Reviews March 2008

DJ ENVY & RED CAFE: THE CO-OP

DJ Envy and Red Cafe both needed to be relevant in the press for their solo projects- and this collaboration album was the product geared to create a buzz. The lead single “Dolla Bill”, featuring Jermaine Dupri and Fabolous, was an underground success but didn't catch on to a mainstream audience, probably because it gets redundant after the first listen. The follow up single with Nina Sky “The Things You Do” was the standout track on the album and showed a mesh of chemistry between all artists. Every song on the album followed a formula of simple beat and generic lyrics (“life is so good, I could bottle this stuff”). Ironic that DJ Envy yells over every song what a listener thinks about this album; “What else!?”

Hi-Tek- Hi-Teknology 3: The Underground

Hi-Tek had a well-received album in late 2006 called “Hi-Teknology Volume 2: The Chip”. Highly rated, and still buzzing, he opted to release a follow up, “Hi-Teknology 3: The Underground” within a year. Unfortunately for the superproducer, strength isn't in numbers. A wide array of hip-hop artists were featured over his captivating production and the content selection for The Underground is varied and impressive, but the chemistry is lackluster for the majority of the album. While it should be noted that while he used this album to put on his local home-town artists, none of them shine. Stellar exceptions: My Piano featuring Raekwon and Ghostface, Time featuring Talib Kweli and You Give Life To Me.