Prodigy & The Alchemist - Return of the Mac 2007 Review
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 03.26.2007
Remember the last three Mobb Deep albums? I surely don’t…and if you cop this album, you won’t remember them either!
Anybody can recover from a bad album…or even a series of bad albums. For a long time, Mobb Deep, both as a duo and as soloists, has struggled to make an album nearly as good at MURDA MUZIK and P’s HNIC, and any attempt at another HELL ON EARTH and INFAMOUS seems more and more out-of-reach each year. The numerous hits on their street cred (do I need to even go over it?) doesn’t help one bit. After last year’s G-Unit sponsored embarrassment (which will remain nameless), many have considered Mobb Deep a hopeless cause.
However, even in those last three Mobb albums (which, again, will all remain nameless), there’s a glimmer of hope buried in all the Jump-The-Couch moments. The Alchemist, who first became a fixture on their albums with MURDA MUZIK (“Thug Muzik”), has been the only one keeping the Mobb afloat. With such songs like “When You Hear The”, “Got It Twisted”, “Win Or Lose”, and “Get At Me”, as well as non-album joints like “Backwards”, “More Like Us”, and “P Pulled The Switch”, it was just a matter of time before one of them came up with the idea of making an album with all the production handled by ALC. And now, after years of bullshit records and being the butt of jokes, P puts out his illest music in YEARS, all with the help of ALC, who finally handles his whole album.
Now, while this is being called a ’mixtape’, I see this more as a PRE-ALBUM, as it serves as something for the people to snack on and chew before HNIC Part 2 comes out…and with a pre-album this good, HNIC2 has a lot to live up to.
The great thing about the production of this album is that it’s not just a collection of dope tracks. ALC uses the beats to bring a MOOD throughout this album. He tries to capture the griminess of the New York streets with that gritty 70‘s soul music, from the ‘car chase’ music of “Return of the Mac (AKA P’s New York Shit)” and “Take It To The Top”, to the slow-riding “Rotten Apple” and “Mac 10 Handle”. He plays a little bit of James Brown’s “Down & Out In New York City” (from the BLACK CEASER soundtrack) as a brilliant siege-way to “Rotten Apple”. It’s stuff like this which shows why artists should just work with one producer for an entire album, as it makes it much easier to make the album as a whole more consistent.
Still, all this production effort is worthless if P doesn’t hold his end, right? Well, thankfully, he does. Yeah, he’s nowhere near as nimble as he was when he first got us “stuck off the realness”, but compared to the last few years of albums, he comes to the booth more focused this time out. On the title track, P gives HIS version of “New York Shit” that gives Busta’s original a run for its money. On “Legends” (which was also on Alchemist’s NO DAYS OFF compilation last year) he tells a tale of Lil’ P growing up (“still learning how to aim my pee”) looking at the thugs on the street and how today’s kids have no love for the people that came before them (“They bodied [Jam Master Jay] right here in Queens/ Goes to show, there’s no respect for the O.G.’s”). On “Mac 10 Handle”, P pays a little homage to the REAL King Of The South (“I sit alone in my 4-cornered room staring at candles…”) scheming on some unfortunate soul, while looking over his shoulder and peeping around corners:
Nowadays it's hard to kill
Be careful where you pull that trigger, they got you on film
They got eyes in the sky, we under surveillance
That All-Star in the car track everywhere you been
Gotta watch what I say, they tappin’ my cell phone
They wanna sneak a peek inside of my home
I'm paranoid…and its not the weed
In my rear view mirror these cars they follow me
So I bust rights and lefts, lefts and rights
Till I stop seeing those Impala head lights
Then I circle my block, to make sure its smooth
Before I go upstairs to my four cornered room...
Other strong efforts include the head-nodder “Bang On ‘em”, the obligatory radio cut “Stuck On You”, the Willie Mitchell-sounding “Nickel & a Nail”, and the brilliant closer, “Stop Fronting”, which ALC nicely minces up Barry White’s “Playing Your Game”.
On the downside, aside from the pointless skits over beats that could’ve been better served as SONGS (the obligatory Intro and “Madge Speaks”), many might find P’s constant focus on MURDA-MURDA-MURDA/KILL-KILL-KILL raps pretty monotonous, especially given his questionable cred as a thug in the first place. But as far as I’m concerned, P & ALC are being paid to be ARTISTS, both by the record labels and by us, the costumers…and as long as they do their job as artists, it shouldn’t matter whether or not their street cred is legit. After all, if street cred truly mattered, then Benzino wouldn’t have to eat off the Source Magazine to have a rap career!
THE GOOD (Still keeping it Thoro): “Return of the Mac”, “Mac 10 Handle”, “Rotten Apple”, “Take It To the Top”, “Bang On ’Em”, “Nickel & a Nail”, “Legends”, “Stop Fronting”
THE BAD (Shooting BLANKS): Pointless skits, “7th Heaven”
The 411: P and ALC have definitely put in work with this release. This is, hands down, the best Mobb-related album since MURDA MUZIK and HNIC…come to think of it, it even trumps some of the songs on MURDA MUZIK and HNIC. Prodigy shows more focus here, while ALC definitely knows exactly what P sounds good over. While people can question their street cred till the cows come home, one thing cannot be fronted on: This album! Go to the store and cop this RIGHT NOW…and tell your friends to cop it too. Hopefully, with enough support, this will convince Mobb Deep to make more albums like it.
