Willennium - Diet Rap (Willennium - Will Smith)

Member Name: SkyscraperFanClu

Product:	Willennium - Will Smith
Date:	22/04/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not a bad rapper, enjoyable scratch mixing section .

Disadvantages: Forget the rest - pretentious, self - obsessed nonsense

Will Smith writes low-calorie, caffeine free rap music: bland, unimaginative, inoffensive and boring. His music is staggeringly egocentric and often very irritating. Only on a few occasions is 'Willennium' worth listening to.
The four singles form the core of the album - this is where most of the effort has gone in to the production to make the album more marketable. These include the repetitive and flawed film spin-off 'Wild Wild West', millennium cash-in 'Will 2K' (though the whole album can be described as a millennium cash-in, there being nothing else that holds it together) and the typically ego-focussed 'I'm Comin'' and 'Freakin' It'.

As a rapper, Will Smith is not particularly bad; it is the songs he writes that makes the album so poor. The chorus to 'I'm Comin'' is embarrassing to say the least. His inability to get through one song without referring to himself as 'Big Will' is extremely frustrating. 'Willennium', just like the tiresomely over-marketed albums of Boyzone and similar artists, has its' ballad-esque song ('Afro Angel' - vague, uninteresting and insincere). No doubt we are supposed to see Will's sensitive side through this...
Whatever explanation can be offered for the pseudo-Latin horror of 'La Fiesta' is inadequate - it is an awful song, completely unlistenable. Whoever suggested an experiment with an alternative musical culture should have known better.

'Willennium's' only saving grace is the impressive scratch mixing of DJ Jazzy Jeff, featured in 'So Fresh' and the technically excellent 'Pump Me Up'. Though I wouldn't recommend you buy 'Willennium' solely for this, certainly have a listen if you know someone with a copy.
I do realise that 'Willennium' is targeted at people younger than I am, who enjoy Will Smith's role in 'Men In Black' and 'Wild Wild West' - these are, after all, children's films. I therefore think it is fair to conclude that this is a fine album for younger music listeners (particularly those who shouldn't be listening to the coarse, obscene vitriol of most rap artists) but not for people more used to standard rap music. Horses for courses - just not my course.

Summary: diet rap