Rhyme Book

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:54:52
Scribe's second album has a few things in common with Kanye West's second album, Late Registration. Both albums open with the MC in question being dragged out of bed as a boy, they both feature chipmunk soul, plenty of blasts of soar and triumphalism from the horn section, and guest spots from Talib Kweli. There are also moments in Scribe's mid-Pacific accented flow like the git-git-git-git down breakdown in "Say it Again" that sound unavoidably similar. Still, if you were going to choose an influence from your contemporaries then you could do a lot worse than West (50 Cent, for instance). In one respect the New Zealand rapper even manages to exceed his influence, with his tracks never descending into those tedious apologies for sleaziness. None of these songs sound like they're going to be on the soundtrack to the next volume of Girls Gone Wild, not even the catchy dirty South style "F.R.E.S.H." with its club banger echoing drums and sampled hoofbeats that make it a highlight. Other highlights include "Champion," which has a beat as insistent as a series of kicks to the head, and the fast-flowing funk revelation "Say It Again," which is the album's brightest spot. It's impressive lyrically too, with serious meditations about Scribe's family life interspersed with cute lines about being the Peter Jackson of rap. Unfortunately, there are a handful of tracks that let Rhyme Book down. A shared spot with wannabe-gangsta PNC doesn't quite work and contrasts oddly with the far better guest spot by conscious exemplar Talib Kweli, and "My Shit" sounds too much like a second-rate sequel to his hit "Not Many" with the similar repeated line, "Ain't nobody else in the world that could flow like this." It lacks the urgency of his earlier song and instead sounds almost complacent. These few songs hold Rhyme Book back from being a real classic, but it still shows potential and talent. It's world-class, almost. ~ Jody Macgregor