Album
Review
Tony Yayo - Thoughts Of A
Predicate Felon
Thoughts of Another Subpar CD
by: Malik
Sinsear, for Entertainment
On
the track Homicide from his debut album, Thoughts
of a Predicate Felon, Gorilla-Unit hype man extraordinaire
Tony Yayo proclaims he wants people to see him commit a murder
then stand there for two minutes, THEN run. If nothing else this
lets you know why he’s the only member of his clique who
ever gets bing time. Well, that’s his problem, but if you
could take anything positive from that proclamation ('twas muy
dificil) it was that it sounded like Yayo wasn’t gonna love
it up with them odes to project brawds like 50 claims G-Unit albums
don’t do,
but do.
A lot of people call rap formulaic these days and if there was
ever an album to support that claim, it would be this one. Felon
is laid out and ironed in formula like Ice Cube’s most thorough
black khaki suit. Let’s go through Tony's checklist; he
has his murder song (the aforementioned Homicide), his
club song (So Seductive), his down-for-a-hoe song featuring
someone from the R&B genre (Project Princess featuring
Jagged Edge AND Curious featuring Joe), his tired Eminem
beat song (Drama Setter), his weed song (I’m
So High) and his crew song (like four or five, pick ‘em).
Actually I gotta give Yayo some credit; he switched it up a bit
replacing the standard down south song with the latest craze,
the anti-snitch song (Tattle Teller). Yes, I’m
fair.
The beats on this album disappointed me. I expected Game and 50
like beats and got Red Spyda and other people who aren’t
Dr. Dre. Nope, one or two beats don’t make up for the rest
that aren’t. Yayo did something I didn’t expect though;
he carried some of the beats with his *gasp* charisma! Yup, I
admit at first I thought it was through dumb luck that he was
shining on all of these guest appearances, but dude got some beast
references and comedy in him that makes you interested in hearing
what outragous shit he has to say next. When Tony is having fun
and singing New Edition bridges, he shines like a piece of his
overpriced jewelry. When he’s trying too hard to be articulate
and descriptive, he’s like one of those conflicted diamonds
KanYe pretends to shit in his pants about. This makes listening
to Felon a bit frustrating. On Eastside Westside
he actually drops a Tackleberry reference. Cadet Eugene Tackleberry!
I almost spit my Everfresh out picturing David Graf frowning at
Mahoney screwing up. Fucking brilliant. Yayo needs to do more
of that. So what if it would make his album a reference bonanza;
Game did it for a whole damn album and he’s two times platinum.
It was working Tony, but I guess you couldn’t see it because
you're waving hand dance was blocking your vision.
Now, you knew
I couldn’t NOT talk about that dumb ass dance, so don’t
act surprised.
