Billboard Top Ten for my Birthday Week: Number 6

Lil' Scrappy
Prince of the South



The only other time I’ve heard Lil’ Scrappy’s name was when Lil’ Jon screamed it out before "Head Bussa" in 2003. So I’m really curious about how this album will turn out.

Don’t let the introduction fool you, Lil’ Scrappy doesn’t talk incoherently and with no direction throughout the entire album, we’ll save that for Lil’ Wayne on Tha Carter III. No, Lil’ Scrappy fumbles through a kind of mediocrity that will surely have him fading into obscurity soon, (if not already), and someone that could not only have club hits, but good, grimy, street shit if he put his mind to it.

About halfway through the album comes the overtly misogynistic “Fo Sho” which is a ballad to hating women. The piano and beat, by anyone else, would have been an attempt to disprove the particular rapper’s obvious misogyny throughout the remainder of their albums. Not Lil’ Scrappy! He is, at very least, consistent. He tells women to “give me head with no conversation” and calls her ability to swallow cum “determination”. I don't know exactly what noun I'd use to describe the ability to swallow cum, but "determination" shows up really late on the list around "perspicaciousness" and "telepathy".

Another little faux pas on the album is the horn blast every four beats on “You Trippin’” that are really reminiscent of the 1960’s Batman shows. A measure goes by and suddenly all I can see is comic-book bubbles with “ZAP!” “BOW!” “PUMMEL!” and “JAB!” If it weren’t for that association, the track may have been pretty good, beat-wise... or possibly quite boring. I can't honestly tell because I'm too busy picturing Adam West lament that some days "you just can't get rid of a bomb".



The showcase, as I stated before, wasn’t all bad. Scrappy’s flow was usually on-point and he switched styles well enough to have some legitimate potential on that front. The beats were passable, but honestly lacking in some areas. In those cases it should have been Scrappy’s job to fill that void. Usually, this objective was failed or passed only for a short time.

With all this talk of “potential,” you’d think that this was Lil’ Scrappy’s debut album. Unfortunately for him, me, and the score, it’s not. With all these glimmers of hope, I have to remember that he’s been around already for five years and it’s probably all downhill from here.

Best Tracks: “The A,” “The World Is Mine,” “All Hunid’s,” “Throwin’ Up Dat”

Pros:
- Decent beats.
- A few possible club tracks, (made possible solely by the beats).
- Scrappy has a good Southern flow.

Cons:
- Treads subject matter that has worn old in ways that have worn old.
- Sounds amateurish for his 5th year in the game.
- The album, as a whole, doesn’t stand through a listen.

Overall Score: 55%