Ok nerds, the anticipation is over and #ML5 is here and it doesn’t disappoint at all. This is one of those records where there is something for everyone on here. I’m feelin’ almost every cut on here (which is rare these days) but if I had to pick a fave, it would be the joint with Tanya Morgan called The Showdown….its on some real hip hop posse cut ish, the sample is sick, and everyone on there was spittin’ hard (pause). Enjoy….
Let me start out by saying that I almost overlooked (well, I did overlook) this album due to the first single titled “Cool” ft. David Banner. I thought the beat was corny and the David Banner feature seemed like a badly matched outfit that was a plea for “cool”.
After first listen though, I must say that 3/4 of the album is solid. In this day and age of iTunes, that’s pretty damn good. Mark Batson handled close to half of the production on the album and he does a great job of combining samples with live instrumentation around Hamilton’s well written, heartfelt lyrics and David Ruffin’esque voice. For those of you not familiar with Mark Batson, he does a ton of work with Dr. Dre. Kinda like how Scott Storch used to back in the day (except Mark isn’t bankrupt). The rest of the production was split up between Kelvin Wooten, Salaam Remi, Heavy D., and Jack Splash.
My favorite tracks include:
In conclusion, I would say that this album is being slept on and you nerds need to go out and pick it up…legally. I’m happy to see real music make a comeback and hold its corner in the marketplace regardless of sales being down. Hamilton proves to continue on his path of honest songwriting and strong vocal performances with his latest installment. The only thing I would have changed about this record is I would had less Kelvin Wooten produced tracks, they just don’t seem to mesh well like corduroy and plaid. Until next time nerds…
