Review Summary: The ambition and scope of the album hurts its cohesiveness and effect on the listener, but on the whole, it's a captivating listen for anyone interested in hip hop
If
Paid In Full was the influential, groundbreaking debut that brought the duo in the spotlight, this sequel solidified their place in the hip-hop pantheon. Fortunately, the group effortlessly survived the dreaded “sophomore slump” that has plagued many careers in hip hop by releasing an album that’s building both on the innovative and artistic merits of its prequel; well, sort of.
On the plus side,
Leader finds its main star in even better form than before, which is all the more impressive if one reflects on his performance on the debut; he was already a top-notch MC. Here, Rakim increases the density of his flow and rhyme scenes, advances his braggadocious imagery to frightening levels and adopts a lower singing pitch; for all these, there is no better evidence for his upgraded style than the opening three tracks. Brimming with wondrous imagery, a slew of multisyllabic rhyme schemes and an evolving, methodic and constantly changing flow, William Michael Griffin manipulates the listener’s mind with remarkable ease, whether he compares his love for rap to drug addicts, citing horror films to emphasize the effect of his raps or guiding listeners throughout outer space:
So follow me and while you’re thinking you were first
Let’s travel at magnificent speeds around the universe
What could you say as the earth gets further and further away
Planets as small as balls of clay
Of course, his mastery of emceeing doesn’t end there; on the
Put Your Hands Together he finds time to narrate briefly the origins of hip hop amidst a sea of references, metaphors and similes related to the experience of partying.
No Competition may have a more direct concept, but he still manages to conjure up images of street fights, chambers of torture etc. to get his point across. The only relative letdown is
The R, which doesn’t add anything other than a couple of good, but not really involving or imaginative set of lyrics.
Regarding the other half of the duo, Mr. Barrier, he samples from a number of different of genres; there is the usual dose of funk (James Brown, Average White Band, Headhunters) thrown in here, but you can find smooth jazz, hard rock, as well as rock-jazz fusion and reggae interwoven with classic rock. In short, very eclectic, but at the same time minimalistic -you won’t notice half of these samples’ genres until the fourth or so listen! The main highlights are the first three tracks where, in order of appearance, gritty dreamland is succeeded with sweaty swagger and frightening aggression. The lively, jovial
Put Your Hands Together is made all the more remarkable thanks to its frenetic horn section, not to mention the lilting opening piano theme, while
Musical Massacre justifies its title in the best way possible.
Unfortunately, even a record like this has its downsides. First of all, the group hasn’t learned anything since the debut regarding the importance of pacing in an album; there are again three forgettable instrumentals shoehorned here, the only use of which is to make sure that the forward button works properly. After the winning streak of the first three tracks, eight minutes of dated DJ tricks await the listener and then,
surprise, one more in the form of the piano intro for
Put Your Hands Together. Not only does this instrumental break makes the rest of the record sound
incredibly underwhelming on first listen, it also makes the cool and funny piano introduction of the aforementioned tune more of a nuisance than an actually clever idea to include in a song.
Also, some beats, while definitely enjoyable and entertaining, would not have made a deep enough impression on the listener were it not for Rakim's brilliant rapping, namely
No Competition and
To The Listeners. Both are too sparse to be musically astounding or keep your blood flowing, but nevertheless, I've grown fond enough of them in order to enjoy them for what they are; solid background for Rakim's mic display. And, silly me, did I tell you that
The R is from any point of view, the weakest -non instrumental, that is- tune the duo ever released? Extremely basic lyrics, forgettable musical contributions and in general, it’s
skip-worthy to a fault.
Don’t get me wrong, the record is largely excellent thanks to Rakim’s brilliant MC’ing skills and Eric B’s usually stellar production. But it also shares the usual flaws of the group’s discography, what with all the inconsistent sequencing and a solid amount of filler. To be honest, it mostly seems like Eric B. vastly overrated his abilities as a DJ, producer and beat-maker, since virtually all of the album's problems arise from him and his ambition to create a diverse
and minimalistic hip hop oeuvre. There are no
bad numbers here, just a lot of “only good” ones mixed with all the classic and excellent material. And, unfortunately, that’s enough to prevent it from getting to the same level of brilliance as the debut.
