Album
Review
Beanie Sigel - The B. Coming
No Such Luck of a Mistrial Here
by: Malik
Sinsear, for Entertainment
Okay,
I’ll get to the album in a minute, but first I want to talk
about Damon Dash’s latest cinematic endeavor.
I usually flip through channels like a maniac during March Madness
to distract myself from a) the money I’m losing in the office
pool to simps I’m sure I lap in knowledge as far as sports
are concerned, and b) to calm my nerves as my beloved team yanks
my emotions back and forth like a ’95 Iverson crossover
(’95 Iverson as in playing for Big John and rockin' a skin
taper, by way of Jay at 
Eagle
Barber shop up on Georgia Ave, A.I.… Sup Jay). So, I’ve
got my clicker clickin’ on this stressful Saturday afternoon
when I stumble upon B.E.T. and some special they’re running
on Beanie Sigel and his trial for attempted murder. If I hadn’t
seen the sub-title on the cable information bar I would have thought
this was an advance screening of State Property II: Beans
To Da Bing. The shit looked like a bad black-Italian mob
parody and Beans was in “trooouuuuble!” Seriously,
I could have sworn Master P held the undisputed rights to filming
these types of flicks. But wait, this was a documentary. Not like
The Game’s, but a
real one.
Now I’ll give Dame his props, he’s a hustler, but
based on the retrial and all the other existing legal problems
Beanie has, painting the guy as Don Beaniloni right on down to
the meal scene where Sig daintily encourages one of his Chain
gaamba’s to “come eat with family”
may have not been in his best interest. I can dig it though. Dancing
Dame spent that money having those camera-men follow Beanie around
and even though the outcome was not what they had anticipated
(mistrial) and anticlimactic as a mofo, he still had to produce
something from this. Plus, what the hell, a legally strapped rapper
fighting for his life in court just might sell a few records.
Personally, I would have concentrated more on the making of the
album, The B. Coming, than Beans getting his Valentino
on through the lens of some fake ass Gordon Parks, but that’s
me. A scene on one of the last Smack DVD’s with
him freestyling over All Eyes On Me/Sig had me geeked for this
album. It made me remember how high I used to be on this guy when
I first heard Mac-Man and his incredible verse on The
Roots, Adrenaline. He’s been kinda spotty since,
showing flashes of greatness, but then kind of evening things
out as his career has worn on.
Truth is, Sigel has done what many a street hustling mixtape artist
has done; built a rep in the underground, then struggled to find
their comfort zone when the mainstream door had been unlocked.
Do you stay street and risk not hitting or do you just accept
the A&R in your ear telling you thugs can have a sensitive
side too as long as it includes crooning by an R&B chick over
your 1st single? Excuse me y’all, but this picture of Beanie
trying to look streetly seductive in that one Jay-Z video (Excuse
Me Miss remix or Change Clothes, one of ‘em)
always pops up in my mind when I think about dude’s trying
to look sweet in videos (no karamo). It’s the funniest thing
in the world to me. (Nah, for real you see that shit? He was all,
“hey baby girl gimme some ‘dem grapes… yeah
one at a time, Mac likey.”) Gold.
With that said, Sig found a nice compromise with his first official
single off The B. Coming. Feel It In The Air featuring
some broad, let’s call her Amerie’s even more Asian
looking cousin (not a knock on Amerie. Girl, you put on 10-15
more lbs, and you’ve got yourself a New Year’s Eve
’05 date, fashigido). The song is good and pretty much sums
up what the brother is going through. I love that sax. It's as
soothing and lazy as Heavy D’s right eye. Ironically enough
Heavy produced this song. (Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t
see that one coming, B…) I’m not so sure about this
being a lead single, but I liked it.
Ok, after the Feel It and the grossly overrated Flatline,
featuring Peedi Crakk, which most of us heard this summer, the
standout track on this CD is easily Purple Rain featuring
Bun B from UGK. Lemme tell you something about Bun B. He’s
on that short list with Twista, Eminem and probably Devin (crude
hilarity gotta count for something) as guys you just don’t
want to follow on a song. If I had any of them dudes scheduled
to make an appearance on my album, I’d just give them 3-minutes
to black out and try my best to steer clear from them and the
beat they’re gorilla stomping. By the way, even Twista couldn’t
save the annoying Gotta Have It.
Listening to The B. Coming there’s a theme that
hovers over it. With the exception of the obvious club aimed Don’t
Stop featuring Snoop (seen the video? Beans be trying to
look sweet again!), this album isn’t very happy. Beanie
recorded most of it while awaiting trial and it shows. It’s
serious and while that’s good for those solemn soul sampled
songs, the wild and crazy carefree Beans that ripped the aforementioned
Adrenaline is nowhere to be found. Speaking of nowhere
to be found, no Sig album should be void a Scarface and Jay collab.
I felt robbed like Villanova fans after the UNC game when I peeped
that.
Also void is Kanye West. (Kanye, where are you? Distancing your
self from Dame, hmmm? Remember your first Roc-A-Beat… it
was on a Beans album, no?) Lord knows he could have used some
Kanye direction on Lord Have Mercy a.k.a. Jesus Walks'
malnourished little brother. Well, at least the team that put
this album together had enough sense to include It’s
On featuring Jay-Z from the State Property II album.
It was damn near the only gem on that album and this will give
people a second chance to catch a great collab they probably missed
the first time around.
Let’s see, did I miss anything? Oh yeah, I expected more
Freeway. They’ve got good chemistry like Carolina’s
pg & big man… um, that’s it. The Coach K commercial
is wrapping up and the game is back on, Go Heels.
