On his 7th studio LP, the man who was instrumental to the addition of the word "bling-bling" to Oxford Dictionary, does less reality check and more splurging on Reality Check.
Juve The Great
Despite being a veteran of southern rap for over a decade, Juvenile isn’t only still kicking it, he’s still kicking a**. Not as much as in the faux-gangstafied disposition of his hometown homie-turned-hypercritic, Lil Wayne. Rather than exonerate explosives, Juve relies on his alluring rumination of street colloquialisms and implosives to get his stance across.
Status Is Hood
Unlike Weezy, who fantasizes over tearing down streets that no longer stand, Juve opts to party his grief away on Reality Check. But, not without firing off obviously obnoxious words to the protagonists of the Katrina debacle. On the album’s best cut, “Get Ya Hustle On”, he snipes at Nagin: “Your mayor ain’t your friend, he’s the enemy / Just to get your vote, a saint is what he pretend to be,” while possibly offering advice on how to recover from the hurricane losses – sell narcotics. Making a bad thing sound euphonious has always been the gift and the curse of the hip-hop culture, and Juvenile cashes in on this fact without remorse.
Unlikely Collaborations
Reaffirming the power of moving on, Juvy enlists ubiquitous H-Towners Mike Jones and Paul Wall on the complacent “The Way I Be Leanin’”, and gets his parking-lot pimpin’ on “Why Not” over a synth-stabbed and trunk-heavy sonic. While the Brian McKnight collaboration, “Addicted” is as strange as it is flaky (spoken word R&B?), the rest of the album is stanchioned with cohesive guest appearances – Fat Joe & Ludacris (“Pop You”), Bun B (“Rock Like That”), and Skip (“Why Not”). The most grandiose collaboration is the Cool & Dre-helmed rework of R.Kelly's "Bump & Grind" - "Rodeo." Over the backdrop of a haunting piano loop and stutter-step drums, Juvenile adds yet another catchy slang to the Bootyoligists Rap Dictionary.
Embracing the Reality
After 14 years of spirited tunes and bootyology lingo like “Back That A** Up”, you’d expect this 30 year-old to swiftly transit from a juvenile to an elder statesman. Granted, plush radio-active jingles and semi-hyphy hits permeate the album, but with little space for introspection, the only thing Juvenile lacks on this album is a personal Reality Check.
Top Tracks- Get Ya Hustle On
- Rodeo
- Why Not
- Say It To Me Now
