Defsounds

I have to say that after years of being a member/follower/contributer to Defsounds.com, it is clear that my style of hip hop, as well as my standards for a good album can at times be completely different compared to some of the other members of the Defsounds community. But usually when good music is out my opinion usually runs consistently with others, well that was what I thought until a couple of days ago.

While sitting in a recording studio at my graduate school, I got into a conversation with a friend about Blueprint III, and Loso's Way. Two very different albums, from two of my favorite rappers, but for some reason this friend of mine felt that Loso's Way was a classic album, and that Blueprint III would also be a classic. Now some of you may actually agree with this friend of mine, but clearly, I do not and here is why.

Blueprint III and Loso's Way have one thing in common to me. They both have way to many collaborations. To some this may come off as no big deal, but let me explain why I see this as a problem.

If the Hip Hop industry is one where artist are supposed to take pride in their lyrical skill and ability to make a good song or songs, then what does it look like an album where over half of your songs has someone else on it, are you out of idea's, inspiration subject, plot, lyrics, are you unable to hold down an entire album by yourself, what is it?

Why is it that I pay 12-20 dollars to purchase an album that is supposed to feature you and what you have to say, but I hear more T-Pain, Drake, Trey Songz and whoever else is doing hot collabo's right now. There is nothing wrong with a hot collabo, or two, even three is good. But how much of the album can I say is really yours when on every song there is someone else joining in.

This is the problem I have with the Blueprint III. That Hov is by far my favorite rapper (with Joe Budden coming in a close second), but how dare you name this album the Blueprint, then when the tracklist is released, all I see are features.

The Blueprint was a classic and it only had 3 features, Reasonable Doubt had 7 features, but lets be honest, he wrote Bleek's verse and probably Foxy's, so its really 5. The Black Album, which in my eyes was a sure fire classic, only had one feature, so why now pop up with an album that resembles a compilation album, when its supposed to be follow up to some of your best work ever?

How can I trust that your still the best rapper alive when you cant even put out an album that has 7 straight tracks with just you spitting?

As for Fab, he is my favorite rapper, while at the same time being one of the artist that I hate the most. How do you make a concept album, then fail to stay on topic on your own album, how does that happen?

The original plan for the album was to limit the featured artist, and make it a more street gritty album, that focused on the concept of the movie Carlito's Way, but in Fabolous eyes. Instead you get an album that's great for the clubs. It does wonders for the females, but fails at what it was meant to be a CONCEPT ALBUM.

To make matters worse out of 19 songs (two which were Itunes Bonus tracks) eleven of them have some sort of featured artist. So to add it all up, he cant stay on topic. He made an album for women and casual listeners, when this was supposed to be his street friendly album, and now he's oversaturating the CD with other people, because from this writer's eyes he cant seem to make a complete song by his self. Now you tell me how this or Blueprint III deserves to be a classic.

With saying that, there have been albums that proved to be great and they had a lot of collabo's. Doggie Style, The Chronic, All Eyes On Me, were all great albums, which were heavy on collabo's, but those were artist that ascended beyond the skill set of a Fabolous, so choose your arguments wisely.

Next up I'll discuss Lil Wayne and all of the way's he makes me ashamed of being a fan of his smh.