|
Remy Ma - The BX FilesAlbum Review by:
John Burnett
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
 Preview/Download MP3
Directly after Remy Ma had an altercation over two thousand dollars with a longtime friend at a Manhattan nightclub that led to that friend getting shot, Remy began proclaiming herself Shesus Khryst. That’s a bold statement for any emcee to make especially one that’s relatively unproven in the rap game. There’s Something About Remy, her debut LP, was underwhelming and despite her reputation for being a fierce battle rapper, the climax of her career was years ago on the breakout summer single “Lean Back” in 2004. In order for her to maintain relevance and vault to the female throne, she needs to produce something hot, like now. With that said, Remy has released The BX Files (the album before the album) to prep her fans for her upcoming sophomore effort.
“Remy Intro”
Remy doesn’t waste anytime, she uses her intro to kick bars acapella and proclaim she’s the queen of NYC. She has some moments where she’s on point like when she rhymes “I’m spittin’ like I’m still in the projects/2245, apartment 9F/I never did lean back and I ain’t on yet/in my mind I’m 18 and Pun ain’t gone, check” but she also has some weaker quotes like “if you ain’t coming with us/then you know you gotta go/I seen Young Jeezy and told him I got that snow, yeeeeeaaaah.”
“Where My Bitches @”
Remy comes out the gate on this uptempo track firing out bars semi-automatic style. What’s impressive about Remy from the jump is that she focuses less on bombarding you with raw sexuality but instead relies on her lyricism. On this track, she does just that keeping it real gully dissing older female emcees and flowing effortlessly over the speedy beat.
“No Bet Chill”
On this track, Remy uses some forgettable punchlines to discuss her material possessions including comparing her pink diamonds to cotton candy and calling her chain flinstone and her bracelet bedrock. She redeems herself with “you acting, ask em’ who’s really that bitch/I know a fever when I see one, you ain’t really that sick.”
“Tek 9”
The highlight of “Tek 9” is the thumping beat that’s surely nod worthy. “Tek 9,” produced by Ron Brows, is anchored by an Eazy-E voice sample of him saying “Tek 9 plus an AK”, a heavy drum pattern and hand claps. The track also features Murda Mook of Beef DVD battle rap infamy. Remy’s verse over this impressive beat turns out to be vapid and takes a backseat to the punchlines of Murda Mook.
“Rapid Fire”
Over a sped up sample, Remy flips verbs at a rapid pace in the fashion of Twista but besides rhyming faster than usual she doesn’t show much.
“Influentials”
Remy gets lost in the beat at times on “Influentials.” At a few points during the track, she slips out of the pocket in the beat; a big time no no for any emcee. On the contrary, featured artist, Papoose, grabs ahold of the beat and skillfully outshines Rem.
“Get Money, Stay Fly”
Remy has a better showing on “Get Money, Stay Fly” that features Jae Millz. On the track, her and Jae Millz trade cocky, snappy punchlines about the title.
“So Hot”
Remy uses this track to reiterate that she’s the queen of NYC, again.
“Loadin’ Clipz”
On “Loadin Clipz” Remy discusses loading up guns, cocking guns and shooting guns. This track is all gun talk bravado. There’s no real high points on this track; no memorable punchlines; no metaphors, nothing. I guess the best part is the Nas sample used for the beat. Besides that, there’s not much else going on for “Loadin’ Clipz.”
“Let’s Get It On”
Remy provides a more compelling performance on this joint. She commences the first verse with “Remy Ma is that bitch, plus the camp in here/when I come through call me Kiss, cuz the champ is here.” She keeps the energy in the track up with cocky rhymes and concludes the track making a witty allusion to the Terror Squad album True Story.
“Y’all Don’t Really Want It”
As the album continues, there are less and less quotable lines…
“Me”
“Me” has Remy Ma reintroducing herself, her traits and her steez in a more focused manner. The track is okay but is apparently an older track that Remy dug up from a couple of years back as she references her age as being 22.
“Outside Lookin In”
Remy opens up this track throwing a nod to Big rhyming “niggas said I got a buck fifty/shit, I’m twisting up getting fucked on the beach/chillin, just signed a deal for two million/with just my son all my guns in a building/by 2005 I should see about a billion all for the love of drug dealing.” She also rhymes about the envy that comes with flashy possessions and a situation where she caught a buck fifty in the face by an unnamed assailant. At the end of the track she concludes reflecting on the lessons the game taught her.
The B.X. Files shows potential in Remy Ma. Since it’s a mixtape, the occasional misstep aka weak track is permissible. A few of the tracks on this tape come off as either quickly assembled freestyles, rushed efforts or just plain lazy but when Remy is spitting to her potential, she could crush some male’s egos; real talk. What makes her different from other female emcees is that she doesn’t use sex appeal as her main selling point. Either you’ll support the fact she can straight out spit or you just won’t fuck with her. If Remy is able to avoid corny punchlines and maintain focus throughout a whole album, I think her upcoming LP will be a solid effort and surely bring her one step closer to claiming NYC dominance as the leading female rapper.
 ( 12) Comments | Post a comment »
|
|
