New Devin(s), Not Good
Devin The Dude – “In My Draws“
from Landing Gear (Razor & Tie, 2008)
Devin The Dude – “Bad Company“
from Hi Life (Rap-A-Lot, 2008)
Popular opinion was always that the Rap-A-Lot was holding Devin back commercially (at least on a national level). Had he broken from the label to a major in the late 90s, on the cusp of Chronic 2001 hype, he could’ve probably been a pretty big star. Or at least made some sort of Afroman future stoner ringtone success. But he didn’t, he released three more albums with Rap-A-Lot that went mostly unnoticed by anybody but the type of person who buys Rap-A-Lot releases (and, very late in the game, blogocritical pitchfork types). About 8 years too late, he finally leaves his RAL contract only to drop a record that can only be described as half baked on another quasi-indie label. Except this one pushes Joan Baez and Kidz Bop compilations instead of Z-Ro and Face. Seems like a wise move.
Marketing woes aside, Landing Gear just feels unfinished. To me Devin’s strength has always lied in great rap storytelling and songwriting (think of the way the verses mirror one another on “WXYZ“) and here he’s mostly just rapping for the sake of it over archetypal Devin-y beats. At best it’s comparable to last year’s Coughee Brothers compilation – stoned rapping with your boys type shit. But even that record, in all its lo-fi glory, seemed more polished than this. Landing is just twelve tracks short, with Devin himself rapping roughly eight bars on the last three songs, one of which “Stray” is basically just him singing a five minute hook. Another joint “Highway” is even recycled from said Coughee comp. So you’re left with roughly 8 new Devin songs. A few of them – “In My Draws”, “Let Me Know It’s Real” – are vintage Devin, but most everything else is just phoned in.(Despite their shared interests Devin and Snoop don’t make a very interesting on record team on “I Don’t Chase Em” or last years “What A Job”) I don’t know if dude is just testing the waters with this release or he’s just too indifferent/lazy/high to actually put together a real album. It’s worth noting that Devin isn’t usually so prolific – his early and best records were usually 2 or 3 years apart and this one comes just a 18 months after the comparatively epic Waitin’ To Inhale. Maybe he’s just rushing now. Or maybe the RAL hand was more helpful than harmful on the creative side of things. Some Mike Dean beats certainly couldn’t have hurt here.
In a well orchestrated bit of malice (you really gotta respect the J. Prince business model), RAL dropped a second, similarly titled, Devin album on Tuesday as well. True to Spite-A-Lot form it’s a piecemeal comp of previously verse songs with new beats, previously released songs with old beats and a couple of genuine true to life unreleased songs. “Bad Company” bangs and a pre-gospel rap Bushwick Bill makes a welcome appearance, but the album is pretty much more of a trainwreck than the one it hoped to knock off the tracks.
I hate panning one of my favorite rappers, but somebody should probably say something.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It sucks so much to say this: but I agree 100purrshent. fuck.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
At first listen I was kind of dissappointed because it is hard to top Waiting to Inhale, but then the more I listened to it the more it grew on me. Devin really got into singing on this one and that last track Stray is just his humor, the song is supposed to be a parody. The whole album has a real laid back sound.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
what do you think about the swagger dance?
http://beeziesandbankrolls.blogspot.com/2008/10/berkeley-has-swagger.html
October 9th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
yo noz whattutup, misst you bro, cause i lost me internets, only to find out once the haters gone (aka i), you cantdontwont stop! happy to see it homey! whered you get all this free time? are you getting paid by rap internets?
October 9th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I LIKED THE ALBUM….DEF NOT LIEK HIS 1ST ALBUM…BUT THATS THE NORM IN RAP PLAYA.
October 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
yeah it sucked bad. HI-Life was way better.
If anybody is in the mood for some quality Devin, the smoking section and haashish have 4 discs of Devin features that are phenom.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
yeah, you’re right. damn.
lol@bushwick making recursive acronyms for words that already have hip-hop acronyms
October 9th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Isn’t last of a dying breed great?! What made you put that in rotations?
October 9th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Unfortunately I have to agree on this one, Devin what happened dude?
October 10th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I agree. I was very disappointed.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:33 am
“Isn’t last of a dying breed great?! What made you put that in rotations?”
Rotations = whatever I’ve been listening to as of late.
It is a great album.
October 10th, 2008 at 5:22 am
I could never see Devin being a big star. He’s too laid back. He doesn’t make singles. I mean, sure he has star talent, but he’s just not made for non-satellite radio.
On a random note, could you do a Lil Flip retrospective sometime? I really believe he was a great rapper once, like around the time he was on “Ridin Spinners,” but even his good albums are strangely disappointing. Underground Legend’s sorta before his prime, U Gotta Feel Me’s kinda erratic. I’m thinking you probably have some mixtape stuff he did I could add to my collection.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:19 am
At least the artwork on the new joint is better than his RAL catalogue.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:28 am
lil flip is completely irrelevant to anybody right now but he’s still making really good music
October 10th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
your right noz. all the way, sorry to say tho.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:05 am
ANU, really? I thought that album that got leaked and never came out sucked, the mixtapes he did last year sucked… and at that point I gave up on him.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
tray, listen to this
http://www.zshare.net/audio/115787748482d505/
October 12th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHmrLO0xweA
Lil Flip and Mr. Capone-E are bff’s
October 12th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I’m not familiar with Devin’s early work. And I love this album. Although it feels a little unfinished, I think all the songs are on point. He has a knack for melodies, and his delivery is so smooth.
Cant Make It Home is so well done as well, I just cant get enough of it.
Noz, which one would you say is the better Devin album?
October 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
i disagree. at first listen i was a little disappointed but the more i listen the more i like this album. waitin’ to inhale was more about 808s and the “boom”, this album is more about just chilling out and smoking. devin’s older albums were great but i think he is better lyrically on his more recent work and his singing is also much better.
i don’t know how you could be so hard on the coughee brothaz album either. when an artist tries to put on his crew the result is usually not great (look at nas and bravehearts) so i don’t know how good you were expecting it to be but waitin’ our turn was a solid album. devin was amazing on it and the brothaz themselves put together a few good tracks.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I liked the coughee album.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Brap – I would say start with S/T or maybe Tryin’ To Live
October 13th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Well, ANU, that’s quite good, but it’s like he lost his personality. He used to be the kind of rapper who could make a dumb line like, “aw shit I had to do a remix, I got a thousand dollar shit plus three hundred dollar kicks” sound hot. On this he’s kind of dull. I feel the same way about some of Paper Trail. It’s like he became a vastly superior rapper, technically speaking, but at the cost of what made him fun to listen to in the first place.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
landing gear sucked, coughee bros had some nice tracks but you cant front on classic devin material…
October 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Ouch…
I will say that the new record is sounding a bit different in some ways for the Dude but i don’t think its a fail…I think that everyone should make sure that they are smoking something good and that they beer is cold before listening…
October 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
i listen to at least 5-10 albums a day but no matter what i can not get these devin songs out of my head, especially “el grande nalgas”. he switches his flow up on basically every song and even within the song himself. he goes in and out of singing. the dude shows off his versatility like crazy on this album and i’m loving it.
look at the other southern greats who embraced their versatility later in their careers…andre released a mult-platinum, grammy winning album, cee-lo released a multi-platinum, grammy winning album, pimp c was nominated for a grammy.