Thursday, September 20, 2012

Review #6: G.O.O.D Music - Cruel Summer (2012)


 
For the first post in about a week, I'll be reviewing arguably the most anticipated album of the year, Cruel Summer, by Kanye West and his entourage. It's a good thing they decided to drop an album called "Cruel Summer" in Fall. But still, I've got decent expectations for this, especially in terms of beats, with singles like Mercy and Cold. So let's get this shit started.
 
1. To The World (Feat. R. Kelly & Kanye West)
R. Kelly sings for a long ass time over a corny beat. Like the first track on the album is 70% R. Kelly. The Rick James line was pretty funny, and Kanye spits some okay lines on his short verse. Not a good way to start though.
 
2. Clique (Feat. Kanye West, Big Sean & Jay Z)
A relatively star-studded song with an awesome beat. Big Sean spits, possibly, his greatest verse ever. Jay Z starts his verse off pretty badly, but recovers alright. And the boss, 3 Chainz, A.K.A Kardashian's Bitch, A.K.A Kanye West spits your average Kanye West verse, isn't bad. Overall a pretty great track.
 
3. Mercy (Feat. Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz)
This is that song that's on the radio every other track, and we've all heard a billion times. Like even if you don't like the song, you know all the lyrics. To be honest, I really liked this track when I heard it on the radio, and put it on my phone right away. But now I've heard it way too many times, and it's easy for a track with a chick yelling as the beat to get old. Still, Big Sean's pretty good on this, Pusha T spits the most enthusiastic verse, Kanye decides he deserves a better beat, then spits the worst verse, and 2 Chainz is alright for being 2 Chainz, which is still bad.
 
4. New God Flow (Feat. Kanye West, Pusha T & Ghostface Killah)
Pusha spits two great verses to start things off, and it's over an awesome beat. Kanye then enters the house, makes another LeBron reference, then boasts a bit. Then the main attraction, Ghostface Killah. Ghost spits a pretty dope verse. But then Kanye decides to come back at the end and do some stupidness. It may sound like I don't like Kanye, but I do. It's just he tries my patience sometimes, and this was one of those times. Still, probably the second best song so far, behind Clique.
 
5. The Morning (Feat. Pusha T, Raekwon, Common, Cyhi Da Prince, 2 Chainz, Kid Cudi & D'Banj)
After the intro, Raekwon spits a solid verse over a dope beat. Although Kanye isn't on this track it still sounds like your typical Yeezy track. Common's verse is short, but pretty good, even though I don't like Common. Pusha then spits an okay verse, but not his best on the album. 2 Chainz A.K.A Titty Boi makes another appearance, and again, isn't very good. Cyhi Da Prince spits an okay verse, although I hate his voice. But wait, what's this? A Kanye appearance? It appears he appears even on tracks he doesn't appear on.
 
6. Cold (Feat. DJ Khaled)
This is essentially a Kanye solo track, as Khaled just shows up to introduce Yeezy. Kanye decides to say some pretty weird stuff on here, like how he only has respect for Wiz (Khalifa). Like didn't you just do an entire album with one of rap's greats, Jay Z? The beat's the best so far, and Kanye uses it well. There is an over-long outro by an uncredited DJ Pherris that's kind of annoying. Still a decent track though.
 
7. Higher (Feat. Pusha T, The-Dream & Mase)
A lot of this song sounds like Justin Bieber if he swore, which isn't too odd, as The-Dream helped write Baby. Pusha's kinda poor on here, but still better than Mase, who sounds like a worse, more slurred 2 Chainz. This is a pretty shitty track, especially the weird ass outro.
 
8. Sin City (Feat. John Legend, Malik Yusef, Travis Scott, Cyhi Da Prince & Teyana Taylor)
This track starts out with one of the dopest beats so far, but then calms down unfortunately. Still, great production on here, and Cyhi Da Prince spits my favorite verse overall on the entire album. And I HATE Cyhi Da Prince. Travis Scott starts things off well too, and the hook is decent on here. Malik Yusef also comes up with the best one liner so far in the outro with "I always feel like / I'm almost Phil like / Cause I could feel it in the air tonight".
 
9. The One (Feat. Kanye West, Big Sean, 2 Chainz & Marsha Ambrosius)
This sounds like something of My Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye's alright on here I suppose, but he's been sub-par this alum. Big Sean spits your typical "I made it" verse. 2 Chainz doesn't contribute much either. This is a pretty poor song.
 
10. Creepers (Feat. KId CuDi)
This song was pretty terrible. Plus why'd they give KId CuDi a solo track? Poor idea. Plus at one point he says "fuck making it rhyme". That's probably not the way to go.
 
11. Bliss (Feat. John Legen & Teyana Taylor)
For the last five tracks it's been almost all R&B, and while that isn't really a bad thing, the last three have been pretty bad (including this one, Sin City was pretty good). I could deffinitely do without this track.
 
12. I Don't Like (Remix) (Feat. Pusha T, Kanye West, Chief Keef, Big Sean & Jadakiss)
Well that's better. I Don't Like has one of the best beats out there, and Pusha, Kanye, and even Chief Keef kill it. As usual Big Sean is all flow, no lyrics, and Jadakiss is always pretty bad. But this song is the shit I do like.
 
Best Tracks: Clique, New God Flow, Cold, Mercy, Sin City, I Don't Like
 
Grade: 7.5/10
 
I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. The production's awesome, and while Kanye doesn't bring it, the guests do. Some tracks are awesome, but some are the worst shit I've heard in a while.


No comments:

Post a Comment