[Review] DJ Khaled - Victory

Artist: DJ Khaled
Album: Victory
Label: E1 Music
Release Date: 2nd March 2010
Production: DJ Nasty, Schife, The Runners, & The Inkredibles.
Guests: Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, T-Pain, Usher, Jim Jones, Young Jeezy, Plies, Drake, Nas, John Legend, Schife, Birdman, Bun B, Soulja Boy, Nelly, Lil' Boosie, Ace Hood, Pitbull, Jarvis, Rum, Tripple C's, Bounty Killer & Buju Banton.

Featuring a who's who of Hip Hop, the pioneer of Def Jam South is back with a fourth studio album, 'Victory'.

Originally, in what was to be a series of mixtapes, DJ Khaled, whom many rap fans instantly knew as being Fat Joe's Terror Squad DJ from back in the day, has now started a series of albums featuring a collective of the biggest names in today's Hip Hop world. He has worked in the past with some of the biggest names in the world, from Kanye West, T.I., Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg, to putting out tracks that have been so successfull, that names such as Jay-Z have added their verses to them.

In 2007, his second album, and most successfull to date, 'We The Best' was released, and it showed not only the rap world, but also the world that DJ Khaled meant business. The album was up for awards against some of the biggest mainstream solo artists, birthing the hits, 'We Takin' Over' and 'Im So Hood' which became two of the biggest Hip Hop anthems of that year. The follow up album 'We Global' was not as big commercially, despite an even stronger lineup of guests, selling only 294,000 copies in total, nearly half of what the last album sold.

So Khaled has lined up another list of big names, producers and set himself out to hit the top of the charts again. Apart from an intro only to try and boost his ego, featuring random ad-libs from Diddy, the album dives into the first single, 'All I Do Is Win' which T-Pain, Ludacris, Rick Ross & Snoop Dogg. The song by far is the most likely to top any chart, in fact it is so heavy that I can hear it as being a massive club anthem, and possibly an anthem for 2010 Hip Hop...but it failed to make an impact, making a poor #64 on the Billboard, and not even getting into the top 50 in the RnB charts. 'Fed Up' featuring Usher, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Drake & Lil Wayne is another alternative club hit, but in my opinion, Usher's hook just does not suit the The Runner's beat... maybe something from T-Pain would suit this record more. However, Drake once again uses his hype to take the limelight of the track, if only Lil' Wayne could follow his feature with a top verse of his own, unfortunatly he did not.

Overall, the album fails to come close to the previous releases from Khaled. One thing which stood out, was the lack of Fat Joe. There were reports throughout 2009 that there may have been conflict between the two when Khaled was pictured several times without the trademark 'TS' chain which would normally aliegn his association with Joe's Terror Squad crew. This is the first album without a member of the squad rapping on it, and only has me wondering what is going on, if anthing behind the scenes.

I was a bit disappointed with some of the artist features on the album, especially considering I had been looking forward to this as being the first major Hip Hop release of the new decade. The track with Nas as far from exciting, as was collaborations with Jim Jones, Young Jeezy and as was Nelly. The production on the album is also not to the standard that you would expect from The Runners, especially when you hear some of the beats that they have made for the last albums, as well as solo material for artists such as Rick Ross. I am not expecting the album to sell well at all, and those that do buy this, may be wishing they didn't. Even a final track featuring Pitbull, who has blazed the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with his club bangers, failed to provide.

Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that the whole album is a waste of time, but rather that it is a disappointment to previous CDs, despite an impressive guestlist. There were

3/10

[Review] Snoop Dogg - Malice N Wonderland

Artist: Snoop Dogg

Album: Malice N Wonderland
Release Date: 8th December 2009
Guests: Lil' Jon, Jazmine Sullivan, The-Dream, Soulja Boy, Kokane, R. Kelly, Brandy & Pharrell.

Producers: Scoop DeVille, Terrace Martin, Lil' Jon, Teddy Riley, PMG, The-Dream, B-Don, Super Ced, Danja, Timbaland, Jason Martin, Battlecat, Nottz, Tricky Stewart & The Neptunes.

Snoop is a rapper who has been around the block a few times, in fact, it almost seems that Snoop Dogg has been around since the start of time. A household name that even your granny will have heard of, even if she does not know any of his songs. To be precise, this is album number 10 for the man who once was part of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, a man who can sit and reminise about the days of N.W.A., and maybe even tell you stories about times he used to chill with the late 2Pac.

So 16 years after the first album dropped in 1993, is Snoop still the rapper that he was? A money hungry gangster from Long Beach California may have dropped the 'Doggy' from his name many years ago, but he will always be listed as a legend, alongside the Jay-Zs, Nas's and the Biggie and Pacs, Snoop has become more than just a rap star, he has endorsed many products, acted in Hollywood and reeked chaos in London's Heathrow airport.

So album number 10 follows 'Ego Trippin', which received positive reviews with the internet bloggers, although I was left unconvinced. I could not connect with the style that he rapped, and I was wondering whether this album would follow track. However, despite a pointless intro, the album does leap into action straight away. 'I Wanna Rock' may have leaked a couple of months back, but it has a high adrenaline beat and is one of the album's best songs despite a dry hook. There is also '1800' with the crunk hitmaker Lil' Jon that I can imagine being pumped out of the speakers of bouncing Impalas.

I then began to realise that the problem with 'Ego Trippin' was that Snoop was trying to get back to his old-skool west coast roots rather than continue his mainstream attack on European and international listeners.

'Upside Down' is by far my favourite beat on the album, produced by Jason and Terrace Martin, it would be a song I would also go in with at any party that was starting to go flat and needed a little mouth to mouth. I was also suprised by the 'Pronto' track featuring Soulja Boy. I was expecting some 'snap' beat with Soulja Boy repeating something over and over, but instead is instantly catchy, and I would be suprised if this was not the next single. Although Snoop used autotune on his last album for the lead single, 'Sexual Eruption', it is a brave move from such a giant in the industry to use this again, on the same track with an artist that has created many internet debates whether or not he is Hip Hop material, but it actually works, and no matter what Mr Carter expresses on 'D.O.A.', autotune can still work if used properly.

On the other hand, I was a little disappointed with 'Gansta Luv' with The-Dream. The-Dream usually hits you with fire that you can listen to over and over, and although this track was one of the first I listened to, I knew atraight away this may have been one of his cheaper beats. The disappointment did not improve with his second featured track on the album 'Luv Drunk'. In fact, I began to drift away from the positive feeling of the album by the second half. The first nine tracks are the best, and then it begins to fade. Not even Pharrell or R. elly could revive it.

So overall, I was quite pleased with this album. It is certainly one of the best albums Snoop has released in recent times. To compare it to the early Snoop Doggy Dog days would be like comparing Lil' Kim now to the photos before the opperation, or comparing R. Kelly to the days before the trial. Maybe these are a little extreme, but old skool West coast fans will not feel this. This album is a little bit more 'mushy' in terms of the love songs on it, but is still worth a try for the other MTV fans. It must be noted that when you see this on shelves in your local store, despite the strange album artwork which does not seem to have any reflection on the content, it is not actually a mixtape as it would appear.

8/10