9th Wonder - Dream Merchant 2 Review
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 10.24.2007
“Hey, Mr. Dream Merchant--everything depends on you…”
(6 Hole Records, 2007)
In these few short years, Pat Douthit has certainly made a name for himself. The first time many of us have heard of him was through his work as 1/3 of Little Brother, where his soul-tinged production definitely caught people out there. He was also known for bringing us the concept of remixing whole albums with his remix of Nas’ GOD’S SON (creatively titled GOD’S STEPSON…by the way, 9th--work on your Photoshop skills!) His beats, which are a mix between Pete Rock’s soulful baselines and Premier’s chop-happy style, has brought about a huge following. It also brought about a whole lot of detractors, as well. It seems that poor Pat can’t walk down the street or sign on the ’Net without some knucklehead complaining about how tiny his drums are and how he uses the same drum pattern in a lot of his beats. It’s not that 9th can’t bring any decent drums, but he puts more emphasis on baselines and melodies than drums; it’s just part of his formula and hopefully enough people have grasped that by now.
9th has taken to follow Pete Rock’s career path even further with his own compilation series, THE DREAM MERCHANT. The original DREAM MERCHANT was released as part of a bundle-pack with both L.E.G.A.C.Y.’s and The Away Team’s debut albums (PROJECT MAYHEM and NATIONAL ANTHEM respectively). The first installment highlighted most of his work before Little Brother’s THE LISTENING was released. In fact, it included “Speed”, one of Little Brother’s earliest songs (which they included in the LISTENING). It also featured solo work from LB’s Big Pooh, when he performed under the name “Poohbear from VA”, and the Away Team’s Sean Boog, when he was under the name, “Defcon”. 9th’s beats weren’t as polished back then (it kinda reminds me of J. Rawls of the Lone Catalysts), but you knew the potential was there.
Fastforward to 2007, we have a 9th who has now gone solo (leaving Pooh and Phonte to operate LB as a duo) and has just put out his second installment. How does it measure up?
Well, those of you expecting 9th to ’switch up’ need to look elsewhere, as 9th is sticking with the script. Good thing, too, since his beats are still as nice as ever. And he gathers together a line-up of MC’s and vocalists to make things interesting. When this album was first announced, he started off with a bang with the first single, “Brooklyn In My Mind”, the third installment of Crooklyn Dodgers. Yeah, 9th heard all the complaints about how it’s sacrilege to even consider trying it, and how he ain’t even from Brooklyn…and yet, neither was DJ Premier (producer of "Crooklyn Didgers II"), who gave his blessing by providing the zigga-zigga’s for the hook, while Jean Grae, Mos Def, and Memphis Bleek all give spirited verses. If only Mos had shown this much enthusiasm during the making of his horrible TRUE MAGIC album.
Chaundon, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Skyzoo, and Torae all have a Who-Can-Come-With-The-Hottest-16 contest in “The Merchant Of Dreams” (“Niggaz need a HOT 16? No Prob--I keep a HOT97 and a POWER105 on me, god!”) “The Last Time” is one of 9th’s quirkier efforts and Royce The 5’9” definitely brings it. Saigon, fresh from tapping Prodigy’s jaw, colabs with Justus Leaguer Joe Scudda for “Saved”. 9th brings that smoked out Boot Camp sound for the Sean Boog/Buckshot colab, “Backlash”, which will hopefully be an indication of how the next 9th/Buckshot album, THE FORMULA, will be. And of course, Pooh & Phonte both show some love with “No Time To Chill”, which was recorded after the break-up. Yeah, it’s obvious that they were saving their best material for GETBACK, but any excuse to bring the trio back together is a good one.
Sadly, not all the vocalists bring much to the table. Remember Black Sheep‘s “Pass The 40“, where they made the oh-so-brilliant decision to let their A&R MAN into the vocal booth? Well 9th makes a similar decision and lets his MANAGER Big Dho get on the mic, with similar results. Only difference is, instead of getting outshined by a little kid, Dho gets outshined by Sean Price. If they had given this whole song to Sean P, this would’ve been a highlight. “Sunday” starts off pretty nicely, with it’s Kanye-style beat and the idea of a song about your average fun Sunday afternoon would make for a decent record. Too bad Keisha Shontelle’s ear-piercing chipmunk voice kills this song DEAD. Likewise, Big Treal, with his over-exaggerated Down South drawl, ruins “Baking Soda”. Camp Lo continues to party like it’s 1997 with “Milky Lowa”, where they attempt their version of LL’s ’Milky Cereal’, which comes off soggy. At least they weren’t name-dropping Champaign brands this time. On “Let It Bang”, Season 1 “Making-the-Band” participant Ness sounds incredibly nervous while rhyming alongside the much more capable Skyzoo.
In the case of all these songs, 9th does an excellent job keeping the beats hot in spite of the some of the sub-par performances…all except “Thank You”, the lone song where it’s 9th himself doing the half-stepping. In response to all the criticism that his beats sound too tiny, he took Tom Jones’ “Not Unusual” (a.k.a. Carlton Banks’ theme music, for all you Will Smith fans) , and basically spends the whole song banging the drum keys like some little kid on a sugar-high bangs on a Fisher-Price keyboard. It’s as if he’s saying, “Okay--y’all keep BEGGING AND BEGGING me to change my drums up?! Well--HERE IT IS!!! I’M CHANGING MY DRUMS UP!!! ARE YOU HAPPY, NOW?! ARE ANY OF YOU MUTHAFUCKAS HAPPY?!?!?!?” The result: The single worst beat he’s ever made in his whole career. Now, let’s be clear. Anyone who has followed 9th’s career should know that he is capable of making some menacing drums when he wants to (if Skyzoo’s “Spirit“ doesn‘t convince you, nothing will), but “Thank You” is just a case of trying too hard to please fools that weren’t big fans anyway.
THE GOOD (Don‘t sleep…): Crooklyn Dodger III, “Merchant Of Dreams”, “Saved”, “Backlash”, “No Time To Chill”
THE BAD (…or you‘ll never wake up!): “Sunday”, “Baking Soda”, “Milky Lowa“, “Thank You”
The 411: 9th is still one of the best producers to come out within the past 5 years, and this album proves that he’s still got the magic touch. However, judging from the many interviews he’s given, he takes the negative criticism against his beats very hard (especially the criticisms coming from the Internet), which leads to such lapses in judgment like “Thank You”. He needs to realize that he has far more supporters here than he thinks. Other than that, 9th still does an impeccable job bringing the best of out certain MC’s while carrying others. Hopefully, now that he’s rolling solo, his workload will increase because of this album.
