I never mind hearing a commercial rap tune on occasion. I mean rap songs by artists such as Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Ludacris, and Snoop Dawg. You know, just basic rap songs featuring a nice catchy beat along with a rapper spitting out words often dealing with drugs, sex, and violence. When I first heard D4L’s single ‘Laffy Taffy’ I really disliked it and wound up sitting through the piece of garbage. I told my friend that I didn’t care for the song and to my surprise he randomly burned me a copy of ‘Down for Life.’ At first I wasn’t even going to bother giving it a listen, but then I realized that I shouldn’t judge an album on one single and wound up listening to the whole entire thing.
D4L is comprised of four members. Fa-bo, Mook-b, Jizzy B. And Shawty Lo. When I first heard these names I burst out laughing because I didn’t know if they were being serious or not. These four clowns hail from Atlanta and they came out of nowhere where their hit single ‘Laffy Taffy.’ They were originally signed to Mike Jones’s record label, but then got dropped later and I’m guessing it’s because of all the hate that ‘Laffy Taffy’ was receiving.
Down for Life is a gangsta rap album, but it’s like no other mainstream hip-hop album that I have heard before. D4L came up with a genius idea of combining video game music along with phat beats creating something that I like to call “video game rap.” While this might have been done before I haven’t heard anything like it, and I’m not even sure if it’s that good. D4L will start off a song with a simple somewhat heavy beat. About twenty seconds into the song an electronic noise will synch up with the beat and it will run for the whole entire song. In result the music is catchy and will get your head nodding yet these songs last from about three and half to four minutes long. This
kills the album just because it’s hard to put up with the same formula song after song. While the type of music that is being played sounds unique and is mildly entertaining almost every single song on the album sounds similar to one another.
The rappers do a good job at rapping and I have to admit it mixes quite well with the actual music. All four authentic members of the group take turns at freestyling, rapping, etc. In result you get solid hip-hop music that is just good to kick back and sing a long to. Fa-bo has a low, deep voice, just by listening to his voice you can tell that he is a big guy. He keeps things smooth and everything seems to flow well when he steps up to the microphone. Mook-B is the cat that keeps Down for Life a true gangsta rap album. His voice is whiney, rebellious and he sounds like a small, puny boy. These two cats represent and together they make the album relaxed, fun and upbeat while still maintaining that gangsta image.
Another noticeable aspect about this album is how it is very fun and upbeat. There are no real dark and atmospheric rap tunes. Down for Life is a party album and is excellent if you want something that puts a smile on your face. The electronics and beats are extremely catchy yet formulaic, I find this to be a problem in mainstream rap but it is extremely bad here. The hit single ‘Laffy Taffy’ is a slow, soothing head nodder. It features Fa-bo and he keeps things nice and cool but the best part about the song is the simple yet amusing electro-beat line. The beat sounds like something that would come out of an 80's Nintendo game. ‘***tin’ Me’ follows almost the same formula. It is another slow rapped and easy going hip-hop tune. It has a very intelligent chorus consisting of just ‘Are you ***tin’ me?.’ The song has basically the same exact beat, only it is sped up a tiny bit and features Mook-B instead of the big boy. The problem is that ‘Diggin Me’ is the exact same song, only with different words. The chorus consists of just a simple “Diggin me?” and a slow nintendo like beat is played. It has the same feel, beat and vocals but D4L were clever enough to switch the words around.
The three tracks I just mentioned are actually quite misleading to the actual sound of the album. The album opens with ‘Bankhead’ and it represents the album quite well. While Mook-B raps it up you can hear Fa-Bo shouting “Bankhead ” In the background. This is as gangsta as the album gets and it sounds real bad ass. Fa-bo’s harsh, shouted backing vocals along with Mook-B’s frantic rapping mixes in well. The track is powered by a quick paced electronic Nintendo beat quickly shuffling around different high pitched notes. The albums highlight has to be ‘Stuntman’ and it is extremely well done. The song is smooth, rhythmatic and features more then just one simple beat. An eerie, Halloween like synth beat plays throughout the whole song while piano chords weave in and out of the music. Everything is upbeat and the piano mixing in with Mooks vocals sound fantastic. The albums second single ‘Betcha Can’t do it Like Me’ is a carbon copy of ‘Laffy Taffy.’ It features a slow, Mario like beat along with Fa-Bo rapping it up at an extreme speed. The beat is mellow and sounds exactly like it did on ‘Laffy Taffy.’ The only thing that is switched up is Fa-Bo’s quick paced rapping. While it is still a fun song it loses its touch early since D4L had already done this seven tracks earlier.
All in all Down for Life contains some extremely catchy and fun tunes with catchy, electronic beats and some funky rapping skills. The big problem is that they recycle each song on the album at least once and it gets tedious to listen to. If you want to judge the album off the hit single ‘Laffy Taffy’ it isn’t going to be very accurate. While most of the album resembles the song there are a lot more quick paced and funky rap tunes instead of the slow and steady type. You shouldn’t waste your money on Down for Life, instead I’d download a few tracks and then you can say that you have the whole album because if you have heard a few of their songs you have heard them all. I still think that D4L deserves some credit for two things. They created a single that was very popular for at least four weeks and they have a rapper named Fa-Bo. Fiddy, you better watch your back.
