Ludacris and his upbeat, hilarious flow have been hot for more than a minute now. Ever since "What's Your Fantasy" blew up the radio two years ago, 'Cris has dominated the Dirty South scene, making everyone throw 'dem bows to hit tracks like "Southern Hospitality," "Area Codes," "Roll Out" and "Welcome to Atlanta." It's too bad hot songs like those are missing entirely from "Golden Grain," the first LP dropped by 'Cris and his clique, which includes Shawnna, I-20, Tity Boi and Lil' Fate and is known collectively as Disturbing Tha Peace.
"Golden Grain" has all the crunkness you would expect from a Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz album, which can be good or bad. It's good if you like that sound, but it's bad if you're really familiar with Lil' Jon's tracks, because then it sounds like they just completely bit their style.
The lead single on this album is the remix of "Growing Pains (Do It Again)," a song reminiscing about growing up, which first appeared on the "Word of Mouf" album. Shawnna ripped the track with the lines "it used to be all good when we played double dutch in the hood / on the softball team I was swinging that wood / I remember eating Kool-Aid and sunflower seeds / jelly shoes, hair braided wit 1,000 beads." Mr. Scarface comes through to drop a nice verse. A major disappointment with this track is the recycled verse Ludacris spits. What he says isn't entirely wack, but it's old, and a remix should sound 10 times hotter than the original.
Too Short comes through on "Pimp Council," where he is the judge in "Pimp's Court." Even though Ludacris seems conscious of not trying to make himself bigger than the group, he can't help it. He constantly throws down lyrics superior to those of Lil' Fate and Shawnna.
Imagine a flow and voice similar to Scarface, and you've got I-20, who has a solo joint called "Can't Be Stopped (I Know)." He holds it down over a nice beat, but he's not captivating enough to get hyped if he's ever going to put out a solo album.
Twista, the man with the lightning-fast flow, comes through spitting lyrics faster than the track team. The hook gets old fast, but Twista easily steals the spotlight at first, with an effortless flow that vibes nicely with the beat.
"Move B----" is included as a "bonus" song at the end of the album. Besides being on "Word of Mouf," this song is also one of the reasons Ludacris lost his Pepsi deal after the whole Bill O'Reilly debacle. Apparently Fox News anchor O'Reilly didn't like the Ludacris' rhymes, lines like "I'm D.U.I., hardly ever caught sober." If Pepsi dropped Ludacris because O'Reilly brought this to attention and actually dropped the "thug" bomb on Ludacris, that's ludicrous. If the real reason Pepsi dropped him was for collaborating with Mystikal (and thinking it would be hot) and for thinking that this song would be a bonus for listeners, then Pepsi should have dropped him. This song shouldn't have been on one album, much less two.
There are no big-name producers on "Golden Grain," but the various producers like Jook and Derrick Williams throw together some typical Dirty South beats with bangin' bass.
There's no doubt Ludacris is the MVP of the DTP clique, but he's hard to find on this album. It seems as though he's still trying to ride the success of "Word of Mouf" by including one original and one remix on "Golden Grain." Letting his teammates grab the mic is no doubt an unselfish move by 'Cris, but he's got to go Michael Jordan here. At clutch time, Jordan wouldn't pass the ball to Jack Haley for obvious reasons. On the first DTP album, Ludacris needed to dominate the tracks to let everyone know he was the leader. If anyone's buying "Golden Grain," it's not to hear Tity Boy or I-20. It's to hear the Maintenance Man deliver his high-energy, comedic flows. No one else on this team can compete with him lyrically, which is why Ludacris blew up and they didn't. DTP doesn't mesh as well as groups such as the Nappy Roots, but they've got some time to work on their chemistry.
Rappers like I-20 can flow decent, but they need something to say. Much like the Roc-A-Fella Fam, if anyone from the clique ever said anything hot, they would no doubt blow up. Spitting C-level lyrics that wouldn't sound great in a freestyle sound even worse on an album, which is where "Golden Grain" needs work.
The guest appearances on the album are not bad. Scarface and Twista are hot, while Too Short and Jazze Pha are average. Unfortunately, Billy O'Reilly never came through to drop a verse, but maybe next time. As a typical debut album, it's evident that DTP has much growing to go through, so as long as Ludacris stays hot, time will be on DTP's side. Maybe next time.
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