Chambermusik Records
1.5 out of 5
1.5 out of 5
CAPPADONNA: "Put it right there. 443-306-9762. Reach out! I need all the help I can get right now. I need all the help I can get. No matter what it is, mixes or remixes. If somebody wants to do whatever, let me know. You want me to model clothes for them? Do a party? Whatever, man! I don't care. I have my DJ. I need to eat. I got my triplets. I got 2 other kids besides them. It's a struggle!"
Cappadonna, often billed as the 10th member of the Wu, has spent the last few years struggling to stack any paper at all. Unfortunately for him and his family, his newest release, Slang Prostitution, is a big piece of shit.
The track with Raekwon, "Life's a Gamble," and the track with Masta Killa, "Fire," both go hard, but every other track is pretty much garbage. Cappadonna must realize that this collection of 19 songs is "I wouldn't listen to this as a mixtape"-weak. To break it down: the flow succeeds on only a few tracks, the production is almost universally bush-league, and the features (excluding those of Masta Killa and Rae) only bring the album down.
Cappadonna's flow has always been something of a paradox--his subject matter is alternately inexplicably dense and indefensibly shallow. For example, "Slang Editorial" off 1998's The Pillage makes little to no sense: "Snap outta that, cappadonna seven sauna/Thirty three pirranha, chaos like iguana."
On the other hand, one of his arguably best verses on Raekwon's "Ice Cream" serves up this gem: "Double dime some time, Ice Cream you got me fallin out/Like a cripple, I love you like I love my dick size." The combo makes for some mediocre rapping, and on Slang Prostitution, it meets with little success. On "Three Knives", Cappadonna follows two unimpressive guest verses with lines like these: "New York City and Shaolin/Niggas get hit with hard licks/Throw your towel in/Fly niggas wilin'/Nigga we keep on stylin'." Multiple tracks begin with a line about the circumstances of Cappadonna's birth. Unimpressive freestyles, basically; hardly album worthy.
Yet if the listenability of his first album, The Pillage proves anything, it's that production is the key to Cappadonna's success. Unfortunately, on Slang Prostitution, Cappadonna is left out in the cold in this department, struggling in the absence of the RZA or other Wu-Elements producers like True Master. "Somebody's Got To Go" features a nice horn line, "Stay Shining" holds it down with a soulful sample, but most of the tracks go the way of "Hustle and Flow:" RZA-esque reproductions that become tedious and grating after about 30 seconds.
There are some gems on this album, though. "Fire" with Masta Killa is built around a nice rhythm which provides the proper counterpoint to Cap and Killa's flows. "Life's a Gamble," with Raekwon da Chef and some guy named Ratchet, is far and away the sickest beat on the album, and Shallah's verse makes it clear that this is the banger of the album. Of course, this is the same verse that Rae dropped on the song back in 2006, when it made its debut as a partial leak off OBFCL2 called "Legal Coke." The verse and song made another appearance on Ghostface's December '06 mixtape-before-the-album, Fish n' Chips, with Mick Boogie. "Fire," the other hot song, suffers from the same problem--the beat is nearly identical to The Game's "Like Father, Like Son."
In sum, Cappadonna should never have beefed with Wu-Tang. The irony of the situation is palpable--Cappadonna, author of songs like "MCF" (Money Comes First), and "Milk This Cow" (about eating off the success of the Wu), claims to be owed over $300,000 in royalty fees from the RZA and Wu-Tang leaders. The end result is that: (a) he sees none of that money, and (b) drops albums like Slang Prostition with no-name features and no-name producers that have little chance of success.
- Cass Luskin
Cappadonna, often billed as the 10th member of the Wu, has spent the last few years struggling to stack any paper at all. Unfortunately for him and his family, his newest release, Slang Prostitution, is a big piece of shit.
The track with Raekwon, "Life's a Gamble," and the track with Masta Killa, "Fire," both go hard, but every other track is pretty much garbage. Cappadonna must realize that this collection of 19 songs is "I wouldn't listen to this as a mixtape"-weak. To break it down: the flow succeeds on only a few tracks, the production is almost universally bush-league, and the features (excluding those of Masta Killa and Rae) only bring the album down.
Cappadonna's flow has always been something of a paradox--his subject matter is alternately inexplicably dense and indefensibly shallow. For example, "Slang Editorial" off 1998's The Pillage makes little to no sense: "Snap outta that, cappadonna seven sauna/Thirty three pirranha, chaos like iguana."
On the other hand, one of his arguably best verses on Raekwon's "Ice Cream" serves up this gem: "Double dime some time, Ice Cream you got me fallin out/Like a cripple, I love you like I love my dick size." The combo makes for some mediocre rapping, and on Slang Prostitution, it meets with little success. On "Three Knives", Cappadonna follows two unimpressive guest verses with lines like these: "New York City and Shaolin/Niggas get hit with hard licks/Throw your towel in/Fly niggas wilin'/Nigga we keep on stylin'." Multiple tracks begin with a line about the circumstances of Cappadonna's birth. Unimpressive freestyles, basically; hardly album worthy.
Yet if the listenability of his first album, The Pillage proves anything, it's that production is the key to Cappadonna's success. Unfortunately, on Slang Prostitution, Cappadonna is left out in the cold in this department, struggling in the absence of the RZA or other Wu-Elements producers like True Master. "Somebody's Got To Go" features a nice horn line, "Stay Shining" holds it down with a soulful sample, but most of the tracks go the way of "Hustle and Flow:" RZA-esque reproductions that become tedious and grating after about 30 seconds.
There are some gems on this album, though. "Fire" with Masta Killa is built around a nice rhythm which provides the proper counterpoint to Cap and Killa's flows. "Life's a Gamble," with Raekwon da Chef and some guy named Ratchet, is far and away the sickest beat on the album, and Shallah's verse makes it clear that this is the banger of the album. Of course, this is the same verse that Rae dropped on the song back in 2006, when it made its debut as a partial leak off OBFCL2 called "Legal Coke." The verse and song made another appearance on Ghostface's December '06 mixtape-before-the-album, Fish n' Chips, with Mick Boogie. "Fire," the other hot song, suffers from the same problem--the beat is nearly identical to The Game's "Like Father, Like Son."
In sum, Cappadonna should never have beefed with Wu-Tang. The irony of the situation is palpable--Cappadonna, author of songs like "MCF" (Money Comes First), and "Milk This Cow" (about eating off the success of the Wu), claims to be owed over $300,000 in royalty fees from the RZA and Wu-Tang leaders. The end result is that: (a) he sees none of that money, and (b) drops albums like Slang Prostition with no-name features and no-name producers that have little chance of success.
- Cass Luskin
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