Slaughterhouse - Welcome To Our House

Since Wu-Tang established the idea that a single artist could get various group and solo deals, artists have formed any number of ad hoc ensembles (Random Axe, LikNuts, Wu-Block) to keep the lights on in their respective overpriced domiciles. Eminem's personal version thereof is Slaughterhouse, a Voltron-esque four man collective comprised of the great Joell Ortiz from Brooklyn, with Joe Budden from Jersey, West Coast almost-ran Crooked I and longtime Em crony Royce the 5'9".

While Ortiz is definitely the sharpest MC here and  no one on the team is a straight loser, it is fairly staggering how watered-down and unremarkable Welcome To Our House is. Eminem executive produced this for his Shady imprint and seems to be the guy we should blame for the thick cross-overcentric overproduction that bogs down most, if not all of the twenty tracks here. New school jockers might be intrigued by the presence of Cee-lo and/or B.O.B., but even after a couple run-throughs it's really tough to even remember a standout Ortiz verse at present. One would think that there would be at least one street banger thrown into the mix to placate the masses, but if there is one here, I've yet to uncover it.

Unless the Slaughterhouse have signed one hell of a deal, I can't see this unit having too much in the way of legs. I wish all the individual members the best in what is hopefully a more distinctive solo career.

R

Alchemist - Chemical Warfare

Album number two from Beverly Hills' hardest, The Alchemist. To the best of my knowledge, he doesn't rhyme on the record, unless that's him on the early part of the song with G. Rap. Granted, G. Rap comes with his for profit flow, but there is no reason why there should even be the illusion of those two trading off verses with any semblance of equality. I always though Al's beats were ok, and granted I'm not as familiar with Dilated Peoples as I should be, but there seemed to be a lot of guys out there coming with better shit, like Marco Polo or Tony Touch. That's just this asshole talking, and I bet the Alchemist doesn't barely make it paycheck to check like us over at JS-NYC.

There are a gang of high profile guest stars on Chemical Warfare. Snoop, KRS-One and Eminem all weigh in, along with up and comers like Kid Cudi and a track that heralds the return of Maxwell (who evidently sold like 350K this week -- whouda thought?). For all the star power, no one really brings their A Game on Chemical Warfare. Even Juvenile, who is normally the MSG of any track he guests on for this guy, didn't do anything for me. If you are an average hip-hop fan looking for a good cross-section of today's top sellers, this might be the record for you, but if you are a boom-bap guy, there's not too much for an old head like me to grab on to. If you want to buy beats from Al or see the lead-off video off the record, you can get it here.

R