
A brief glance at the back cover of Joe Young’s The Great Ape, and you can’t help but be intrigued by the names on the tracklist. How could a relative nobody, manage to snag multiple guest appearances from big name talent, including the game’s two biggest stars: Lil’ Wayne and Kanye West?
One thing’s clear: it wasn’t Young’s musical talents that drew in the superstars. The album is a non-stop deluge of half thought out rhymes, lazy flows, and plodding beats. At worst the whole project sounds amateurish, one example being Joe’s staggeringly terrible last verse on “We Gon Be Straight.” Over a high hat and bass beat recycled off Da Last Don: The D Sides, Young strings together the clichés: “Back to reality, bills coming in/The rent ain’t paid/Money comin’ in late/But we remain great/We gon to be straight/In a minute/We in it to win it/And I will never lose/I paid my dues…” Read the rest of this entry »