“Looser” – Review Of Joe Young’s The Great Ape

ALBUM REVIEWS    By Patrick M. on May 24, 2009 at 3:05 pm

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…”

And on it goes. Attempts at up tempo club jams are similarly hindered by Young’s lack of skills. Plus the beats simply don’t help either. “Show Off” has the building blocks of a club banger, but the producers seem instilled with Young’s laziness, unwilling to put in the work to finish the product. The best of the lot “I Got Money,” samples a xylophone and children’s chorus with an interesting affect. However, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before and nowhere close to true innovation. Only on “I Ain’t Worried,” does the combination of a guttural beat and a brief flash of charisma from Young give cause for excitement or potential repeated listens.

The contrast in quality is obvious when out of the digital suckitude, Kanye pops in to croon some Auto-Tune on “We Alright,” or Raekwon starts spitting over an imitation Wu beat on “Watching Our Dollars.” No guest gives a particularly noteworthy performance; they are mostly there to get their monetary supplement and move on. But tracks get a boost of credibility, as the previously mundane music comes alive for these artists in a way it doesn’t for the featured player.

Unfortunately for Young, his own shortcomings are only accentuated by the presence of actual talent. “Moonlight,” makes one reconsider if Lil’ Wayne isn’t simply an Auto-Tune savant the way Young subsequently butchers the…instrument? The Great Ape proves that, no matter how much legal or illegal money you’ve earned, or which rapper you have pictures of pulling a Vito Spatafore (Wayne makes four appearances) you need some talent to make an decent album in the least. One of Hip-Hop’s biggest problems in 2009 is that too many people are trying to rap. Joe Young is one of them.

Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, GENERAL — Tags: Flo-Rida, Joe Young, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, The Great Ape