Despite his success as an actor, LL still feels the need to keep hip hopping, releasing his 13th album. When I heard the title of this album, I thought that maybe LL would be returning to his roots, creating an album of hardcore classic hip hop. This thought was quickly put to bed when 'Ratchet' dropped. It isn't great. It improved from there though with 'Take It', that isn't a bad pop rap track, in a similar vein of 'Closer' from the standard version of this album. Of those tracks, 'Take It' only made the bonus tracks, with the final track list being reworked.
Original Track List
1. Something About U (FTW)
2. Where Ya At (BOSS)
3. Take It (feat. Joe)
4. Closer (feat. Monica)
5. Too Late
6. New Love
7. Dream With Me
8. Girl So Bad
9. Ratchet
10. Bartender Please
11. Bath Salt
12. Getting Paper
13. Jump On It
14. Hell Yeah
15. Whaddup
Overall from this album, of the sixteen tracks that have made the cut, many are pop-rap centered around the ladies such as: 'Between the Sheetz', 'Closer', 'Give Me Love', 'Live For You', 'Not Leaving You Tonight', 'Something About You (Love the World)', 'Take It', and 'Waiting on You'. There are others that are funky, treading the line of pop-rap such as: 'Bartender Please', 'Remember Me', and 'New Love', where Charlie Wilson kills the chorus making it one of the best songs on the disc. The production is great too.
Then there are the hardcore hip hop songs that include 'Bath Salt' ("hand on my nuts, that's product placement"), 'We Came to Party', 'We’re the Greatest', 'Whaddup' and 'Jump on It'.
I feel like I've said this before on recent LL album reviews, but the pop-rap works better here than the songs closer to hardcore hip hop. His beat selection isn't as crisp on the harder songs. 'Bath Salt' isn't bad, but the others leave something to be desired, with 'We Came to Party' being the worst of these featuring 2003-esque Fatman Scoop shouts. Overall from LL in 2013, I'm not left disappointed. It's an alright listen, with a couple of songs to keep in the playlist, and only a couple of really poor songs. 3-2.5
Best Tracks: New Love, Closer, Take It, Remember Me
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