Customer Reviews

Digital Smoke

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Kurupt's been a busy guy lately, and in the last year alone he's released one solo album, two Dogg Pound albums, and one Kurupt presents album just a week ago. "Digital Smoke" is his first collaboration with Alkaholiks affiliate J Wells, a west coast producer and rapper. J Wells assures good production throughout the album, his distinctly Los Angeles sound is very electronic (thus "Digital") and upbeat, bass heavy and funky. The production sounds pretty familiar, it's actually fairly similar to Dr. Dre's beats circa "2001". The beats aren't groundbreaking but are nice nonetheless. Kurupt and J Wells' lyrics don't do anything too out of the ordinary. More than anything else, they rap about smoking and laidback LA lifestyle. There are a whole lot of guests, as Roscoe, Gail Gotti, Goodie Mob, Y.A., Tha Liks, Kokane, Butch Cassidy, Knocturnal, Shorty, James Debarge, Tri-Star, and Styliztik Jones all appear, many multiple times. Kurupt's still not bringing the lyrics like he was in the late 90s, but he gets the job done, this is meant for more of a summertime release than a lyrical showcase. Almost every song is a collabo, and I feel this takes away from the overall product, a lot of these guys are easily outshined every time and don't add much on the lyrical tip. This album is fairly inconsistent, it contains a handful of really great summertime west coast anthems and a little filler too. For a Kurupt fan, the great songs might make it worth the purchase.

After a short intro, the album begins with its best song, "All We Smoke." This song has an absolutely excellent beat, beginning with a great piano line and filling in with upbeat strings and funky bass. This is a west coast anthem, Kurupt and J Wells rap about their California peers and smoking, it's a great start to the album. "I'm Just Sayin'" has a pretty good beat, Kurupt and guest Roscoe use a repetitive, conversational rapping style kind of like Juvenile often does. The raps about a party aren't too memorable, this song's overall pretty average. "Get It" features a nice, very west coast beat and appearances from the legendary Goodie Mob and Roscoe again. The Gail Gotti and Styliztik Jones collabo "I'm Too Gangsta" is utterly forgettable, skip material for me. The sunny and joyful "Summertime" is enjoyable. "Smokin'" would be okay if not for a terrible hook. The Butch Cassidy-aided "History" has a familiar feel but is a solid track. On "Los Angeles," Kurupt and J Wells rap about smoking, their coming up, but mostly just life in their hometown. Knocturnal guests on "Got Me Going" has a cool beat, I didn't really like the chorus though, it samples an old rock song and the singing isn't too appealing. "Itz Nothin" is repetitive and reminiscent of a P. Diddy track, Roscoe flows nicely though. "I Came in the Door" is a highlight, showcasing creative production and a great appearance by Kokane, who sings and raps. Tha Liks appear on "Let `Em Know," a bass-heavy and nice closer.

Overall, "Digital Smoke" is a pretty solid release of summertime west coast rap jams. If you haven't checked out the latest DPG release then I'd recommend that first, it's fairly similar and better than "Digital Smoke." But if you liked that album and are looking for some new west coast material to bump for the summer, this might be it. This album has absolutely zero promotion, so expect it to disappear as quickly as it showed up. Don't consider it a must have. But the few great tracks on "Digital Smoke" will stay in rotation during my summer months, as we await the next Kurupt project.

I said a while back that Kurupt really hasn't been that great since the Doggystyle days. This was especially evident when he released solo albums -- or maybe not, because I don't know anyone that picked up ANY of his solo albums. And after that disastrous Cali Iz Active album last year, Kurupt decided to get together with Liks affiliate J. Wells for a new offering, Digital Smoke.

If the album's title doesn't tip you off, this album is all about getting lifted. But things start to get so monotonous that you'll feel like directing them to the nearest NA meeting. This is especially obvious when looking at titles like "Weed Types", "All We Smoke" and "Smokin'". Actually, there's something else about the latter two tracks. "All We Smoke" IS pretty decent, but it's also confusing in that only the chorus is about getting high while the verses are about random stuff. And as for "Smokin'", one of the guys is talking about people ODing while the other one is suggesting that people KEEP on smoking. Which one is it?

Another thing that brings the album down is bad interpolations of classic songs during the choruses. "Got Me Going" uses the Kinks' "You Really Got Me"; and if you can't figure out what the inspiration is for "I Came in the Door", I'm not going to explain it to you. And the failed anthem "Summertime" borrows the Boys' "Dial My Heart", of all songs (but that honey singing the chorus doesn't have the greatest voice either).

Kurupt and Wells aren't that great when they change the subject either ("I'm Just Sayin", anyone?). I doubt many people have ever even heard of this album, but I'll just say that Digital Smoke should only be for digital download; you really don't need to buy it.

Anthony Rupert

It was just three years ago when I heard Goodie Mob's "Play Your Flutes," which is loved so much. Besides the great singing from Sleepy Brown, the beat soaked in my head. It was produced by J. Wells, who I didn't know who he was at the time. That same year he produced Planet Asia's "It's All Big." He's produced tracks before that time, but his name and beats began to grab my attention. So I pick up his Digital Master CD, and after a couple of listens, I felt he had potential to go a long way in the rap game. Plus he's been mentored by J-Ro, Battlecat and DJ Quik. He's close with west coast veteran Kurupt and legendary group, Goodie Mob. Now 2007 is here, and Digial Smoke has dropped. I highly anticipated this CD when I heard it was coming out, and I am not disappointed. J. Wells does a good job behind the boards because he has that true west coast sound especially tracks such as "I Came Tru The Door," "All We Smoke" and "Summertime." Kurupt does his thing also with his typical gangsta lyrics. J. Wells spits also, but he's not the best, but not the worse. In my opinion his voice and delivery saves him from being a garbage rapper. What makes this album successful is because it as that summertime feel, and June 5 was the right day to drop. So when I reflect on my summer, songs off of this CD will come in my head.

Finally picked this up. I was interested, but it wasn't a top priority because of how awful Kurupts last solo (the one that came out 5 years too late on Death row) was. This is MUCH better than that. Anyone complaining about the content is missing the point. It's kurupt, what did you expect? that's like buy a Common album and complaining because it didn't turn the club out. Kurupt isn't the best he's ever been on here, but he's better than the sleepwalking he was doing a few years back. J Wells is the real suprise here. What little I had heard from him before was no indication of what he did here. This album makes him the next west coast producer to watch. His laidback, yet still hard vibe fits the DPGC crew perfectly, and he needs to work with the rest of the extended crew. The guest list is decent, and provides some variety from Kurupts tendency to drone on. It's not Kurupt's best work (Streetz is a Mutha) but it's better than several of his other solo's, and one of the better west releases of the year so far

man kurupt, dpg fans should cop this a g funkdafied banger here features kokane so it's really cracking typical west coast heat here.

Kurupt teamed up with west coast producer/rapper from the Likwit crew, J. Wells to bring you a short but nice west coast summer album for 07. Though I thought it be more of a collaboration album with the 2, I still think it's a good album. Of the 12 songs, only 3 have both Kurupt & J. Wells on 'em, 3 have neither on the song. Kurupt is only on 6 of the 12 songs and Wells is only on 5 of the 12, with alot of guest appearances (many form the Y.A. camp -- Roscoe, Tri Star and friends) as well. Of the 12 songs, 4 or 5 are ok, and 7 or 8 are good (a few being real good). Production is nice and definitely that classic west coast sound,a s J Wells did 11 of the 12 songs, the otehr being handled very nicely by Blaqthoven. If you like that classic west coast sound then you should not pass this up.

#2 - 8.5 (J Wells, Kurupt, Chanz Parkman -- nice beat)
#3 - 8 (Kurupt, roscoe, tri star, nire)
#4 - 7.5 (kurupt, j wells, roscoe, goodie mobb)
#5 - 7 (kurupt, gail gotti, styliztik jones0
#6 - 8.5 (roscoe, bizzle, roosevelt, red rum, tri star, gail gotti, y.g. -- nice beat)
#8 - 9 (roscoe, tri star, y.g., james DeBarge -- tight beat)
#9 - 8.5 (kurupt, j wells, butch cassidy, kimmie)
#11 - 9 (j wells f/ samuel christian -- tight beat)
#12 - 7 (knoc-turn'al f/ j wells)
#13 - 6.5 (roscoe)
#14 - 6 (kokane f/ kurupt)
#16 - 8.5 (alkaholis & j wells -- good beat)

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