The Hip Hop Mortuary

I feel like Dave Chappelle at the Hater's Ball whenever I see this album, I really really got hate for this album... even though Mase has supposedly turned his life around, which hasn't stopped him from rapping and collecting a few million dollars (in the name of Christ of course). But whenever I see the album cover I'm just reminded about the ugly side of hip-hop, P Diddy and Bad Boy records back in the 90's. Back in about 1996, P Diddy was the Lil' Wayne of the rap world, he could do no wrong in the eyes of his fans. Think about it, here was a clever record producer with charisma, a hard work ethic, and an ability to spot talent instantly... you'd think that would equate to a great job behind the scenes. Not if your name is P Diddy, or Puff Daddy or Puffy, or Diddy, or Sean Combs. Wait, actually think about the name Puff Daddy... Puff Daddy? Yeah, the symbolism there is really unrivaled. Anyway, Puff Daddy signed all sorts of "street dudes" to cement his reputation, and of course the only real street dude out of all of them, Shyne, gets into a gun fight in front of the press... even P Diddy probably thought that was too good to be true. And of course, now we all now that P Diddy has bored of the rap game, and releasing terrible R&B albums, and when he isn't Making A Band or bossing around college students begging for camera time, Diddy is starring in commercials for Burger King and making weird YouTube videos (Swagger like Puff?). Anyway, all that's kind of off topic, so let's get back on topic and underway...

The Good:

3. Take What's Yours- Still a great song, no matter how I feel about Mase and Bad Boy, I will always bump this track because it is straight PROPANE.. fire! Everything is on point... and I'm surprised this DMX hook hasn't been sampled more, this is one of the very few times when I can actually applaud Earl Simmons' singing.

9. The Player Way- This track is average, but it's much better than the sewer garbage that preceded it. It looks kind of weird that 8Ball and MJG were on this album, and it sounds even weirder... really out of place feature.

11. Niggaz Wanna Act- Mase sounds really good over these soft instrumentals, but surprisingly Busta Rhymes' tribal yells don't make Mase sound better... who would have knew?

16. 24 Hrs. To Live- Mase packs in about 4 or 5 good feature verses before DMX ruins the last minute of this track... shit's still banging.

19. Wanna Hurt Mase?- For those hoping this was about Mase's insecurities and easy ways to murk him, you'll be dissapointed, but for those who want to hear a loud beat overpower soft feminine lyrics which are really hard to hear... you'll be very pleased!

And that'll do it... I think it was pretty obvious from the beginning that this album wouldn't be all that good and it wasn't... the four above listed tracks (I hope you could tell I was joking about 19) are actually really good and the rest of the album doesn't compare to them.

0-20: Terrible listening experience
21-40: Maybe one good song
41-60: A few good songs
61-80: Half are good songs, half are weak
81-100: Great listening experience, almost all are great songs

I give this album a 53... yeah I know that's nice of me.

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