Foxy Brown - Brookyln's Don Diva
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:Dreams of F***** a D-Boy - (featuring Jay Rush)
Rating: 4 stars out of 10The Good: The first 3 or 4 songs are pretty good.The Bad: Tired lyrics, subpar production.The Ugly: *Recycled Vocals!* Completely unacceptable.Long before anyone heard a single lyric from this album, it was generally assumed that it'd be a train wreck. In the last few years Foxy Brown has worked hard at many things, being a diva, staying in the papers, and getting arrested. What she *hasn't* been working very hard at is putting out quality music. "Brooklyn's Don Diva" is an album born out of controversy, it was created during a time period where so many distractions pulled at Foxy's attention it's hard to imagine them not affecting the music.
Our fears were confirmed this week when Foxy came out and publicly apologized to her fans shortly after the album's launch. She delivered the message that she had just listened to the LP upon her release from prison and was 'devestated' at the poor quality. Fans and critics echoed Foxy's statements, calling the album every adjective for "horrible" that you can think of. My mission for this album review is more morbid curiosity than anything..... *Could "Brooklyn's Don Diva" really be as bad as everyone (including the artist) says it is? Let's find out.*The first few tracks of the album truly confused me, but not for the reasons you may think.... *they were good!* It's easy to forget that once upon a time in a land far far away, Foxy Brown could actually "spit di hot fiyah" (Dylan style). The title track, "No Surrender", "We're On Fire", and "Dreams Of [blanking] A D-Boy" were wisely placed at the beginning of the album, most likely with the hopes of giving you the impression that this was going to be a good album.One of the saddest things about Foxy Brown's new music is she spends so much time talking about bullshit. I lost count how many times she made reference to "being in the papers" or gossip columns, like it was some great achievement. Let's not forget that this is being added onto a pile of other bullshit she likes to talk about frequently, designer clothes, how she *used* to be relevant, how great her body is, etc. One of the only tracks where she discusses her turbulent situation in a semi responsible manner is "Star Cry", but the fact that the song is sandwiched between so much gloating makes her words seem fake.The biggest no-no on "Brooklyn's Don Diva" is the fact that *they're recycling the same lyrics in multiple places on the album.* Yes, you read that right.... since Foxy was in jail when this album was assembled it's pretty clear that they were short on usable vocals, so on various occasions you'll hear the same bars from other songs. As a fan I find this highly insulting and I don't understand why the folks responsible for putting this disc out thought it was okay. The only other time I can recall hearing recycled vocals on the same album was the posthumous 2pac work, but at least Interscope has the excuse of Tupac being dead, Foxy's representatives don't have such a good excuse.Every hip hop fan who wasted an hour listening to this can find relief in the fact that someone DID lose their job over the album. I know it makes me feel a little better.
Our fears were confirmed this week when Foxy came out and publicly apologized to her fans shortly after the album's launch. She delivered the message that she had just listened to the LP upon her release from prison and was 'devestated' at the poor quality. Fans and critics echoed Foxy's statements, calling the album every adjective for "horrible" that you can think of. My mission for this album review is more morbid curiosity than anything..... *Could "Brooklyn's Don Diva" really be as bad as everyone (including the artist) says it is? Let's find out.*The first few tracks of the album truly confused me, but not for the reasons you may think.... *they were good!* It's easy to forget that once upon a time in a land far far away, Foxy Brown could actually "spit di hot fiyah" (Dylan style). The title track, "No Surrender", "We're On Fire", and "Dreams Of [blanking] A D-Boy" were wisely placed at the beginning of the album, most likely with the hopes of giving you the impression that this was going to be a good album.One of the saddest things about Foxy Brown's new music is she spends so much time talking about bullshit. I lost count how many times she made reference to "being in the papers" or gossip columns, like it was some great achievement. Let's not forget that this is being added onto a pile of other bullshit she likes to talk about frequently, designer clothes, how she *used* to be relevant, how great her body is, etc. One of the only tracks where she discusses her turbulent situation in a semi responsible manner is "Star Cry", but the fact that the song is sandwiched between so much gloating makes her words seem fake.The biggest no-no on "Brooklyn's Don Diva" is the fact that *they're recycling the same lyrics in multiple places on the album.* Yes, you read that right.... since Foxy was in jail when this album was assembled it's pretty clear that they were short on usable vocals, so on various occasions you'll hear the same bars from other songs. As a fan I find this highly insulting and I don't understand why the folks responsible for putting this disc out thought it was okay. The only other time I can recall hearing recycled vocals on the same album was the posthumous 2pac work, but at least Interscope has the excuse of Tupac being dead, Foxy's representatives don't have such a good excuse.Every hip hop fan who wasted an hour listening to this can find relief in the fact that someone DID lose their job over the album. I know it makes me feel a little better.
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