Certified Block Niggas - I Tried

Hear The Track Here

You may remember me reviewing Gemini (September 2007) by Wreckless Music, unless you have a VERY short memory and/or attention span. I wasn't exactly bowled over by the track but I did warm to the rap style enough to want to hear some more. Certified Block Niggas also appears to be a Wreckless Music outlet. Like a lot of hiphop/rap artists the material is constrained by recording difficulties and the music tends to be a bit formulaic, but hey at least its still getting it out there. So what's up with Certified Block Niggas? Well, a stab in the dark would be that this is the harder edge of this artist - hence the name change. The massed ranks of Parental Guidance on every track tended to give the game away too but that's by the by.

Certainly, there is no doubt, even from a quick listen that this will be for a fairly hardcore audience, and again I find myself frustrated that most raps aren't written down. Yeah sure, I usually get the general tilt of the peice but I'm sure I miss some of the finer points. Again with I Tried the better part of the track is the vocal but only - again - in that very formulaic mannner. You will have heard the like a few million times if you have any interest in the genre whatsoever. Sure, it's probably good enough to get your mates and family interested but you'd have to raise your game considerably if you wanted to wrassle with the big boys - online or off it.
I'm also certain that Wreckless Music (whatever the subname) probably isn't doing this from any bigging himelf up motive, but surely he also has an audience to play to? On that basis I'd have to shake my head sadly at the standard sounds used to give this track some structure as well as a mix which merely tends to drag the track more than it already is. It isn't bad, just not that interesting musically. I know that is often the case with rap but this is a little too thin sounding for that excuse to work. Obviously reviews are just opinions and I'm sure this artist will either take it on the chin and move on or not. That, I'm afraid, is the hard part about reviewing. Whatever, judged by the couple of examples I've heard so far, what's needed here is production and arrangement skills; the raps are cool and probably sound great recorded properly. Still, what the fekk do I know?