This is Redman's critically acclaimed follow-up to his Whut ? Thee Album debut and I really don't see what the fuss is about.
Redman's rhyme skills are not in doubt - he may be lacking in variety but he has a mean, distinctive voice and a witty, laid-back malevolence exemplified in "When I cock lyrics women give me more love than Wimbledon". Add to that the madman/schizophrenic shtick that lies at the core of a lot of his raps, which may be overdone sometimes but just as often gives a novel twist (witness the first album's "Redman Vs Reggie Noble" tracks for proof).
So what's wrong ? Simply put, the beats. If anyone can listen to this whole album, stoned or otherwise, without getting a headache, then they deserve some sort of prize. The first album made up in energy what it lacked in originality (basing your sound around samples of Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, Cypress Hill and Ice Cube is neither imaginative nor state-of-the-art) but here it is just one long succession of mid-paced thumps divorced from bass so thick and muddy that it starts to make you feel nauseous. There's the barest sprinkling of samples over the top but nothing which holds the attention or gives the listener something to focus on. Track titles are almost arbitrary as one song judders into the next with barely a change in pace or atmosphere.
Too many in hip-hop seem to be forgetting that what has made rap's classic albums of the last decade has been not just the lyrics and delivery but the way this has been meshed with fresh, exciting sounds. A great rapper does not necessarily a great rap album make.
Things improve slightly for the first half of the second side with more variety and focus to the beats but by this time Redman's insistence on approaching every rap in the same style is starting to grate and when the beats start to become indistinguishable from those of the first side again, the last quarter of the album becomes painful to listen to.
Eric B & Rakim'sPaid in Full was a classic rap album; so were Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet and Cypress Hill's self titled album. Despite what some people may tell you, Dare iz a Darkside is just a skillful but stoned guy rapping over some very tired beats.
