape.
"Grinding" features a generic trap beat with a lot of hype rapping. Plus, Debiase proves he can spell by making a hook with only the letters of the song's title.
In fact, most of the songs follow this pattern. Low Debiase is just so generic. I've heard his flow hundreds of times. His beats, too. And don't get me started on all the "skurr"s. Even his topic seem like they're literally jacked from another rapper. Like the song "100," which is almost exactly like a song I covered last week.
Plus, these "exclusive boss freestyles" he promised aren't even exclusive. Or special. Or a sign of his never-ending love for me. They're exactly the same as the rest of his music. There's only one legitimate freestyle on the whole album and that only lasts a minute and a half (close to a minute after the intro) and is basically a shittier version of all his other songs.
You know what, Low Debiase? You're not a boss. You're not even an employee. You're just a big, fat phony!
-X-Prime, dropping the mic for now
@XavierVeccia
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