Hurricane Chris 51-50 Ratchet

Words By T.C.

By now, most of you probably find it impossible to escape the ubiquitous storm caused by Hurricane Chris’ “Ay Bay Bay.” Regardless of your personal feelings of the song, the buzz surrounding it brought attention to the teenage rapper and his nationally untapped hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, thus giving him the wide open lane to ensure the public he wasn’t one of the novelty rappers the game has gotten accustomed to. While his debut 51/50 Ratchet exposes his adolescence on numerous occasions, it also shows promise in a budding artist with serious attitude.

Instead of taking the conventional route and adopting the sounds of the more popular regions of the moment, Hurricane and his production crew opt to give the world a taste of their country living. Picking up where the aforementioned “Ay Bay Bay” left off, “The Hand Clap” is a club ready firestarter bursting with local flavor. More solid angst-filled cuts include “Doing My Thing” and “New Fashion” on which the latter features a few surprising choice lyrics like “I’m fittin’ to run the game/these other rappers lame/only thing they rapping about is they watches and they chain…”

But just like every kid trying to grow up before their time, Chris steps out with the big boys to fall flat on his face. As if the tales of pubescent love of “Touch Me” and “Leaving You” weren’t bad enough, we’re exposed to Hurricane Killer on stagnant tracks such as “Bang” and “Do Something.” Furthermore, his lack of descriptive dialogue makes it seem as if he’s hammering the same points into your head as the album grows tiresome towards the end.

Juvenile in his approach and content, Hurricane Chris still has some work ahead of him before he can be classified as a credible artist. But his ability to hold his own amongst established acts on the “Ay Bay Bay Remix” and the fact that he can deliver an album with minimal cursing speaks volumes for his potential. Only time will tell if this Hurricane will be a national concern or just an isolated incident.

Hurricane Chris – 51/50 Ratchet

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