[Review] Chris Brown - Graffiti

Artist: Chris Brown
Album: Graffiti
Guests: Lil' Wayne, Swizz Beatz, Plies, DJ Khaled, Tank, Eva Simons, Trey Songz, Game, Lupe Fiasco, Ester Dean, Sean Paul & Rock City.
Producers: Swizz Beatz, Big Makk, Keith Thomas & Big Lo, The Messengers, Polow Da Don, The Runners, Ryan Leslie, Tha Bizness, Free School, Brian Kennedy, Jevon Hill, Charlie Bereal, James Fauntleroy, Oak & Scott Storch.

So within two weeks of his ex girlfriend launching in my opinion, was a CD of moaning, Chriw Brown is back at it. The man who had smash hits with songs such as 'Run It', 'Superhuman', and 'Forever' would normally have released this album with the intention of it being one of the biggest albums of the year, but sadly for Chris, this will not be the case this Christmas.

Chris Brown has sold out arenas all over the world, and rightly so, as he is one of the biggest names in RnB. In fact, at his 18th birthday party, which was filmed by MTV, the late Michael Jackson phoned Chris to wish him a happy birthday. In fact, Chris was expected to be the next Michael Jackson in terms of success and style. There was no limit to where this young man's career would go, and how massive he would become.

However, the incident in a L.A. suburb that left his ex girlfriend, Rihanna looking like she had stepped in as DMX's replacement has in fact ruined his career. Which is a shame because this album is quite good.

Two Chicago newspapers rated this album less than '2/5' in seperate reviews, and without backing this up, it would appear that it was the fact that the pop music journalist that wrote these articles may not have kept a neutral opinion. I am not in anyway defending Chris's actions from February 2009, but all Im saying is, Gucci Mane is about to release a largly anticipated album, and he shot and killed an intruder in 2005 before being aquitted, Snoop Dogg was 'involved' in an incident where a man was beaten to death in the early 90's and became one of the biggest names in Hip Hop fan's iPods and T.I. once got caught buying machine guns from an undercover police officer and still sells records. Get over it.

So Princess Dihanna released her album two weeks ago with excellent reception (except by me it seems - see Rihanna - Rated R review) and Chris Brown released this album which is just himself getting on with his own thing, and people give it low ratings, despite the fact I think it may actually be better than 'Exclusive' was?

The album gets straight into the action with 'I Can Transform Ya' featuring Lil' Wayne and Swizz Beatz, which was actually Chris Brown's lowest charting first single from any of his albums gone by. The song itself is not that bad, in fact quite catchy, the first great hit produced by Swizzy for the best part of a year in my opinion.

The Polow Da Don produced 'So Cold' is clearly an apology to Rihanna, as to is 'Famous Girl' in which a few secrets come out, like Brown's regret at ghost writting 'Disturbia' for Rihanna, and also his opinions when the rumours of when Drake and Rihanna were apparently dating. Another positive comes from the song 'Wait' which features Game and Trey Songz, although I would prefer it if the dirty version of this song was also released, as Game's verse is ruined by cuts.

An unusual collaboration with Plies and DJ Khaled is another big hot on the album, and I have to say this, but Plies kills it, although I was disappointed that the beat did not feature more of the intro, which gave 5 seconds of impression that it was going to be a explosive Hip Hop club banger... which it is not. Also on the album is a sample of Eric Prydz' hit 'Call On Me', although I feel more could have been done with this to turn it into a single.

So overall, I was happy to hear more of Mr Breezy, in fact like I mentioned earlier, I like this album more than 'Exclusive', although I do miss the times when I was sat at home in 2005 watching MTV with 'Run It' being played almost every hour. I really hope the world takes Chris back into their hearts, as I know we have all mocked him over the incident, myself included, but it is all about the music.

So in the battle of the albums between the ex boyfriend and the ex girlfriend... its the ex boyfriend that wins.... easily.

8/10

[Review] Rihanna - Rated R

Artist: Rihanna
Album: Rated R
Release Date:November 20th 2009
Guests: Young Jeezy, Slash, will.i.am & Justin Timberlake.
Producers: Chase & Status, Stargate, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Ne-Yo, Chuck Harmony, Brian Kennedy, R. Swire, will.i.am & The Y's.

Earlier this year, Rihanna and her fairytale boyfriend, Chris Brown hit the headlines for all of the wrong reasons. Like Bobby and Whitney, the popular RnB couple's relationship came crashing down, it seemed like misic was the last thing on anybody involved's mind.

Yet its now December 2009, and the ex couple have just released their latest albums within the space of 14 days - coincedence? It would appear not, as the couple have only recently spoken out about the situation that they were in as part of their promotional tour of chat show sofas.

Rated R marks the commercial return of the 'Pon De Replay' star - but dont be fooled into thinking this album will be full of pop music, in fact, it is far from this. The album shows the first of the dark side of Rihanna, in what can only be described as an album full of negativity. The lead single 'Russian Roulette' was full of subliminal ex boyfriend disses towards Mr Breezy, and although this song became a well liked track on radio stations, it is hard to find what else Rihanna will be able to use from this album onto mainstream music video channels.

In fact, Chris Brown seems to be the subject of this album sublimanally and it begins to become annoying after a couple of songs. It can be understand that Rihanna became emotional after the fight, but the depressing sound that haunts speakers. The only positive track I was enjoying from the CD was 'Hard', track 3 which features Young Jeezy. The song is very 'Polow da Don' like, but is in fact a one of The Dream's masterpieces. Since this is the next single, it is likely that it may receive mediocre attention. It must also be noted that the song contains a subliminal diss towards Young Jeezy's long time rival, Gucci Mane: "See my Louis chucks, Louis flag, Louis frames, Louis Belt, what that make me Louis Mane?"

Apart from this however, the album is not something I would keep in my CD changer, and in fact, I feel like going back and finding 'Good Girl Gone Bad' - I really miss that Rihanna.

2/10