Juvenile - Mardi Gras

I always liked Juvie, but he's been off the JS-NYC radar for a bit. Frankly, I never even heard that he had two studio albums out over the last couple years and thought his absence was tied up in post-Cash Money minutae. JS-NYC ignorance aside, Mardi Gras is evidently the precursor to a new studio piece called Rejuvienation. Coming courtesy of DJ Smallz and Southern Smoke, the mixtape sports a roster with familiar names like Wacko & Skip, as well as Mannie Fresh. Rick Ross drops a verse on Power, which is allegedly the first single. I'm not especially crazy about the track, and Rozay is way hot and cold for me, but most of the stuff here is worth a listen. Why there is a constant Jadakiss drop throughout without any verse presence is a pressing question, but it shouldn't be enough to turn the average Juvie fan off.

Look for Mardi Gras in a lot of places. Here's one.

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