yinyang205's Full Review: VYP: Voice Of The Young People [Digipak] by Lil Ma...
I wrote a while back that Lil Mama intrigued me more than any other emcee that’s come out recently. After listening to Voice of the Young People, I stand by my assessment. After I heard “Lip Gloss,” I immediately dismissed her as yet another one hit wonder destined for a scrap heap laden with them throughout hip-hop’s history. However, a mis-click during a Youtube search changed my mind; it was because of this error that I got to hear “G-Slide.” I listened to it, thinking it’d be more fodder for a future write-off of mine, but was surprised when I heard her spit on the track. Afterwards, my opinion changed and I had a reasonably good opinion of her, one that was confirmed when I heard her lyrically outshine Wyclef, Twista, and Dizzee Rascall on another Youtube video—this one of the four in a cypher for the BET Awards. I was so intrigued by the femcee that I dropped $9.99 for her debut album, Voice of the Young People. Was it worth the purchase?
Track Listing and Ratings:
Intro (No Rating)
Lip Gloss (2 Stars)
One Hit Wonder (2 Stars)
Get Loose Request (No Rating)
Shawty Get Loose Ft. Chris Brown and T-Pain (3 Stars)
What it Is (Strike a Pose) Ft. T-Pain (3 Stars)
G-Slide (3 1/2 Stars)
Gotta Go Deeper (No Rating)
Stand Up (2 Stars)
L.I.F.E (5 Stars)
College Ft. Yirayah (5 Stars)
Emotional Rollercoaster (No Rating)
Broken Pieces (3 1/2 Stars)
Swim (3 Stars)
Truly in Love Ft. Peter Toh (3 1/2 Stars)
Look at My Life (No Rating)
Make it Hot (4 Stars)
Pick it Up (2 Stars)
I listened to this album and immediately thought, “Wow, she’s Foxy Brown all over again.” Listen to her spit and you’ll notice that her flow is polished, and she is more than capable of becoming a good lyricist in time. However, like Foxy, it may be her tendency towards commercial aesthetics that holds her back (though to be fair, Foxy being a f*ckup hasn’t helped her, either). She is infinitely more talented than the other mainstream emcees in her age bracket, and she definitely shows promise with this debut. The only problem is that that promise doesn’t always translate to consistently good music.
Too bad the first half of this disc doesn’t show much of it, though.
After the intro, we get to this first single in “Lip Gloss.” I’ll admit this much: the stripped down beat (just some handclaps and stomps) is nice. That’s about it, though; the subject matter is completely immature (oh yeah, the boys will really line up to be with you because of your lip gloss), and Mama’s lyrics don’t do much, either. She rides the beat well here, but otherwise, all this track deserves is a dismissive roll of the eyes. “One Hit Wonder” sees her trying way too hard to prove her worth; again, she shows the potential of a good emcee, but the lyrics are insincere and don’t hit home. This is your first album; am I really supposed to believe that you’re already the best femcee of the century as you proclaim? “Shawty Get Loose,” screams for radio play with Chris Brown and T-Pain stopping by for guest shots and a techno-influenced beat. As for the raps, it’s more or less standard brag rap as Lil Mama spits about how much better she is than the other females. A word to the wise: I like you, but lyrically, you can’t shine Bahamadia’s or Rah Digga’s shoes yet. On a positive note, though, she (again) rides the beat well and manages to completely upstage T-Pain. The second single, “G-Slide (Tour Bus)” manages to fare better, though it shamelessly attempts to cash in on three different fads at once (the snap music craze, the children on the chorus fad, and the crunk fad). Going back and forth between a sampled version of “The Wheels on the Bus” and hard bass is a bit grating, but hearing Lil Mama effortlessly go triple cadence is worth the price of admission. She also steps up her lyrics here, spitting some hard hitting battle rhymes; if it weren’t for the random and uncredited rapper who guest stars in the middle of the song, I’d like it even more (no, I really don’t need to hear from some hypeman about how the G-Slide is the new dance craze). After this, though, the tone of the album changes, as Lil Mama decides to “Go deeper” and show that she’s capable of making more than just radio hits, and it’s when she does this that the listener gets a glimpse of what she could be if she put her mind to it.
However, her first foray into deeper subject matter fails. “Stand Up,” while it has good intentions, is flat out boring. The slow paced beat forces Lil Mama to slow down her flow, which doesn’t suit her at all; musically, this song is the equivalent of a tranquilizer. Furthermore, her attempt at blend singing and rapping is a nod to the blues, but the execution sounds too forced to work. The subject matter, her description of the ills of her neighborhood, is a redeeming quality, but not one good enough to make the song listenable. The track that follows it, though, works much better, as “L.I.F.E.” pumps through the speakers; it is easily the best track on the album as she gets personal with the listener about her life; over the course of the track, she touches her drug-addicted mother and a foster mom who neglects her, as well as an abusive relationship, telling each story from a different point of view with Mama playing the victim in both situations. The subject matter has been done to death, but Lil Mama manages to make it sound fresh with the sincerity and feeling she puts into her performance. It’s definitely the most touching moment on the album. The serious subject matter continues with “College,” which sees her getting creative and confusing the absolute hell out of the listener. The track begins with her visiting her father, whom her mother tells her is graduating from college. However, as the story progresses, it’s clear that her father isn’t in college at all; instead, he’s in jail and locked away from his family. Mama keeps up the college metaphor throughout, and with the somber piano keys to back her up, the song gets over well. The last three songs along this vein, “Broken Pieces,” “Swim,” and “Truly in Love,” are all well-intentioned, but come off as corny; they’re all love-oriented, and while I can’t exactly knock the subject matter, the execution—particularly Lil Mama’s attempts at singing—leave a bit to be desired. However, she does manage to rebound with, “Make it Hot,” and shows that she’s got a hell of an attitude to go with along with her skill. Here, everything seems to come together—the beat combines hard-hitting drums and jazzy horns with Mama’s brag raps—for her to showcase her talents. The only thing that holds this song back is that it sounds completely out of place in the second half of the disc.
As good as the second half of this album is, however, it ends on a sour note as Mama tries her hand at another club jam with “Pick It Up,” and unintentionally, it serves as a microcosm of the album as a whole: uneven and frustrating. Just when Lil Mama puts her good foot forward for a string of good music, she kills her momentum with one more pop tune. Now, I’m not one to hate on good, mindless jams, but “Pick It Up” isn’t all that good, really; it rocks some of her weakest lines of the record (“Humpty the Dump had a very great fall,” she raps. O, RLY?) over a boilerplate beat. It’s enough to have me tear out my hair by the handful if I actually had any hair to tear out. And as an aside, why the hell do rappers even bother doing skits anymore? Do they serve any purpose other than taking up album time? There are five on this CD, and none of them amount to much of anything; they’re basically preludes to different songs on the album, but they’re entirely unnecessary and just break up what little cohesion there is to the album.
All of these things taken into account make one thing clear: Voice of the Young People’s ultimate drawback is that Lil Mama lacks a true identity throughout the course of the disc. She’s got her eyes on the Billboard Top 100 for the first half of the album, and tries to play street poet during the second, with her trying to go in both directions but failing to fulfill either persona in the process. The project lacks a true sense of focus, and it reeks of something some A&R dreamed up in order to try and maximize sales. Unfortunately, this strategy came at the cost of album quality, as Lil Mama stretches herself out too thin over the course of this 59 minute ride; for all of the talk of her being the voice of the young people, the irony here is that Lil Mama lacks a voice for herself, much less one for an entire group of people. This isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but it seems as though she’s placed a bit too much of a burden on herself to carry. Overall, Voice of the Young People, is an album that shows a world of potential from a young emcee, but also one that sees that potential skirted by repeated appeals for radio airplay. It would be disingenuous to dismiss her as simply another mainstream emcee, but at this stage in her career, it may prove far too difficult for her to make songs that appeal to both mainstream and underground audiences. Lil Mama is definitely talented, and it shows during the second half of the disc, but it doesn’t come together when examined as a whole. Let’s hope that with a little focus, she can put out a better album the second time around. Otherwise, she may very well end up another one hit wonder.
Final Rating: 3 Stars
Standout Tracks: L.I.F.E., Make It Hot, College, Broken Pieces
Product DetailsOriginal Title:VYP: Voice of the Young People (Deluxe Version)Condition: NEWFormat: CDArtist: Lil MamaLanguage: EnglishGenre: Hip-HopMore at iNetVideo.com
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