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Young Jeezy Presents U.S.D.A. - Cold SummerAlbum Review by:
John Burnett
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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There comes a point in almost every breakout rapper’s career when their albums are selling well, they have an assload of money and can put out just about anything and the public will consume it readily. It’s at this point when said rapper can put on their God-awful clique (Biggie & Junior Mafia, Nelly & the St. Lunatics, Nas & the Bravehearts, Ludacris & Disturbin Tha Peace etc.) If it goes over well, more money for said artist. If it doesn’t, they still have their solo career.
This is the exact point where we find Jay Jenkins aka Young Jeezy. He has platinum plaques for his freshman and sophomore LPs, and could rhyme his ABC’s over a beat with R. Kelly, T-Pain or Akon on the hook and it would get spins all summer. With momentum on his side, he’s ready to introduce the world to his crew, Corporate Thugs Entertainment (Slick Pulla, Bloodraw and himself) on the compilation Young Jeezy Presents U.S.D.A.: Cold Summer.
Cold Summer commences with “Focus.” The production sounds DJ Toomp-like with its usage of horns, but the drums sound a bit Casio-like. The rhymes are average. Jeezy delivers an okay verse about staying dedicated to the paper and Slick Pulla and Bloodraw follow up with sub-standard verses about the same. “Focus” leads into the lead-off single “White Girl” which is an interesting track title to say the least. The track’s sound is a little bit more of what I expected out of the tape; heavy bass lines coupled with synths (production by Drumma Boy) with lots of references to nose candy; not to mention the hook is utter ignorance. It goes: “We keep that white girl/Christina Aguilera/my jewelry too loud baby girl I can’t here ya’/I need about 50 if the bricks is the topic/they know we run the streets, man dem boyz betta stop it.” All CTE members lay down 16s about that white cook up; Jeezy’s verse being the best which is expected.
Although Jeezy will assuredly be the only member of CTE to thrive, I could see Slick Pulla moving into Young Dro-like fame as he’s already began to brand himself with his signature “uh yeeeea boy, uh yeeeea” which can be heard at the beginning of “White Girl.” He also shows his affinity for punchlines on “Get It Up” rhyming “fresh out the box like a pair of Nike airs/it’s slick for the green like Sebastian Telfair” and “ya boy got a mind like Sigmund Freud.” Sidenote: How do hardcore gangstas know who Sigmund Freud is? Just a thought…Slick Pulla pulls his weight at times and Bloodraw…well he’s there but, it’s evident how much better Jeezy is on almost every track. On “Corporate Thuggin’ it’s especially obvious. Jeezy rhymes his best verse on the track saying “I don’t make music for the motherfuckin’ critics/they don’t understand because they don’t motherfuckin’ live it/I ain’t trippin’ on the Source/I got a motherfuckin’ plug/keep your five mics/I’m still a motherfuckin’ thug/now the question is can a nigga really rap/and the answer is have you ever been to the trap.” On the other hand, Bloodraw drops booty like “posted with a broad/she’s blacker than an African/hair down her back like she’s mixed with I-talian.” He couldn’t have been serious with that bullshit.
But that’s pretty much the story of Cold Summer. Jeezy delivers…Slick Pulla and Bloodraw not so much. Slick Pulla does have potential though as I said before and Blood Raw’s unique voice does give him some merit in this group. I must say I thought this album would strictly, trunk rattling gangsta shit but towards the end it eases into a reflective/introspective effort (“Live My Life,” and “I Keep Tellin Myself”) which kind of pissed me off. I wanted that strictly gangsta rap shit that Thug Motivation was on but this effort proves not to be that. Versatility is dope but sometimes doing what you’re good at is more important. CTE as a clique is the typical crew structure. The leader is way more charismatic, lyrics are better, easier to digest (no momo) while the partners who in this case happen to be Slick Pulla and Bloodraw just aren’t as good. So in turn, you skip through the tracks looking for the Jeezy verses and every so often you get impressed by a witty punchline by Pulla. With none of these guys being more than above average for lyrics, you have to rely on the beats to give it that added push but the beats were kind of weak. And where the fuck is DJ Toomp? Real talk, he’s CTE’s secret weapon but on Cold Summer he is absent. All in all, Cold Summer is an overlookable effort that needed more tracks like “White Girl” and less of tracks like “Get It Up.”
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