A DiZ Nostalgic Review: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

Well, well, how long has it been since I've written a game review?  Not too long; the real question is how long ago has it been since I did a film review.  I wanna review "Jennifer's Body" because... well, it's Megan Fox... do I need another reason?  No, I don't, and I'd be lying if I said lust wouldn't play a part in the score the film got.  Alas, being of dark of skin and low of yen I can't afford the movies right now and, after some recent developments, I may have to go ballistic against my school because of some old bullshit but that's not for here and I won't rant about it here (fuck this college!)


Instead I'm going to try and focus on some more comforting issues, like gaming, and older games.  Anyone that really knows me knows that I love Star Wars.  I love it, more than some aspects of life.  I love it more than I hate the woodland critters that worship Satan, and that's saying something.  I love Episodes 4 through 6 and I tolerate Episodes 1 and 2 (damn you George Lucas for taking the religious aspect out of the Force *shakes fist*) and Episode 3 was a decent return to form.  I like The Force Unleashed because story wise its a great way to bridge the gap between the two it comes between, even if the game is kind of lacking.  I love the stormtroopers and the Jedi are just incredible to me, so much so that I nearly joined the new age religion of Jediism (no, I'm just kidding).  Yes, my love for Star Wars is scary, and
 as such my love for Star Wars games is strong too.  I don't like all of them but those I do like I usually display a heavy obsession for, such as this game here.  Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is one of the finer games out of Lucasarts, one of the few George had a hand in and didn't mess up, and it follows the story of Jaden Korr, a male or female human/Twi'lek/Rodian/Kel Dor Jedi recruit who was lucky enough to find himself a lightsaber before going to the academy.  He becomes friends with Rosh, who is obviously the guy you know is gonna turn to the dark side, and you, as Jaden, go on missions... that Jedi do.  He's this future prodigy (as far as Star Wars canon goes) that you follow the story of everything.  You can customize him to a degree (preset things) but ulti
mately he's just that guy with the lightsaber with some sweet force powers and possibly a saber staff.

The story is almost stereotypically Star Wars.  You're a Jedi recruit, you go on missions, you fight the dark side.  I don't like how your alignment is strictly determined by one action in the final parts of the game but what isn't nowadays?  Each mission is pretty decent, aside from one involved with thresher maws and level 1 force abilities.  That mission is still pretty shit to me, easily the one I hate the most.  A level 3 mission takes a close second.   You have to continually evade a mutated rancor, nasty business.  

Let's give some props to John Williams too.  The man isn't composing any new songs for the game but he's using the very songs from the film
 saga that made it great.  I would have loved to have heard Duel of the Fates at some crucial battle scene, but that would have been just a little much.  The sound effects (blaster sounds, lightsaber swings, speeder bikes) all sound 100% authentic and true to the movie, just like they should.  

Controls are good but they take a minute to get used to.  The game likes to switch to 1st person when a gun is in hand but you can change that with the press of a button.  Third person gunplay is fun, but you don't really use this to its truest advantage until a later level in the second stages.  You'll see what I'm talking about if you play it.  The lightsaber controls, the staple of the Jedi Knight franchise now, is ridiculously easy and unnecessarily fun.  Click the mouse and he or she swings the lightsaber.  Move with the lightsaber and swing it and you have even more fun.  Hit both mouse buttons and you do a Kata.  Of course I'm talking about the PC version (p
layed the Xbox version too; loved it).  Its a blast.  In fact, most of the simple things in this game are the most fun.  Lightsabers, speeder bikes, oh, the speeder bikes.  Take a blaster or a lightsaber and try to stay alive as you flee the enemy.  You will fail this mission, often, and when you finally get it you will be so overjoyed.  

Now, the multiplayer of this game is easily more fun than the main story, and the story is fun.  You can use Jedi or bounty hunters (my favorite non-Jedi Bobba Fett and clones as such) and you try to kill each other.  Hooray violence!  This multiplayer gives the game a re-playability that isn't really achievable in the single player.  The game is memorable but kind of cliche, and its fun but predictable too.  Game play wise the boundaries are pushed a little bit, the game is pretty cutting edge for the time, but its nothing big time, nothing that can't be replicated now.  The lightsaber combat, despite being fun, is still pretty 
reckless, and you can die a little too easily against some of t
he higher level Jedi and non-lightsaber wielding Jedi.  That works against the game but my biggest problem is the sand wyrms.  

I hate sand wyrms, thresher maws in every other game.  They pop up in the most inopportune times and they're terribly annoying.  Not just that, but the
y can just pop up and eat you.  If the level where you need to repair your ship and had to deal with sand wyrms was in a later stage, maybe if the Jedi was at level 2, I probably wouldn't mind so much, but as it is the game is a total buzzkill when it comes to its time (you can skip it but you miss out on a force power) you wet yourself.  Yes, I said it: you wet yourself.  

I have a lot more praises for the game than I do com
plaints, and while this is far from the best Star Wars game to ever come out (my bid is on Knights of the Old Republic 2 if the game was completed)  it serves as a shining example of what Lucasarts is capable of.  I'm the Nostalgic Gamer; I remember it so you don't have to.

DiZ Score: 4 out of 5

Monday, September 21, 2009
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The DiZ Reviews Yet Again: Kid Cudi's "Man on the Moon: The End of Day"

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

Before I conduct this re-review let me first apologize to Kid Cudi.  I half assed on his review and, considering just how good it is, I can't actually let that one stand.  It's not a bad review, mind you, just not up to the standards I've set for myself.  I lied to a degree and said that it was impossible to properly review this album.  It's not impossible, just difficult.  Let's try this once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kid Cudi is an interesting character.  In my eyes he's the combination of Kanye's charisma and personality with Outkast's eclectic persona, mixed together to a fine, smooth liquid, destroyed in a garbage disposal, and recreated into a skinny nigga who used to sport a mo
hawk.  He's part of this new generation of rappers more on the side of lyricism and complimenting the production rather than falling back on it.  Say what you want to say about XXL magazine and the yearly freshman class, but the 2010 edition had some true talent.  Blu released an album with Exile that a lot of people consider a classic.  Charles Hamilton releases a mixtape every two hours.  Asher Roth is the new great white hope.  Wale is a lyrical mastermind.  Kid Cudi is arguably (don't quote me) the best act of the ten.  He embodies one of the most important aspects of hip hop despite not being purely hip hop: innovation.

I know, Soulja Boy embodies innovation too... if you want to call it innovation.  But Kid Cudi brings something ENTIRELY new to the table.  Stoners are common and rappers that half sing are becoming more and more common, but combining both elements AND rapping about space shit is simply incredible.  Let's get this out of the way: Kid Cudi's album is great, as good as Only Built for Cuban Linx Part 2.  Yeah, I said it, and I didn't acknowledge it before because my listening experience wasn't as good as it should of been.  I've listened and re-listened to the album for days and now I can properly give it the review it d
eserves.  

Cudi starts off on a high note with the intro, In My Dreams, a somber little look into the mind of Kid Cudi (whose name eludes me right now) and a set up for the rest of the album.  At the end of the track one of the greatest rappers of all time (yes, I said it!) Common begins his album narration.  Yes, Man on the Moon: The End of Day is more than just an album: it's a concept album of the highest caliber.  It's divided into five "acts", each titled, and Lonnie Lynn, Jr. narrates the story thus far at the end of each act.  See, the album acts as a space age, psuedo-biography to the life of Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, beginning with the somber In My Dreams, ending that track with Commo
n's narration, and moving right along into Soundtrack 2 My Life, a heartfelt look into some of what Cudi goes through, with such lines as: 

I'm super paranoid like a sixth sense
Since my father died I ain't been right sense
And I try to piece together the puzzle of the universe
Split an eighth of shrooms just so I could see the universe'

Kid Cudi is human, albeit a constantly lifted human, but he goes through problems like the rest of us.  From his problems he goes into Simple As... and lays down some ideal situations.  This concludes Act 1: The End of Day, best described as an introduction and in-depth look into the mind of Kid Cudi, inside his dreams and weed-laced mindset.  Common drops a bit more knowledge (he needs to do a poetry album with his pop... and Papa Wu) and introduces us to the next Act: Rise of the Night Terrors.

With a name like that you expect some kind of scary situations, right?  In a sense.  Kid Cudi kicks off Act 2 with the hauntingly piercing Solo Dolo.  In my opinion (and this is one of my beefs with the album) this song is the first that he actually raps on.  He does a combination of rapping and singing for the most part, even on this song, but he actually raps in the latter part.  The song itself is a bit of self deprecation, self pity, but while you feel for the man you jump right into the track that gets him out of this slump, the inspiring Heart of a Lion (Kid Cudi's Theme Music) and describes how he, despite all the bullshit he's been through, still has the heart of a lion and pulls himself out of the crap.  The last song of the act is My World featuring Billy Craven.  Delving into the realm of the ideal world once again (much more explicitly
) Cudi spits fire once again (half rap, half singing fire mind you) and Common once again steps in to introduce the next Act: Taking a Trip.

So how appropriate is it that Day 'n' Nite is the first track of the new act?  The lonely stoner, as he called himself, is looking for something in this song, but that "something" eludes me.    Great track, a wonderful way to introduce himself to the world.   Sky Might Fall, one of my favorite tracks on the album, maintains the space theme of the album and acts a psuedo-inspiration for the listener, assuring the listener that even if the sky falls "remember you can fly".  Enter Galactic is, from my understanding, the track a lot of people aren't really feeling.  Granted, the song is the standard song for the ladies, but I don't find it as bad as others do.  It's a great addition to the space-age feel of the album.  Common drops in once again to narrate the album (I might insert his sections at the end of the review because they're incredible) and we come to my favorite (and possibly the worst) Act of the album: Stuck.

"Stuck" begins with Alive and Cudi Zone respectively.  Both tracks are well enough, but the further along you get into the album the more songs of space age status start to merge together.  They still sound ok
ay, but we come to my second major grievance with the album, the second single Make Her Say.  This is quite possibly my favorite Kid Cudi song ever, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album.  Kanye and Common (at his fucking nastiest) drop some deviant verses with the Lady Gaga (she's creepy to me... good creepy, but creepy...) sample in the backdrop.  I would have preferred that Cudi saved this track for his next album, but as it is this track, in my opinion, would have been a better bonus track.  This leads us into the latest single, Pursuit of Happiness.  I like this song (though I would have preferred Heart of a Lion or Sky Might Fall as his next single) and I really like the feel behind the track.  It's fun, inspiring, upbeat, and resumes the space age feel set by the rest of the album.  Perhaps that break with Make Her Say was intentional so the sounds wouldn't merge together so muc
h.  Anyway, we leave this song and go into a Common narration once again, going into the final Act: A New Beginning.

At only two tracks long, A New Beginning is a fitting end to a great album.  Cudi does a bit more pure rapping (I stopped caring so much about the half and half style in Act 3) with Hyyer and brings the album to a happy, almost full circle finish with Up Up and Away, where he finally wakes up, concluding the almost dreamlike sequence and bringing the great album to a beautiful close.  

This is the best alternative hip hop album to come out in a long, LONG time.  I said alternative because Raekwon is far from alter
native.  On a whole I put their albums on the same level, but in different ways.  Both have their flaws and both still manage to shine bright.  I consider this album, and in essence R
aekwon's latest, to the game Portal.  Ever play it?  It's a great game, nearly flawless.  Its short enough to not overstay its welcome and challenging enough to keep your interest.  The problem with it (if you want to call it a problem) is just around personal preference, just like virtually everything.  That's why Kid Cudi has crafted a certified near-classic with this LP.  I didn't give him the proper score before because I was unfairly comparing it to Raekwon's sequel (now HE knows how to make a sequel, unlike that other New York rapper *cough* Jay-Z *cough*).  Now I'm not.  Kid Cudi is a leader of the new school, and I can't wait for his next piece of work.

The DiZ TRUE score: 4.5 out of 5

As a little gift, this is one of the narrations from Common, the first one.  This is back to the roots of his poetry.  Makes me regret even more than he created Universal Mind Control.  Go to this link and read the last part.  This is Common at his best.


Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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You Niggas Are Fickle: Examination of Kanye's "outrageous" behavior

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

In the words of people that hate John McCain, "Go fuck yourself."  Seriously, this isn't the first time that Kanye has done something like this; that nigga does it virtually every award show!  And what pisses me off is that the same people that are crucifying him for having an opinion are the same ones that are going to buy his next album by the dozens.  Here's my middle finger, please take the advice it gives.  DiZ, out.

Monday, September 14, 2009
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The DiZ Rants About: The Blueprint 3

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.


*Sigh*... I'm not exactly Jay-Z's biggest fan. No, scratch that, I just straight up fucking HATE Jay-Z sometimes. He claimed to be the Michael Jordan (congrats to his recent Hall of Fame induction) of recording, but we have to remember that Jordan was significantly less spectacular in his return and actually disgraced his own name from time to time. That being said, is the title of being the Michael Jordan of Rap as good as it seems? I said I don't like Jay-Z too much, but I have respect for him that doesn't properly reflect that lack of liking him. I don't maintain a "greatest rapper of all time" mentality but I do consider Jay-Z to be one of the greatest, top 5 maybe, top 10 without a doubt. That's crazy because I consider half his catalog to be bullshit. All three Volumes pissed me off because of the mainstream shift he adopted and the second Blueprint album (this is a review for the third if you remember) had me debating how many cars the nigga would need to buy me to repent. Kingdom Come had me wishing *WARNING: hyperbole alert!* the shots he took in the 99 Problems video actually did off him *Hyperbole complete* and... well, speaking about The Blueprint 3 now would ruin the rest of this rant.

Notice I only mentioned part of his discography in that. I love Reasonable Doubt, citing it as Jay's opus and the first (and by the rules of logic it should have been the only) Blueprint album is still one of the most listened to albums in my collection. I wish The Black Album was really his last album because it would have ended his record making career on a MASSIVE high note, higher than Scarface could ever make a woman hit, and American Gangster, despite being a carbon copy of his debut opus, is still one of the best albums of any genre for the year 2007. I feel that Jay-Z and his albums are a mixed bag of hit and miss, and I feel that the misses on a macro scale are more misses than hits. Single wise, track wise, yeah, I think Jay-Z has countless masterpieces, but that's all in the past. This is about the future, and the futuristic sound (KiD CuDi) of The Blueprint 3. This album, like the second installment, is a bit of showcase for other artists, similar to Roc La Familia, which wasn't Jay-Z's album but it was marketed as such to make sales. A friend told be about this, I didn't believe him... let's get into it...

The album starts with the intro (duh) called What We Talking About. Good usage of verbs there, Mr. Carter. Anyway he's back to his old antics, talking about how great he is. I don't give a rat's ass if he's our president's best friend; WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE, JAY-Z! You don't have to constantly remind us! You are not Mike Jones! This goes right into Thank You, which is filled to the brim with statistical inaccuracies and more bragging about the shit he gets to do with all his money! Then we get into D.O.A. Skip. Run This Town. Fast forward (I didn't like his lyrics, ha!) to Kanye's verse and call it a day. I've always wondered why people put Kanye on their tracks: he murders ever guest verse he's on without so much as a broken sweat. Besides that I wish a more developed voice was utilized rather than Robyn "I let my boyfriend(s) beat on me" Fenty, better known as Rihanna.

Empire State of Mind COULD have been the best track on the album, if Nas was on the track. Obviously (and I'm not just saying this because I don't like Jay-Z) this is a poor attempt as the magic Nas made TWICE with New York State of Mind. Alicia Keys on the track is just... sexy, so I can't complain about that, but Jay-Z sounds like he should be on a GPS system with this piece. Real As It Gets... uh... this is known as an attempt to get the southern audience. Let me say something: a Young Jeezy guest verse NEGATES ANY CHANCE TO HAVE A CLASSIC ALBUM! That's taking nothing away from Jeezy (one of my favorite voices of the south) but he's not ANYWHERE on the same lyrical scale as Jay-Z, even on his best days! Besides! If you want the southern crowd you need to get Lil Wayne on the track; we all see how great those... are... uh... moving on... On to the Next One (appropriate title) is one of the first tracks that made me sick. Yes, sick. Swizz Beatz didn't do it for me, and Jay's flow was kind of weak. Not his best track, not by a long shot. Then we go into Off That which made me actually agree with Bill O'Reilly (gasp away) in his insult towards Jay-Z. My biggest problem is that he's not utilizing Drake (aka Hip Hop's Latest Wonderboy aka The Best She's Ever Known aka Jimmy) for anything more than a hook, which you know is just wrong right now. At least A Star is Born features the new kid J. Cole. Now to Jay's credit I do love this song, I really love it, because J. Cole is nice and Jay-Z kind of takes the passenger seat to the kid. If this was his intent with the entire album I would be a bit kinder to it. When J. Cole comes out I'll be overjoyed.

Venus vs. Mars was about as effective in my eyes as Ja Rule's The Manual, and both are too presumptuous (like a glass of milk and Chuck Norris). Already Home, the track with the stoner KiD CuDi (see? he's back) is another one of my favorites (it's not all hate). It feels the most... it's almost as if this was the track that was done with no kind of thought, just feeling. I love it. That's two. Hate, a track that I hate, was a leftover from 808s and Heartbreak from what I understand, and it sounds like a leftover from Graduation because I can hear a resemblance to the atrocious Mos Def-assisted Drunk and Hot Girls (God damn you, Mos Def; you lucky you repented with The Ecstatic).

I have to give Reminder a special paragraph to itself. How cruel is it, you who is reading this, to pretty much do the musical equivalent to the MTV show Cribs? Remember the episode of The Boondocks where MTV Cribs came to Thugnificent's house? You know how real that was? He pretty much said, no, EXPLICITLY said that he was showing the world how great it was to be him and how fucked up it was to be anyone else. THAT'S WHAT THIS TRACK IS! It's a reminder that he's great and we're not. Fuck you, Jay-Z! Fuck you, your money, your wife... no, I'm leaving Beyonce out of this one... your cars, your hoes, your affair with Rihanna, fuck all of that!

Ahem... let me chill out a little bit. So Ambitious was... it was so-so, can't hate for real. The final track... the verdict from a lot of people is that its a bad track. Young Forever, despite being a cheap song, is actually one of the songs I'm feeling the most from the LP. Is it great? No. Good? I'll roll with that. Maybe I was just happy the album was over.

Now, anyone that reads this is probably going to say, "DiZ, you fucking idiot, you're a hater!" Yes, I do hate on Jay-Z, but at what point did I actually say I hated Jay-Z on a musical level? I don't. Even his albums that I hate are good in some capacity, though much less that those that I like. I hate In My Lifetime to the point of burning it with gasoline, matches and lemon juice, but dammit he had some powerful tracks on it. I hated Hard Knock Life with a passion, but dammit I love those singles. I hate Volume 3 but shit... actually I just straight hate Volume 3. Fuck that album. I hate the Blueprint 2 because it diminished Mr. Carter's lyrical genius with numerous guest appearances. Kingdom Come was just ass... a couple of good tracks but nothing breathtaking.

You know my biggest problems with Shawn "I should have retired several albums ago" Carter? He's like David Xanatos. You ever watch Gargoyles? Xanatos is the guy that brings the gargoyles back to life in a sense, breaking the curse and all. His biggest fear is death, or growing old, whatever. Jay-Z refuses to grow up. He said that 30 was the new 20. His ass needs to recognize that 30 is now and forever the present 30. Now he's pushing 40 and he's afraid that he'll no longer be relevant. Xanatos killed his own son after gaining immortality... in an alternate world... but that's beside the point. You don't gain immortality by putting out subpar material until you can't even sit up and have to do your music line by line (Curtis Mayfield reference). After countless references to himself being like Frank Sinatra he has to realize a couple of things about Sinatra. For one, Sinatra knew how to share the spotlight, something he didn't do properly with this album. Sinatra, Martin and Davis, Jr. ran the world in their lifetimes. For two, Sinatra knew when to slow it down. Jay-Z hasn't done such a thing. Lastly, Sinatra knew when to just sit down and engage in his other endeavors, which Jay-Z should have done a long time ago. He's rich, has bitches, has a wife, has a mistress, pretty much won financially and professionally against his one time enemy, has money, and even convinced people that 30 is the new 20. No, 30 is not the new 20 and Jay-Z needs to hang the mic up and let the new generation take over. When we have people already saying that Drake is one of the greatest rappers of all time we need NEW guys knocking these stupid fools down, not old legends. KRS does guest appearances. Kane does guest appearances. Jay-Z needs to go to this stage of hip hop, just like LL, just like E-40. Rappers have shelf lives, and Jay is pushing his. He's slowing down. Better to leave on a high note than stay when you could either hit or miss. That's my two cents of the whole Blueprint 3 thing. Call me a hater, I don't care, this is my review, not yours.

The DiZ Score: 3 out of 5

Rant: done.

Saturday, September 12, 2009
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The Nostalgic Gamer: Barkley's Shut Up and Jam

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

Hello, I'm the Nostalgic Gamer. I remember it so you don't have to. Heh, get the reference? If you don't then click on this: The Nostalgic Critic. The Nostalgic Critic is a guy with glasses that remembers old movies (most of them bad, some of them the epitome of evil because of the direction of one Uwe Boll) and does it in moderately lengthy videos, similar to Yahtzee. You don't know Yahtzee either? Fuck... okay, go here then, dumbass: Zero Punctuation. Differences lie in media outlet and time of the stuff reviewed. Me, I'm a fan of both, so I'm going to combine elements of both (which I kind of already do) and do it from a textual standpoint, inserting videos and pictures throughout to make a point. Sound good? Fantastic. That's the proper format for all preceding posts.

You know, I don't usually do sports. I'm not talking about football or basketball, I love those; I'm talking about football or basketball video games. Why? For that very reason above: if I really want to play football or basketball I can do it myself. On the occasions I DO play sports video games they either come with the system (recalling my Dreamcast) or they're so over-the-top that you couldn't (or shouldn't) do them in life (Blitz: The League). But this is actually a relatively recent phenomena in me, considering I only really started this in the early part of the new millennium. Before that I was playing NBA Live and Madden like everyone else.

The Madden thing... well, if I talked about that already then I talked about it already, I don't like EA Sports for a reason. NBA Live 96 was my favorite basketball game of all time, and I'm not just saying that because it was one of the first I played. I liked it because it was oddly unbalanced. Every time I used the Raptors I could never miss a three pointer. Believe me, I tried, but I never missed one. So I cheated, in a sense, and beat my friends mercilessly. Then, I got another basketball game.

Back in a time when games were 16 bit - and consequently the world made sense - there was a basketball player named Charles Barkley, the latest retired ball player to catch the political bug, that dominated the game. He was the face of the new basketball game known as "Shut Up and Jam", a 2-on-2 street tournament style game featuring a host of people with stats and funky names, exotic locales such as Watts and Brooklyn, and of course Sir Charles, the king of the rebound. There was basic stereotypical hip hop loops for music, Charles telling you to get the damn ball if it was just on the ground, and half of the blocked shots were goaltending violations. I loved it.

Let me tell you something: Barkley Shut Up and Jam had something most basketball games of the time didn't have: stunning realism combined with stunning unrealism. Do you play streetball? I did. There were no fouls or goaltending, no time limits, just playing the damn game until mama called you back for dinner. When you got hit there was nothing pretty about it; you hit the ground hard and you were lying there until you moved. You try to dunk you will get knocked the fuck down if you're a presumptuous little dipshit. You don't fly around the country to play; you go in the backyard or that court down the street. You have funny ass names and you wear your hat backwards. That's streetball. Until NBA Street came along (kinda...) this kind of beautiful game was one in a million, and I still play it today, yes, I still play it, and you know why? Because its fun, like Mystical Ninja (you gotta have an acquired taste for that one...), and until there's another game of that caliber created I give the big middle finger to all other streetball games!

Granted... you may be thinking, "DiZ, you ill informed aphrodisiac, wasn't there a sequel to that game?" To you I respond with this question: you should be ashamed of yourself. We will NOT discuss that awful ass game here... not for many days... DiZ, out!

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The DiZ Reviews: Chef Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Part 2"

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

Here's some knowledge about DiZ: he hates rap sequels. It's a harsh statement, but consider the rap sequels that exist. You have Stillmatic, Illmatic's sequel. You have the Blueprint 2 vs. Blueprint 1. Webbie’s Savage Life vs. Savage Life 2… I know, I’m ashamed I remember those pieces of shit too. Granted, Stillmatic and Blueprint 2 are good albums, but the former doesn't nearly reach the bar of its predecessor and Blueprint 2... well, I always said that for every bad album Jay-Z did he owed me two cars, and I'm debating whether or not he owes me four because Blueprint 2 is a double disc. Not to mention Blueprint 3 is coming out soon (just finished listening to it and I'm mad that I can't hate on it like I wanted, go figure). And we're not even going to TALK about those aforementioned albums that shall not be named ever again... So how do you think I originally felt when I even heard that Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part 2 was coming out? Indifferent. I love Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, hailing it as a classic, so a sequel can only be slightly worse or significantly worse. That's being mean: it is not likely to be (nearly) as good as the predecessor.

That's me rambling. The Wu-Tang Clan is one of my favorite stables in rap and all its members have impressed me with classic or near classic albums (not counting the various affiliates or satellites associated with the Wu) and Raekwon's opus is probably my second favorite, only after Liquid Swords. That means I've listened to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx religiously in some cases, and I consider some of its tracks perfect. At the same time, there's a change I notice between the two LPs. This change in style is one of the many pleasures of the new album, and we're gonna jump into the review right now so I don't get any more distracted.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part 2 starts off on a high note by continuing exactly where the first left off, with Papa Wu dropping some serious knowledge over a soulful beat before a section of the Wu tears up a J. Dilla (rest in peace) beat with House of Flying Daggers. The emcees don't disappoint and display that same beautifully vicious lyricism that the Wu Tang is known for. As a matter of fact this album as a whole is essentially a Wu Tang album, with every clan member dropping nice verse after nice verse without breaking a sweat; through all of this, however, Raekwon rarely gives up the spotlight, always shining with his partner-in-crime Ghostface Killa. Raekwon enlists a number of producers this time around, not simply relying on the RZA’s masterful productions; in truth he only calls on the RZA for three beats: Black Mozart, New Wu, and Fat Lady Sings. Of the three Black Mozart sounds just like it implies. RZA doesn’t fail to deliver and neither do the lyrical slaughterers. Other production comes from Erick Sermon, Marley Marl, the Alchemist, even Dr. “I’ll drop my album when I get around to it” Dre.

Raekwon maintains his status as the chef throughout the album, never directly leaving the topic of bagging that white too much unless bearing his soul or exerting crazy dominance over competition. To this degree Ason Jones might just be the best track on the album, a tribute and musical memorial to the late great Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

On the occasions (loose meaning) that Raekwon calls on a guest verse (see? I’m referring to those outside of the Wu conglomerate) they rarely fail. Jadakiss and Styles P grace Broken Safety appropriately, not reaching Raekwon’s level (no surprise) but complimenting him well enough. Beanie Sigel stands toe-to-toe with the Chef on the Icewater produced, Blue Raspberry assisted Have Mercy, delivering a verse that only shows once again why he’s a possible legend in the making.

Then again, I said rarely in the previous paragraph. The Dr. Dre produced Catalina is a good enough track, but Lyfe Jennings may not have been the right voice for the hook; Anthony Hamilton would have fit the feel a bit better. Busta Rhymes’ spot on About Me is far from bad, but… there is no but; it’s a good track. Busta didn’t fail to deliver at all, showing once again why he is a possible legend in the making as well.

The album follows the similar concept to the first, coming to a close with the fantastic Mean Streets and the inspiring Kiss the Ring (I don’t know who the hell Scram Jones is but someone get him to do ALL of OB4CL 3). The crack, the bagging, the struggles, the introspection, the overall greatness of the first album IS apparent in the second installment. Here’s the big question: is it as good as Only Built for Cuban Linx? Answer…

OH HELL NAW! Sorry for being so mean about it but we have to be honest. The expanded track listing of OB4CL Pt. 2 alone makes for the mistake of unnecessary filler, even if it is good filler, and Raekwon, who defied my standards of what makes a classic back in 1995, didn’t strike twice. Some of these standards include:

  1. You can’t have a classic with too many guests. I gave Raekwon the classic status before because the guests were the Wu Tang clan, and they work almost like a unit so I can’t fault him for those guest appearances. Alternatively, those non-Wu guest appearances are almost orgasmic (Nas on Verbal Intercourse) and very few. OB4CL Pt. 2 doesn’t feature a lot of non-Wu guest appearances, but none of them can properly match up to the standard of Raekwon and the Wu.
  2. You can’t have another classic rapping about the same shit. Okay, this one hasn’t really been broken because Raekwon is talking about the same shit on OB4CL 2 that he was on OB4CL 1, if only from a different perspective and from a more wisdomed approach. The intro from Papa Wu (let him and Common’s dad get together and do a poetry album; that would be sweet) was a great way to start it off but when you delve into familiar territory you’re bound to know where you’re going.
  3. You can’t copy a formula, only follow it. There are blueprints (not the Jay-Z albums I steadily hate more and more) that a lot of albums follow, and when it comes to sequel albums they don’t usually follow the original blueprint. That usually leads to failure. OB4CL 2 actually does follow the blueprint to a degree though, so what happened?
  4. You can’t have ONE introspective track about a/an A)fallen friend, B)female, or C)amazing event. You must have at least two. So I mentioned Ason Jones earlier, one of my favorite tracks on the album. I love the tributes to the Ol’ Dirty Chinese Restaurant (rest in peace) but just one? It’s lonely. You also have Kiss the Ring, the last track and my personal favorite. Imagine sitting in an old fashioned diner and proclaiming to everyone that you’ve just taken over Liberty City. That’s an amazing event. So you have two tracks, so it should be good, right? Not so much. They’re in odd places, those tracks. Kiss the Ring is in a good spot, a great way to epically end the LP, but Ason Jones shouldn’t of been the only track like it was. Leading to the last standard I’m going into…
  5. You can’t be a rapper on R&B beats. This isn’t a complaint or anything, just something I’m throwing out. Remember Heaven and Hell? Another exception to the rule of my standards. OB4CL 2 didn’t really have any R&B beats, just some laid backs ones that worked out pretty well.

Woo, this is a hard one to review. I can’t say it’s as good as Cuban Linx 1, but it’s still a great album. I won’t lie; I came into listening to it knowing it wouldn’t be another classic, but I didn’t actually start to review the album until I got rid of that mentality. I knew it would be great but it exceeded my standards (regular standards, not classic standards (some of those standards are just ridiculous)). I’ve been waiting for a good solo Wu release for a minute and this (not counting GZA’s Pro Tools) is a great return to form. Is it a perfect 5 out of 5? Nope. Is it a 4? Nope.

DiZ Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Sunday, September 6, 2009
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The DiZ Reviews: Kid Cudi's "Man on the Moon: The End of Day"

Posted by DiZ, the Chocolate G.O.A.T.

Before this review, a message from me, the DiZ:
I'm back! Damn, I need to stop taking these long ass breaks in between posts. It'll kill what's left of my traffic! I'm working on another review right now too for Raekwon's latest effort, so stayed tuned for that, and my Shadow of the Colossus mega review will be up in due time. I'm out! BLEE!


I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of Kid Cudi until I saw him in concert, and I wasn't really a true fan until long after he made us wait forty minutes for his ass to come out. His performance was good, very good, but oddly enough Kanye West's special appearance is what sent us all over the edge. In any case, Kid Cudi is part of this new wave of hip hop artists, part of the lyrical renaissance taking place with such rappers as Blu, B.o.B., Mickey Factz, Wale, Asher Roth, Cory Gunz and Charles Hamilton (most of the XXL Freshman Class of 2009). He's also part of this new wave that's doing more and more singing along with rapping, a crazy combination I can't blame Kanye for despite wanting to. Go figure.

Kid Cudi is arguably the best to do this in the game right now. He doesn't try to sound like Luther Vandross when he sings and his eternal stoner persona makes for some interesting lyricism for the most part. Man on the Moon: The End of Day is an eclectic mix of his galactic high rapping and marijuana laced singing, often all at once. I dare say that this is one of the most eclectic albums in the world of hip hop since Outkast dropped an LP.

Okay... that's a bit much. You can see that I'm putting a lot on Kid Cudi's shoulders because I can see that he's truly a different artist in hip hop as opposed to half the niggas walking around now. He's not afraid to rap/sing about some crazy out-of-this-world shit and he doesn't shy away from the over-the-top misogynistic tracks that happen to plague the airwaves (at least his are fun to listen to no matter how sexist they make Common sound (yeah, I said it!)). With all that said, let's get into Kid Cudi's major label debut.

This is a true concept album: the LP is divided into five acts, each one having a little excerpt from the narrator, Common. I know I said he sounded sexist earlier but don't worry: he still does. He drops some Def Jam level poetry at the ends of select tracks as intros or outros to the acts. But he never steals Cudi's shine, only makes it better. In fact, right from the get go, with In My Dreams, you get a clue of why Cudi is THE neo-psychedelia rapper, rap/singing about his dreams and life. As a matter of fact, the better way to review this LP is to do it by acts. Let's try that, shall we?

Act 1: The End of the Day

Cudi uses this for his three track intro with Lonnie Lynn Jr's poetry following the first track. We go into Cudi's stoner lyricism and his unique brand of rapping. He combines the elements of singing with his rapping, so much where he appears to be talking more so than rapping, making his style pretty conversational at times. Imagine going to sleep; that's what these tracks feel like in a sense. No sense getting into the tracks, but they almost highlight the fact that Cudi is drifting into his dream land... or nightmare hell...

Act 2: Rise of the Night Terrors

Solo Dolo is a haunting way to start this act. It's perfect: slow and creepy, setting a stage for what seems like a true invasion of the dreamland this nigga is obviously inhabiting and smoking in. Heart of a Lion follows it, and it's almost like a declaration, an escape if you will. This act is something like an escape, trying to get free from the night terrors. Of the acts this is probably my favorite, because it fits the description of the title so well.

Act 3: Taking a Trip (How high is this guy...?)

Day n Nite and Sky Might Fall are fan favorites and some of the tracks that made us love (tolerate for me) Cudi because of their "trip like" quality. You know what I mean? It's kind of like these tracks ARE him walking down the corridors of his mind.

Act 4: Stuck

My least favorite act, but ironically enough it contains some of my favorite tracks. I suppose that's part of the point. Cudi changes up styles a little bit here, especially with his hit single Make Her Say, the nastiest track on the LP (remember I said Common was sexist up here? Here you go) is also the most out of place. It's not stoner rap, just braggadocios sex rap. Granted, it's a great track, but it's out of place, unless "Stuck" was meant to represent that.

Act 5: A New Beginning

Welcome to the end of the album, that's what I think Cudi was trying to tell me with the last two tracks. It was a fun ride and it came to a satisfying end. Cudi was flying away, going higher and higher until he was truly up up and away.

This is a sloppy review because its IMPOSSIBLE to properly review this album with words. You can use a number but a number alone doesn't mean shit. Kid Cudi has crafted THE stoner album of the year, maybe even next year, but that doesn't mean that it's perfect, not by a long shot. Kanye West's production (two tracks: Sky Might Fall and Make Her Say) is welcome but a little strangely placed, despite how well it fits into the grand scheme of things. Also, I'm not really feeling his definition of "rap". I'm not referring to his genre or anything, that's on point, but his half rapping/half singing style is a little lazy at times. Sometimes its straight singing, and while I can't knock the man for singing I can knock it for singing as much as he did.

The other problem comes with the territory of a concept album: if you slip up even once on a concept album there's a chance everything can just be confusing in the future, and Cudi doesn't slip up so much as just fall a little short at times, making the story a little confusing. Common narrates but since he's only around four or five times (excluding his guest verse) sometimes the story can get a little "pushed back" or irrelevant.

Another criticism is Cudi's biggest mistake and showing off all the good tracks already. The fan favorites and "accidental" singles are easily the best tracks on the album, overshadowing at least half of the effort with relative ease. Make Her Say, a true hit, is quite possibly the best track on the album and it overshadows most of it by not even keeping a similar sound to the rest of the album.

That leads to the final bad talk: Make Her Say. It's a great track, but it's just completely out of place on the album. It doesn't share the same feel as the rest of it, and while it's a welcome addition it's also a consistency substraction. Concept albums, like I said, thrive on an album long consistency that Make Her Say interrupted.

So what do I have to say about this album? Shit, I already done said it! What do I give this album on a scale of one to five? A four. That's difficult for me too because I wanted to give this album a higher score, but some minor oversight from previous circumstance keeps it from achieving the greatness I wanted it to have. Man on the Moon: The End of Day is a very impressive debut from a very impressive weed junkie. I'm hoping that his next LP is just as good, no, even better than this one. Kid Cudi, good work.

DiZ Score: 4 out of 5

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