5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
BE WARNED!, May 8, 2007
This review is from: Bone Brothers 2 (Audio CD)
I apologize to anyone who, like me, has been eagerly anticipating a new collaboration album between Layzie Bone and ousted Bone Thug Bizzy Bone. The first
The Bone Brothers album from 2005 was a pretty entertaining and enjoyable album with a few very nice tracks on it. "Bone Brothers 2" is a complete [...]. Not a single new verse was recorded for this album. Instead, Real Talk Records has taken verses from Bizzy Bone's last two albums,
The Midwest Cowboy and the underground release "Evolution of Elevation" and Layzie Bone's collaboration album with Young Noble
Thug Brothers and put them over new beats in order to market it as a new product. Layzie Bone claimed he did not know of this product's existence until only a few weeks ago. This is a hip hop [...] of Death Row proportions, with a label attempting to capitalize off Bone's new major label album
Strength and Loyalty by releasing this on the same day. Bone fans might note, as I did, that most of the song titles here are a little familiar. That's because they're just remixed versions of the same songs. The verses are all cut-and-pasted from the mentioned three albums, placed over a new beat, and passed off as new material. Bone Thug fans such as myself will be angrily disappointed if they purchase this album.
Now, I have to be honest in this part of the review. The product is not really so bad. As I said in my reviews of
The Midwest Cowboy and
Thug Brothers, those albums are quite good and so the lyrical content isn't bad, even if it is just cheaply cut-and-pasted together and don't necessarily match. Someone who is unfamiliar with either of those albums will most likely enjoy this music. The beats are good, I cannot lie, so basically, this is a half-decent hip hop album, even if it is unauthorized and a [...]. If it were marketed as a remix album and not as a disc of new material, and if it were authorized by the rappers, then this would be really okay. I disagree with it in principle.
The other problem is, though, that from a strictly musical standpoint, none of the remixes are close to being as good as the originals. For instance, "Thugs Need Luv" is a new version of "Thugs Need Love Too" from
The Midwest Cowboy, jacking Bizzy's verse and chorus from that song, replacing Playalitical's verse with a verse from
Thug Brothers and giving it a new beat. And while this is a good beat, it's not even close to as nice as Playalitical's original one. The chemistry and subject matter are skewed, and where I consider the original song a classic, this one's just okay. Same goes for the rest of the album. There are some very nice beats, but none of the "remixes" are as good as the originals, so I can't really see any reason to own the album. Also, I feel this basically deserves two stars because the three bonus tracks, "2 tha Block," "Explain it to Me," and "Lookin' the Same," all taken directly from "Evolution of Elevation," are excellent.
If you're a die-hard Bone fan, there's still no reason to buy this, because it's not really supporting them since this is an unauthorized release. The music is really half-decent (I mean, after all, it is Bone Thugs), but it's cheap and dishonest. For a casual fan considering this album, I'd instead suggest you buy the far superior (and honest)
The Midwest Cowboy, the original
The Bone Brothers, and/or Thug Brothers. Also, I highly recommend the new Bone Thugs-N-Harmony album Strength and Loyalty. If anyone's looking for a cheap used copy of this album, I'll either be selling or discarding mine very soon!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
HUGE Disappointment!, May 13, 2007
This review is from: Bone Brothers 2 (Audio CD)
I can't believe I am about to write a bad review about a Bone CD, BUT... I was really anticipating the release of this album, and paid $18 to get it the day it came out, only to be incredibly disappointed. I really have to wonder if Layzie and Bizzy even know that they released a new Bone Brothers CD? The entire disc is composed of recycled lyrics from Midwest Cowboy and Thug Brothers... I don't think there are any new verses at all. I will say I liked most of the beats though, but that's about it. Normally I can put in a Bone CD and just let it play through, I tried to listen to this disc twice and gave up... The first Bone Brothers album was WAY better. I can't believe they let this crap get released..... this is going to be added to my CD rack just to help complete my collection but will otherwise just be collecting dust.
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