Say what you will about Ross and his persona, but one thing goes without much debate: he’s consistent. Now, if he’s consistently good or bad, well, that’s what we have the Second Opinion column for. 5 albums in and the comparisons to Biggie have increased and culminated in what folks are calling a “classic album”. So let’s dive into it. We saw what the brotha B-Easy had to say about it, let’s see what the crew thinks – Saule Wright
Saule Wright
I’ll go on record and say that I’m probably more critical of Ross than other rappers, but I think it’s warranted. Ross has received (up to this point) an enormous amount of praise and celebrity rarely seen by even some legends with nary a classic on his resume. He’s often placed next to the word great or greatness in sentences with very few examples of lyrical depth or range. At the same time, his charisma and ear for music tend to be higher than most anyone else in the game now and even many of those before him. His lavish lines, beats, routine and yet still entertaining imagery just fucking works. Critically, I’ll pick apart his albums and music because that’s what we do, but as it relates to this album, it’s still enjoyable good music. There IS a depth on this project that I don’t think I’ve seen from him before both in concept and writing but he still falls into traps that have hindered albums before but this. He storms out at the beginning of the album and sounds uninspired at the end and on other songs on the album. At some point, as Steeler Ryan Clark said, we need to stop saying how close Ross is to greatness and just be fine with him being really good.
Cornell Da Gr8
The album takes a complete nose dive at “Hold Me Back”. I thought we might have had another five star album or classic on our hands with the Usain Bolt start. But Mr. MMG himself slipped in a few mixtape tracks with “Hold Me Back” and “911”. Ross sounds like had a lisp on “Hold Me Back”. Nicki Minaj might want to give him lessons on how to pronounce those “-eez” words or Rosetta Stone. I wish he would have held back on putting this on the album because I would have been giving it more praise instead of my corny jokes. Then fans are exposed to the truth with Ross’ lack of being a lyricist on “911” with the weak effort on production on this track. That is not what we came here for.
There is some acts of forgiveness on this album though. We can forgive The Bawse for some of his poor choices because of his other phenomenal choices. He brought the best out of Andre 3000 on “Sixteen”. He let his MMG minions show off on his album with “So Sophisticated” and “Diced Pineapples”, the most heralded song on the album. And yes, sequels in entertainment are usually corny (See recent news of Scary Movie 5) but not when it comes to “Maybach Music IV”. If the formula works, keep making it.
Sidenote: I counted an estimated 62 grunts on the album.
King Jerm
Rick Ross really had to deliver with this album release. He did that. While its not the classic that it could have been (Imagine if songs from Rich Forever were on here) but these things happen with delays and push backs. Ross came through with an album for the critics who wonder why this fat nigga is on top of the game. The Boss put together a solid LP that has something for all to enjoy.
