Chamillionaire - Ultimate Victory Review
Posted by Patrick Robinson on 09.21.2007
Will releasing an album a mere 7 days after Kanye West and 50 Cent, combined with the dreaded 'sophomore jinx' prove to be the Ultimate Defeat for Chamillionaire? Or will he rise up and deliver what could potentially be an Album Of The Year?
Chamillionaire’s debut album, The Sound Of Revenge released in late 2005 went Platinum with the help of the monster single, Ridin’ featuring Krayzie Bone. The single was notable for featuring a mainstream sound but at the same time, employing socially conscious lyrics regarding racial profiling by the police. It also proved to the nay-sayers that the South wasn’t simply all about big grills and expensive cars and in fact could produce quality lyricists on par or better, in terms of skill, to their New York counterparts.
The album itself was of a high standard, the main criticism being sub-par guest appearances, which produced some naturally, sub-par lyrics. Chamillionaire himself however, showed incredible potential throughout the entire album and quite deservingly, won many awards including a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (Ridin’) and the BET Rookie of the Year award.
Throughout 2006, Chamillionaire stayed fairly quiet, only making a handful of guest appearances on other artist’s tracks but did release the second part of his Mixtape Messiah series in December. With the increasing focus on hip-hop music lyrics and their degrading nature towards women, Chamillionaire decided to not swear on any of the tracks on his album and vowed to bring an even greater focus on what was right in the hip-hop world, rather than focusing on the negatives. Chamillionaire even went so far as to ensure that any explicit language used by guests was edited out of the final version. So don’t get confused, the true retail version of the album is indeed censored.
Despite being pushed back from it’s original release date of March, Chamillionaire maintained his buzz by releasing the third installation in his Mixtape Messiah series in July alongside the debut of the lead single of the album, Hip-Hop Police.
Thus, on September 18th, a mere 7 days after arguably 2 of the biggest releases seen in recent years, Chamillionaire has quite a challenge ahead of him. Will Chamillionaire’s latest offering maintain the high quality of his first album? Or will he be ultimately left in the shadows of Kanye West and 50 Cent?
Tracks
1. The Morning News
2. Hip-Hop Police Ft. Slick Rick
3. Standing Ovation
4. Won’t Let You Down Ft. K-Ci
5. Industry Groupie
6. Pimp Mode Ft. Bun B
7. Rock Star Ft. Lil Wayne
8. Skit Ft. Spanky Hayes
9. The Bill Collecta Ft. Krayzie Bone
10. The Ultimate Vacation
11. Come Back To The Streets
12. I Think I Love You
13. The Evening News
14. Welcome To The South Ft. Pimp C
15. You Must Be Crazy Ft. Lil Ken
16. We Breakin’ Up
17. Stuck In The Ghetto Ft. Tony Henry
18. Rocky Road Ft. Devin The Dude
19. The Ultimate Victory
To answer the above question, not only does Chamillionaire’s latest album maintain the same sense of high quality lyricism combined with solid production as seen on his debut, it goes well beyond expectations in both areas. Chamillionaire has one of the clearest and most powerful rapping voices in the hip-hop industry at the moment and combined with his harmonizing ability whilst singing on his own hooks, he’s quickly becoming one of the most accessible rappers today.
The album opens with The Morning News which addresses a wide variety of topics which are the focus of today’s newscasts, ranging from Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump’s “feud” to Al Sharpton’s continuing involvement in hip-hop related campaigns. He then goes on to address the current scene of music coming from the South:
Hip-Hop, Crunk Music, Hyphy Music, Snap Music,
Sounds like a Nursery Rhyme,
Get a beat and rap to it.
Ain’t speaking with a purpose?
I’ma call it crap music
The next track and lead single, Hip-Hop Police features legendary hip-hop storyteller, Slick Rick. The song itself is done in a similar fashion to Ridin’ detailing this time, Chamillionaire being arrested and the ensuing interrogation by the police officers (played by Chamillionaire and Slick Rick). It can be a little confusing on a first listen what is happening and this is a case where the video of the song ultimately helps portray its message. Outstanding production once again as Jonathon Rotem supplies a great beat that will get played in clubs as well as on TV outlets like MTV and BET, whilst not detracting anything from the original message of the song.
Soon after comes Won’t Let You Down. Producer Kane Beatz creates a track with a truly ‘epic’ feel to it as a string driven synthesizer is layered over drum claps. K-Ci (of Jodeci fame) performs hook duty and does a wonderful job alongside Chamillionaire as they sing about striving for success and money.
Industry Groupie is up next and it is definitely one of most interesting songs I’ve heard in a long time. What appears on first glance to be a typical groupie song, Chamillionaire proceeds to name check virtually every rapper in the industry and how the girl who he thought loved him had been cheating on him.
You made a choice to go be a freak
Even Akon had been “Smacking That”
…
R. Kelly didn’t have to tell me
About your “Bump N Grind” and your foreplay
…
Birdman said “Believe Dat!”
T.I.P. was like “Shorty!”
Then Young Jeezy said “That’s riiight”
And Lil Jon said “Okaaay!”
Heard you was messin’ with Ray-J
You did a flick is what they say,
I ain’t even want to look at the tape,
Until P. Diddy said “Press Play”
Rock Star with Lil Wayne continues Wayne’s current trend of poor guest appearances. Over a guitar driven beat Chamillionaire and Lil Wayne rap about living the life of a rock star however Wayne’s mediocre verse drags the song down significantly. On an album that goes for close to 80 minutes, this could easily have been cut.
After a lengthy and ultimately pointless skit, The Bill Collecta which features a high-energy Krayzie Bone and Play-N-Skillz handling production duties. Sound Familiar? The song this time addresses dealing with people who owe you money and the extent to which some will go to collect their money.
I Think I Love You is a great example of Chamillionaire’s creativity and lyrical prowess. Chamillionaire addresses his rap to this metaphorical ‘person’, who turns out to be money. He admits that whilst money can bring trouble and haters, he still loves it. The last verse is particularly descriptive and needs to be heard in order to do it justice.
The next song, The Evening News is similar to The Morning News in that it addresses issues in the world today but in a more satirical fashion. He discusses a variety of topics from Kramer and his recent racial outburst, the Virginia Tech massacre and rising gas prices in the United States.
I know you take offence to certain words, but I've heard worse, but I won't blame ya,
They say he's an entertainer but don't worry about it, never mind Kramer,
Crocodile Hunter got stung, and the lion turned on the lion tamer,
We keep sending troops to Iraq, I figured that we must like danger
We Breakin’ Up isn’t your standard ‘rapper in love’ song. The song sounds quite genuine as Chamillionaire laments a lost love that he has decided to break up with over a mellowed string and horn driven track backed by his signature sing-song hook. It’s songs like this that show that you can take a topic that’s been done countless times by other’s before and still make it interesting so long as the content and delivery are done in an appealing style.
Tony Henry sings solo on Stuck In The Ghetto in a truly soulful and emotional manner. It’s a shame Chamillionaire didn’t rap on the track but it sets the mood for the next song, Rocky Road featuring Devin The Dude. The song has Chamillionaire reflecting on his life, where’s he’s come from, the success he’s achieved and looking towards the future and the difficulties, he’ll no doubt face:
If life is a piece of cake, part of the icing is venom
The album’s final track The Ultimate Victory is also one of the best tracks on the album. Superb production provided by Happy Perez allows Chamillionaire to literally rap his heart out as he covers topics such as his success, thanking the fans for supporting him, the record industry and living life to the fullest.
Yeah, the flow is so fluid it’s like drinking a song,
Don’t get the track listing wrong, this ain’t even a song,
This is a beat that I must release therapy on
Really the only drawbacks to Ultimate Victory are the song with Lil Wayne and the skit that follows it. Also, songs such as Standing Ovation and Come Back To The Streets which, are by no means bad songs, but compared to everything else on the album, could have been cut due to (as previously mentioned) the album’s long running time of close to 80 minutes.
The 411: Outstanding production backed by Chamillionaire's signature and catchy hooks combined with his ability to address a wide number of topics make for an extremely entertaining and satisfying listen. Ultimate Victory is not only one of the best hip-hop albums to come out this year, but is easily an Album Of The Year Candidate.
