Rick Ross: God Forgives, I Don’t - Review
Wow. I’ve always been a fan of Rozay, but he’s well and truly stepped his game up on this one. From the production, hooks, features down to his unique and individually distinctive flow, the Miami boss has got himself a stone cold hit which currently resides at the top of the North-American charts.
Five-stars from artistdirect, an A- from Entertainment weekly and a superb four-stars from notoriously stingy Hip-Hop scoring Rolling Stone magazine have seen the media laud the rappers fifth studio effort. It’s being touted as the best rap album of 2012 thus far and in Dr. Dre’s words, the best since Drake’s 2011 global smash ‘Thank Me Later’.
Though many would argue Rick Ross is a different brand of rap artist than that of the Canadian, Ross does sport a similar feel on his album that Drake has seemingly reinvigorated the genre with. A laid-back, smoother feel in contrast to his harsher brassy beat focused past (nothing wrong with a banging beat at all mind) the Teflon don has made room for more strings and melody on this effort. Ross has always stood out on sample tracks, particularly those produced by the sample master himself, Kanye West (‘Listen’, ‘Devil in a Dress’) and in line with that tone has made himself more accessible to mainstream audience and in particular, more closely associated with the hybrid hip-hop cross-breed R’nB.
‘Ashamed’ produced by Cool & Dre is very much in the vein of the aforementioned, as is the Cardiak produced ‘Amsterdam’ (surprisingly not totally about weed), both sport an easy tempo and snare that Ross just kills every time. Speaking of Cardiak, when I first heard ‘Diced Pineapples’ I was certain J.U.S.T.I.C.E L.E.A.G.U.E were behind it, however all credit for track of the album has to go too New Jersey native Cardiak. You may recognise his producer trait of a short flat-lining sound at the beginning of tracks that he cuts. Diced Pineapples is a huge track for not only the arrangement, but the hook performed by Drake is absolute gold. Typical in every Drake-esc sense, the hook is in your head from the get go. Wale is another artist I’ve been harping on about for a while now (Best Night Ever, So Fucking Fine) and he comes through with a conversational intro to the track before lacing a tight-knit third verse as you would expect from the albeit relative newcomer.
‘Three Kings’ featuring Dr. Dre and Jay-Z doesn’t even need any elaboration from me, the sight of those names should have you flocking to iTunes in your droves to listen to it. ‘Sixteen’ with Andre 3000 is a jazz influenced track playing off the notion sixteen bars just isn’t enough for a rapper, something which the over 8 minute running time tells you before you even press play. Having said that, Andre delivers a seriously potent verse which is just as intricate as it is long, pay attention ot that one.
‘Maybach Music IV’ featuring Ne-Yo is another cornerstone of the LP appearing to be a popular trend on Rick Ross albums. J.U.S.T.I.C.E L.E.A.G.U.E issues a complex beat which veterans of Ross’ and Ne-Yo’s calibre have no problem navigating, it’s one of those tracks that before you listen you know what to expect and they didn’t disappoint. Finally, The Neptunes produced ‘Presidential’ featuring Elijah Blake is worth singling out for special mention. This reminds me what Pharrell used to be able to create on the regs. Effortless and simple key changes with crazy hooks – Blake kills it.
I could actually give you a run down and praise every track, I haven’t even had time to mention the first single off the album with Usher ‘Touch n’ U’ - that’s the qaulity we’re dealing with here. But those special mentions should be more than enough to get you on the bandwagon. I have lost count the amount of times I’ve just pressed play from track one and let it play through (my commute to work on the trains probably has aided that somewhat but still..) which is the sign of a world-class album. This album is a MUST HAVE – period. You’re not a rap fan without it.
