tompetrez3;9227769 said:
Sleeper album of 97. Underrated lyrical performance and hard hitting production. IMO his return did not get the fanfare it should of recieved. He came back right at the height of shiny suit era. Universal was the worst label a rapper could sign to at the time (pre CMR) so not only was the album poorly promoted (cheesy return video smh) but it was initally expensive because it was packaged as a double album with his greatest hits. It was $31.99 at my local record spot on CD and sat until 1998 when single CD versions of 18th letter started coming in.
Cosign.
I remember the day it dropped. I copped it. In fact, I was living in New York and there was a store called Harlem Music Hut that released it a few days before it dropped.
Anyway, it was a solid album and he had DJ Premiere, Clark Kent and a few other well known producers at the time but for some reason he didn't hire Puff Daddy to lace him with 2 or 3 tracks. If he had some beats by Puffy (or D Dot) with easy to recognize samples that girls liked it would have been a 5 mic classic. Unfortunately he was aiming for hardcore Hip Hop heads and quite frankly, Mos Def and Talib Kweli did it better.
He needed some Club Bangers and thats what Puffy was doing at the time. He was lacing people with hits.
Still a solid album though.
