Cassidy - B.A.R.S.: The Barry Adrian Reese Story Review

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 11.13.2007

Cassidy returns after jail time and a near-fatal car accident with his third album, B.A.R.S.. Has he managed to stop double rhyming and achieve his full potential?

Barry Adrian Reese, also known as Cassidy was arrested in June 2005 because of a gunfight in his neighborhood, which left a 22 year old man dead. After being released from jail in March of 2006, he was involved in a serious car accident in October of the same year where he was diagnosed with a fractured skull and several broken bones on the left side of his face.

Cassidy has used these incidents in his life as inspiration for his third album, entitled B.A.R.S.: The Barry Adrian Reese Story (shortened to just B.A.R.S. for remainder of review). His last two albums have been loosely based concept albums, the first, Split Personality showing three sides to the man. His second album, The Hustla saw one of those personalities, ‘Tha Problem’ fighting ‘The Hustla’ in the Intro in a mock rap battle. Whilst his second album was an improvement on the first, it still featured some misguided songs and little lyrical growth.

‘The Hustla’ represented a more street orientated side of Cassidy featuring songs about dealing and hustling to survive. This was a nice comparison to songs on his first album, which were more pop and mainstream orientated.

This third album by Cassidy is a representation of another side of him, a more mature and aware man who’s had wakeup calls because of jail and a fatal car accident. He has a son now and he’s looking to leave the hood life behind him.

Does B.A.R.S. live up to these expectations or is it simply another attempt at a ‘serious’ record by a sub-par rapper?



Tracks

1. Intro (B.A.R.S. Vs. The Hustla)
2. My Drink N My 2 Step Ft. Swizz Beatz
3. Where My Niggas At?
4. I Will Never Tell (Uh Uh)
5. I Pray Ft. Shiz Lansky
6. Innocent Man Ft. Mark Morrison
7. Cash Rulez Ft. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony & Eve
8. Leanin’ On The Lord Ft. Angie Stone
9. Damn I Miss The Game Ft. Rell
10. Done 4 Me
11. I Get My Paper Ft. Swizz Beatz
12. Take A Trip Ft. Mashonda
13. Celebrate Ft. John Legend
14. All By Myself

Starting the album is the “Intro” and we are presented with a similar situation to the Intro on the previous album. 'B.A.R.S.' is the newcomer taking on the current champion, 'The Hustla'. The track is slightly spoiled by the irritating voices of ‘spectators’ in-between verses but Cassidy’s rapping is inspiring. Funnily enough though, the verses done by The Hustla are far superior in my opinion to those delivered by B.A.R.S. The interesting thing about these tracks is that Cassidy often takes public criticisms of himself and features them in the raps of both personas. Regardless, Cassidy sounds inspired and on-point here so it’s a great way to start the album.

Immediately after is the album’s lead single, “My Drink N My 2 Step”. Production is handled by Swizz Beatz and is an energetic song about celebrating Cassidy’s return to the rap game. Unfortunately, Cassidy suffers from frequent double rhyming (using the same word to rhyme lines together repeatedly) and it’s beginning to show here.

“Where My Niggas At?” is a terrible example of gangsta rap and features an average beat by Neo Da Matrix. The song is the same kind of thug posturing and gun toting that we’ve seen from Cassidy before and given the man’s recent incarceration based on gun possession, you would think he’d have learnt something by now.

“I Will Never Tell” is the typical anti-snitching track and features an irritating chorus with ‘Uh uh’ repeated at the end of every line. I thought the whole anti-snitching movement stopped after Cam’Ron made a fool of himself on 60 Minutes but I digress.

“I Pray” is the first real example of the ‘new’ Cassidy and his raps are definitely an improvement of what’s been seen so far. It’s a song about hoping to get out of the hood and live a safer, more fulfilling life but is dragged down by the double-rhyming again.

“Innocent” follows in a similar vein and features soulful production care of The Individualz and Swizz Beatz with Mark Morrison on the hook. The song briefly goes through Cassidy’s emotions throughout his trial based on his arrest in June 2005. He also claims that the jail time was a blessing in disguise as it gave him time to focus on his life and get his priorities right. Unfortunately, he then goes and rhymes ‘man’ with ‘man’ about eight times in the second verse.

Next up is a decent club jam in the form of “Cash Rulez” with Bone Thugs and Eve. Cassidy steps up his flow in style with the Bone Thugs and does a fair job without sounding uncomfortable. The Bone Thugs handle the hook and some verses allowing Eve to close out the song. The song features great chemistry between all involved and whilst the song is a typical money, money song, it’s not beating you over the head like 50 Cent does so it’s still enjoyable.

“Leanin’ On The Lord” features a fantastic hook by Angie Stone and is about people that have found God as a way out of a dangerous life. One problem I have with the album is that Cassidy dwells on his Trial in a number of the songs and this is no exception. Whilst it’s obviously made an impact on his life, it’s already been mentioned earlier in “Innocent” so why keep mentioning it?

“Damn I Miss The Game” features a great beat by Neo Da Matrix and is an ode to hip-hop. Cassidy reminisces about the golden days of hip-hop and criticizes those that are making songs about shooting people and degrading women. It’s definitely the best song on the album as there’s no instances of the double-rhyming, however, what prevents it from being truly memorable is the inherent hypocrisy as Cassidy earlier made a song about shooting up street corners with his boys.

“Done 4 Me” is a song thanking the Lord for giving him a second chance at life and how he is going to change his life from now on. The beat by Swizz is quite un-Swizz like but is quite enjoyable as it’s a break from his usual high-energy club songs.

The next two tracks, “I Get My Paper” and “Take A Trip” are ultimately forgettable as the former features a terrible hook, double rhyming (despite some good one-liners sadly) and clichéd lyrics. The latter features a nice hook by Mashonda but suffers as it's a love song, something that most rappers should stay away from given their inability to handle them correctly. The beat is easily recognizable as a Swizz job and sounds a bit awkward given the “Touch It” sounding drums in the background.

“Celebrate” features a soulful hook by John Legend but is nothing special as it’s a mediocre ‘get up and get out the hood’ track. Cassidy does have some great lines in the song though like:

”Get the obituary ready, get the Reverend
My old style died and went to punch-line Heaven”

The final track, “All By Myself” unfortunately features about 20 lines that end in ‘myself’ which drag down what could have been a great track. Production is handled by Cassidy himself and really would have been a nice way to round out the album as he proceeds to thank God again for his second chance at life, references how he had an unfair trial (a witness was discovered to have lied to the police), and thanks the fan’s for staying beside him despite his jail time.

The 411: The album is quite frustrating to listen to as Cassidy can’t seem to move beyond the double rhyming that ultimately drags down many of the songs. Again, Cassidy shows his potential and growth as an artist as his subject matter has varied significantly as well as his overall rhyming style. If you’re a fan of Cassidy though, it’s definitely worth checking out, as it’s an enjoyable, if not slightly flawed listen.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]