Ann 2
Alain
JennYSkillz - Million Dollar Backpack Album Review
July 29th 2008 03:16
Release date: July 22, 2008
Genre: Hip hop
Length: 61:49
Label: Big Kids Entertainment / Koch Records
Writer: Alain
After dropping Confession of a Ghostwriter in 2005, Rapper/freestyler/ghostwriter Skillz is back with his third studio album, The Million Dollar Backpack.
The album starts with an introduction track named Intro(Million Dollar Backpack) where Skillz raps on a cellphone, saying everything about backpacks, including his. The beat is a sick bass with the drum appearing at the right moment.
Following the intro is Where I've Been, a song in which Skillz answers the people who've been asking where's he been. The chorus features a guy singing “Where I've been” and Skillz talking about the places he's been to and what he's been doing. The beat mostly consist of a piano melody with snares, and a bit of drums.
Don't Act Like You Don't Know features Freeway, a great choice if you ask me because the two rappers don't have the same style so the flow changes a bit. They talk about people acting like they don't know that Skillz and Freeway have rapping skills. The beat is nice, not a classic, but nothing to complain about. Plus, Skillz's voice goes well with the beat. I think it was supposed to be a single but I'm not 100% sure.
Don't Act Like You Don't Know
The album's first single, So Far So Good featuring Common comes up next. However, Common gets replaced by Talib Kweli in the video version. Personally, I prefer Talib's verse than Common's but they're both good. There's also a surprise at the end of the video.
So Far So Good
The song Sick (The Sequel) turns out to be the surprise (though the So Far So Good video only has Sick's first verse). In it, Skillz talks mostly about his writing skills and that there are less and less people with those kind of skills. I fully agree with him. The chorus is just someone repeating “so sick,” then Skillz drops a line. The beat is really good.
(For Real) He Don’t Own Me is the album's sixth track. The beat starts with an African drum sample and Skillz talks about a girl he's seen somewhere.
My Phone is another song about a girl but, this time, the rapper talks about getting phone numbers and only one girl. He also talks about meeting girls, mostly saying celebrity names. Finally, in the last verse, he talks having too many numbers – house, cellphone, pager, etc. The song isn't bad but it's nothing crazy.
In Yeah Ya Know It, Skillz talks about how he's never going to stop doing his thing and that he's good at it. There's a guy featuring but I don't know who it is. The beat is good but, again, it's nothing to go crazy about.
Hold Tight featuring Black Thought comes up next. The song starts with a banging drum (really good beat) and the first voice you hear is the chorus repeating “hold tight.” Skills and Thought did a really good job with the lyrics.
Crazy world is a good song putting a happy beat with true hard life lyrics. It seemed a little bit jumpy because of the woman screaming “It's a crazy world” and because of the beat.There's a video for it.In the video your inside skillz seeing what he sees.But at the end of the video you see something you never taught about.
Crazy World
On I'm Gon Make It, producer Bing uses a keyboard effect like the one in Jay-Z's PSA. It's very good. The drums are also good. In this song, Skillz talks about his ghetto life and what's around him.
Be Alright is the album's twelth song. The beat has a sweet little flow as Skillz talks about life being hard but also saying that everything will be all right. It's another normal song, nothing special.
Hip Hop Died is a thought-provoking song in which Skillz talks about how and why hip hop died. The beat is really simple wich makes it easier for the listener to pay attention to what Skillz is saying. In the last verse, Skillz talks about someone but the name is bleeped out. If you understand this verse better than me, maybe you'll find out who it is.
The album concludes with a song called Preaching To The Choir in which Skillz talks about a family's hard life. This song is a nice showcase of Skillz's rapping and story-telling abilities since you can see the picture of what he's talking about in your head if you listen closely. You should definitely listen to it because there's another surprise at the end of this song, though not the same kind as before.
So, let's see how it went. First of all, I thought this would be better. I guess I only listen to Skillz's best songs. I think he was much better in his freestyle then on this except for some songs such as Don't Act Like You Don't Know, So Far So Good, Sick, Yeah Ya Know It, Hold Tight, Crazy World, Hip Hop Died, and Preaching To The Choir. Even though the Million Dollar Backpack song is an intro, I think it's a very good song. It should've been made into a full-length song. So, overall, this was not a bad album, not a classic, but worth listening to. I was kind of disappointed because I thought it would be bigger, but what do you want? They try their best.
People if you don't know what hip hop is, go listen to the song Hip Hop Died, then come back and tell me if you still don't know what hip hop is. I give this album a 7.2/10 because I gave Nas' Untilted a 4/5 so it would be 8/10, but Untitled was much more better than Million Dollar Backpack. So, it's a 3.6/5. But Definitely worth listening to.
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