Muscle Car Chronicles by Curren$y (Album Review) (Back to The Forum)

MUSCLE CAR CHRONICLES

by Curren$y

Album review
By 6xPlatinum

Released 14 February 2012
19:23 in length

1.) Soundbombin’ —— 4/5
2.) N.O. Shit —— 4.25/5
3.) Frosty —— 4.5/5
4.) Razors & Chopsticks —— 4.5/5
5.) Not So Much —— 3.75/5
6.) Fly Out (Part Deux) —— 3.75/5
7.) Bout it 11 —— 3.75/5
8.) The Strangest Life —— 4/5
9.) Fly Out (Part Tres) —— 3.75/5

I usually do track by track reviews, so this one is a bit of a change in pace for me. But then again, so was this album. I’ve never really gotten into Curren$y and most rappers don’t recruit players for live music as the instrumentals for their album. The reason I’m not doing a track by track is because this thing is unsettlingly short. The whole thing is just over nineteen minutes and with the vibe that the music gives off, I really wish it were longer. I will however use my usual rating system for the whole thing (track ratings averaged out).

Muscle Car Chronicles is a rock infused hip hop album that has been in the works for over a year, with a number of the tracks being released as “singles” all throughout 2011. What the setbacks on the album were, are beyond me, and given the album’s length, I would assume that Spitta wanted to include more but something must have happened and better it be released early than cut altogether. But that’s just me thinking and I didn’t take the time to look into it.

One thing that is blatantly apparent with MCC is that it oozes with that New Orleans feel; the funky, deep bass with the organs and simplistic percussions that just force the backbeat and some guitar and piano work. It plays from start to finish quite gorgeously. My personal tastes favor the front half of the LP and things start to taper off just a bit towards the end. Especially with the tracks “Fly Out (2 and 3)”, which use the exact same instrumentals.

The rapping on this album is inferior to the instrumentals and the atmosphere that they create. On the tracks that are a bit lengthier, Spitta shows off his flow the most. But at the same time, what he’s rapping about never really impresses me. The one instance where it actually does come off as personal or intimate is on the track “The Strangest Life”,

This is… The strangest
Life that I… Have ever known
I wonder if… Me as a kid
Was proud of what I did

Cool note: On “Bout it 11”, Curren$y spins fellow New Orleans MC Master P’s “Bout It” but with the live band and some new words tacked on. Which definitely shows that he has respect for the OGs and has an artistic mind towards his own music. I know I really enjoyed it.

As for the biggest “pros” on MCC; “Frosty”, definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album, has some amazing organ and drum work with Spitta’s unbelievably relaxed flow. “Razors & Chopsticks” boasts my favorite 16 bars from Spitta (ever) and some badass drum work that matches the guitar and bass line beautifully.

When it comes to the “cons” on Muscle Car Chronicles, obviously the biggest is going to be the album’s overall length. Even ten more minutes would have made this thing “incredible” as opposed to “really cool”. Nah’mean? And secondly, some of the lines on this thing are pretty… Bad. Like on the reminiscent track “N.O. Shit”:

Call the weed man and a couple hoes up
Shooting pool…
Thinking ‘bout when pops used to bring be to the barber shop
That was cool…

Even on “Frosty”, which like I said, is one of my favorite tracks on the album:

Rarely seen…
They know I’m married to my dream
So in love with that green

But that’s Curren$y, so take it or leave it. He doesn’t flex much lyrical ability or paint images on Muscle Car Chronicles, but he does let the instrumentals take over and do that for him. Muscle Car Chronicles is what Lil Wayne wished Rebirth could have been; a good sounding rock album with some rapping on it, that not once comes off as cheesy. Curren$y’s decision to experiment with a live band makes me actually like him more than I ever had before. Adding some length to this thing would have been the biggest problem solver and maybe some beefier bars. Though I enjoyed the music more than the rapping, I would still say that this is a successful hip hop album from one of hip hop’s busiest MC’s (6 studio albums, 14 mixtapes and 2 collab albums since ’06).

Final rating:

4.02/5

Respect the review, but I wasnt feeling this very much.

A lot of people didn’t even know this was out. Ski Beatz released it with 24 Hour Karate School Presents Twilight. I listened to the iTunes previews, but I still have yet to listen to it in full.

Get the damn thing here (or preview it)

You’d think this thing would have more buzz. Must have been the year long setbacks.

Liked the review a lot more than your usual ones due to the formatting. Good stuff

Yea, I think the last release date it had was March 2011. It dropped out of thin air. Ski Beatz never mentioned anything about it until the day of its release. .

this is just a a list of old tracks . still THUMBS up “WE fly Jets”

Any good torrent links, argh?

Huge fan of curren$y, downloaded it and it wasn’t compatiable or something.

^you’re killin me smalls… http://rapgenius.com/posts/Fuck-you-pay-me-by-not-buying-my-music

I’m going to start including links to BUY the album in all of my reviews.