Customer Reviews

Art & Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Though not an avid reggae fan, the credit given for me to plunk down the cash for this CD was attributed to "Girls Dem Sugar" featuring R&B star Mya. After listening to that single, I just had to see what else Beenie Man had to offer in his latest album, "Art and Life". As the album title states, Beenie Man's ability to incorporate reggae with hip hop is indeed an art in and of itself though definitely not a new concept (I guess anything is better than listening to Snow). I enjoyed tracks like "Haters and Fools", "Jamaica Way", and my personal favorite, the "Love Me Now" remix featuring The Funk Doctor Spock, Redman, himself and Wyclef Jean. As a hip hop caterer, this album may not have enough flavor to switch me into a hardcore reggae fan or even vice versa for reggae lovers, but by combining the two musical worlds, I guess small doses of it may change that one day. After all, they do combine the taste of cherry with cough syrup to mask the medicine's real flavor. So in a sense, "Art and Life" is hip-hop flavored reggae or reggae flavored hip hop. Either way, it can be ingested by the pure hip hop or reggae fan.

If you're a dancehall purist, stop right now. This is not your thing. But Beenie Man has integrated a very unusual set of influences for this CD, making dancehall music more accessible to people who maybe haven't been exposed to the reggae vibe before. His words and style are powerful. This is definately worth checkin out but bring ya open mind and ya open ears.

Beenie Man has been an innovator his entire career so I don't understand the outcry about his new sound in some of his songs. The whole fun of Beenie Man is you never know what he'll come up with. He has a freaking country-western track for pete's sake! And it's good! In this world of manufactured pop garbage, thank god there are still guys like Beenie Man around who aren't afraid to push the boundaries and try something new.

Moving on, I'd like to talk about a couple tracks that stood out to me. 1)Haters and Fools- This is a classic dancehall track, it's a pretty good way to start the album.
2)Ola- This song starts will a little piano riff and then all of the sudden the bass comes in. It's a great moment that you have to hear. These moments are why we listen to music.
3)Love Me Now (Remix) - I really like the remix, but I really don't like Redman's performance here. It sounds like he just put something together at the last moment.
4)Love Me Now (Original)- Wyclef and Beenie make a great team. How long until they put out an album together a la Tanto Metro & Devonte? How cool would that be? Everyone write your congressman, this must happen.
5)Some Tonight- I hate to say it but Tanto Metro's performance on this track is so good he outshines Beenie! No one ever outshines Beenie Man! (With the exception of Machel Montano in "UFOs", of course. Machel rules in that song.)
6)I've Got a Date- Beenie Man should sing more.

this is a great dance hall hip hop cross over cd. if you like rap and like the vibe of dancehall reggae then you will love this album.

BEENIE HAS ONCE AGAIN PROVEN THAT HE'S THE MOST VERSATILE ARTISTE IN THE DANCEHALL BIZ TODAY. THERE IS SOMETHING ON THIS ALBUM FOR EVERYONE. I THINK THIS WILL INCREASE HIS FAME AS HE CROSSES OVER INTO THE MAINSTREAM. NUFF RESPECT TO BEENIE MAN. KEEP ON ENTERTAINING.

This new one from beenie man is a different style for him. Now he's trying to take it to everyone with a few cross-over hits, since he is on a new label(Virgin records). I wasen't sure If I wanted to get this after hearing the first single with wyclef because I didn't care for that one too much. Wyclef could have done better with the beat. Then I heard a new track with Mya caled "Girls dem sugar" and that made me change my mind. The neptunes produced that track and the beat is tight. The songs here that I think are good are: Love me now(remix---this one I like), Girl dem suga, jamacia way, Heights of great men, Analyze this, Some tonight, and Tumble(la ciada). Now you might not agree with me on some songs but I think that these are the ones people will probably play a lot. beenie was really trying to apeal to more than just his fans with guests like kelis, mya, rockwilder and Auturo sandoval with a little bit of latin flavor. There are a few tracks that he could have left out and certain things like him using some of the same old stuff from old songs like the line "Girl dem suagr" again for the 10th time gets annoying for fans who been following beenie. If it wasen't for this I would give him a five, but overall I think he did good for trying to cross-over and still stay close to the dancehall vibe.

If your a fan of beenie I say you should get this(Don't judge it form the first single u hear with wyclef). If your not you should check this out.....u might hear something you like.

This is beenie man once again staying ahead of the game in reggae by taking it to the next level.

At the time this CD came out, I was dating a Jamaican woman. She pressed me to buy this album even though I was more of a Bob Marley fan. I wasn't really into dancehall. But Beenie Man changed my perspective. I know this isn't the purest form of dancehall reggae that one can purchase, but it was a tolerable initial sample for me. It spoon fed me small bits of dancehall in between all the hip hop influenced songs. Now I love dancehall. This album helped me get into it. This is a great starter album if you're not already heavy into dancehall reggae.

Personal Favorites: Haters & Fools, Ola feat. Steve Perry, Girls Dem Suga, Crazy Notion, Original Tune(probably the best song on the CD), Art & Life, Jamaica Way feat. Kelis, & Trus Me

I am an avid collector of roots reggae and own some dancehall, but am not a huge fan of dancehall over all. Also,I am very selective about dancehall and will rate it only based on my dancehall tastes. If rated against my roots reggae, I would rate this about a 3, but again, for a dancehall cd rated against other dancehall cd's I own, this is a 5 star effort.

Now to Art and Life by Beenie Man. I was blown away by this entire cd.

Haters and Fools is very nice with great production and sound. Ola is a damn fine dancehall track. Play it LOUD. Nice melody and Beenie Man is very cool in this one.
Love Me Now is another one to be played very very very loud. A great track and my personal favorite. It climbs and climbs slowly until Beenie Man bursts forth with his vocal assault.
Girls Them Sugar slows things down a bit (not too slow though) creating another winner. Beautiful female vocals by Mya.

The next two tracks are so-so, but move into Jamaica Way which I really like.

Art and Life is a nice slow dancehall track that I very much enjoy. Very haunting track.

Trus Me sounds a lot like Monster Shack.

Tumble is more straight forward dancehall and has less of the R&B hip hop fusion. Still nice sounding track.

Some Tonight is a nice track as well. Ziggy Zow!

Tracks 13-18 are some alternate views of previous songs with only Tumble having a sense of what I enjoy. I like the whole party sound to that track. The rest of the songs are ok at best.

In closing, I am no dancehall pro, but I really liked this cd almost as a whole. Dancehall purists must be warned though...There is a big Hip Hop influence on this cd.

One Love!

THIS CD GOES ABOUT 13 SONGS DEEP WITH SOME PRETTY NICE JAMS...I THINK WYCLEF'S REMIX STUMBLES A BIT, BUT OTHERWISE THIS IS A VERY GOOD ALBUM. I DONT REGRET THE PURCHASE, GO OUT AND GET IT.

This album is for every hip-hop fan that wants to hear a little dancehall, or vice-versa. Check out the remix track 18 with Choclair on the Original Tune remix. The remix of Girls Dem Sugar is hot with Mya, so is Love Me Now with Wyclef. I'm also feeling Art and Life, Trus Me, and Analyze This. Fantastic cd.