Redman

★ 8.5

album

Whut? Thee Album

“As long as I can remember, I've always liked a few songs by Reggie Noble over the years, spread out over a number of years on different albums. His performances on those songs were usually good, but not exactly good enough to make me check out an entire album by him sooner. Out of procrastinated curiosity (and an algorithmic recommendation by AOTY), I finally decided to give Redman's "Whut? Thee Album" a full listen. And maaaaaan, I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. From the jump, you can listen how full of energy Redman is with his emceeing. His flow and wordplay on here is incredible and was unlike anything ever heard of at that time, although rapping about weed and bitches can get a little tiresome after a while for me. As for the production, which was (mostly?) handled by Erick Sermon, the P-funk influence is clear as day and actually works with Sermon's drum patterns. The bouncy P-funk samples with the rugged beats really go together quite nicely. I think that I'd probably like this album more if there weren't as many interludes that had their own tracks, as well as the songs didn't musically sound like one long track. Of course, that's just preference. Overall, "Whut? Thee Album" just reinforces how much I've lowkey slept on Redman's discography, especially when "Tonight's da Night" comes on.”

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