Customer Reviews

G-Files

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the Midnight Hour, Warren G's last album in 2005, was released to mixed reviews and went in an entirely different sound direction than the rest of his catalog. However, with his sixth studio LP, the G-Files, Warren G returns to the formula that turned him into one of raps brightest stars fifteen years ago. The record's short and concise, featuring just thirteen tracks, fourteen if you count the intro. At least half of the record is great. The West Is Back is a classic, summertime flavored west coast anthem. Let's Get High is a vintage G-Funk smoke-out session that should please even Warren's most die hard fans. 100 Miles 'n' Runnin' is a modern day classic, featuring raps by Warren and Raekwon with Nate Dogg spicing up the hook. A collaboration with Snoop Dogg on Swagger Rich is a taste of Warren G meets Timbaland. Suicide is a relatively old, unheard of track that only the hardcore fans will be familiar with. It was featured on the video game soundtrack to True Crime: Streets of LA. It was the first track ever announced for the G-Files in 2003, but when In the Midnight Hour came in its place, this one was placed on the back-burner until now. It's slightly re-worked, but largely untouched and is a classic West Coast vibe. Hold On & What's Wrong are both standouts because they give you a sound of a more introspective Warren G than you're usually used to hearing. The rest of the tracks, save for the uninspired Ringtone and Crush, are all in the average to above average category. However, the good clearly outweighs the bad, which in this case, are the two final tracks on the record, which are a curious way to end an otherwise satisfying, enjoyable experience.

Warren G on independent label. A lot of people forgot him, because he went independent, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't research. I recommend you this album, because I like it. Warren G can make for sure a little bit better music, that doesn't mean that you don't have there big great songs, just he is relaxing a little bit more as he should, I think. Definitely worthy.

I had been anticipating "The G-Files" since Warren G announced it in 2002. Then he released "In The Mid-Nite Hour" in 2005, which proved to be a solid album from Warren. When he said "The G-Files" would be released in 2009, I was excited because I figured he would improve upon the last album and create one of the year's best hip-hop albums.
However, Mr. Regulator let me down. "The G-Files" is a below average album and easily one of his worst. Why? The album is 13 songs and a skit, with G only appearing on 11 of the actual songs. The song topics are old and uninspired, such as "The West is Back" and "Let's Get High." The topic of the west coast being awesome, and smoking weed has been done a million times, and many times by Warren himself.
I don't know, I just had high expectations for Warren G, considering "In The Mid-Nite Hour" pushed the envelope lyrically and musically in 2005. I thought this album would do the same. But it seems like he back tracked and tried to create an album that would have appealed in the Death Row era or teenage pop rap fans. The last two tracks, "Ringtone" and "Crush" (feat. Ray-J) are something I would expect from someone like Soulja Boy or Plies.
There is one highlight of the album, "100 Miles and Runnin" (feat. Raekwon and Nate Dogg). The song is a classic example of collaborations between Warren and Nate. Although it seems odd Raekwon is on the song, he's lyrically on point and helps create the album's best song.
Overall, I believe die hard Warren G fans will be disappointed with this album. It doesn't live up to the hype, and doesn't offer anything fantastic besides the one song. I've come to realize that Warren G can either hit or miss with his albums, and in this case he missed...by a lot.

Warren G returns after 4 year to finally drop his long awaited, pushed back "G Files" album. All in all, I think this is better than his last 2 albums ("Return of Regulator" and "Mid-Nite Hour"), not as good as his 4.5 star "Take A LOok Over Your Shoulder' & "I Want It All" and worth 4 stars (just below his "Regulate...G Funk Era" album. His last 2 being disappointing I think he is moving back into the right direction on this one. With 13 songs (1 he isn't on), you get 4 ok songs, and 9 good ones, with a few being real good but no classics. He does have some bad attempts on here to appeal to the radio and teen-rap, overall I thinkk it's a nice album. Guests are on all but 2 songs, but that's with all his albums, guests are heavy. Production is nice as well, not surprisingly since Warren did 12 of the 13 (the other done by THX). A nice album to have for those longing for that old great G-Funk sound.

#2 - 9 (Halla & Bad Lucc - No Warren -- nice beat)
#3 - 8 (f/ BJ)
#4 - 7.5 (f/ Black Nicc & Travis Barker)
#5 - 8.5 (f/ Raekown & Nate Dogg)
#6 - 7.5 (f/ Halla)
#7 - 7 (a bad attempt at a radio friendly song)
#8 - 7.5 (f/ Snoop Dogg & Cassic Davis -- anotehr bad attempt at a radio friendly song)
#9 - 9 (f/ RBX -- nice beat)
#10 - 9 (f/ Halla & Bad Lucc -- nice beat)
#11 - 8
#12 - 9 (deeper song f/ Black Nicc, Halla & BJ -- nice relaxing beat)
#13 - 8.5 (f/ BJ -- goood beat)
#14 - 8 (f/ Ray J -- another radio friendly song)

Warren Griffin III -- b. 11/10/70 -- Long Beach, CA
Check all my reviews

G Files... suppose to be released back in 2003-2005. It never happened. Warren G has always produced some of the best material for my ears. Classic gems have come around with the likes of The Twinz: Conversation, The Dove Shack: This Is The Shack, even the lost 5 Footaz album was great! But "G Files" comes with concerns as Warren G delivers his sixth CD and it clearly falls short of sounding like his other albums.
Now I'm not going to do the track titles with 8.5 and 9 to indicate each rating. But you've got to understand that his efforts aren't to that status of "Regulate: G.funk Era" or even "Return of the Regulator." The live instruments are hardly evident and often sounds simply mixing board from beginning to end as his g-funk ingredients are partially gone through this move. Nate Dogg was not on any heavy hard hitters and was billed for "100 Miles" but the flavor was not there. Nate Dogg was going through hard times himself, health wise. But several others could've assisted- even Snoop. Instead, we are left with a staggering number of lesser knowns on "G Files."
Some songs are good here and there. It's not a total fail as the opening track does show promising signs and has good vocals to support a good LBC afternoon vibe. But some hard evident songs later are definitely of different style. "Drinks Ain't Free" and "Ringtones" are good with vibes and catchy hooks. "Drinks" sounds likes its going to start off great but keeps a limited sound.
I was hoping to "Clownin'" or "Dolla Dolla Bill" on this album as they could supply some good depth. Even though G Files falls short, its still an okay project and its always good to hear music from Warren G.

Yeah, I basically agree with M. Lindberg except for this part "But it seems like he back tracked and tried to create an album that would have appealed in the Death Row era or teenage pop rap fans". When I think of teenage pop rap i think of the garbage that's on the "rap/hiphop" radio stations right now and the Death Row era was right at the time of classic westcoast gangster rap, these are two totally different types of music. With that being said, I think that this Warren G album is nowhere near the music that was coming ouf of Death Row backin that time. I wish he would have "tried to create an album that would have appealed in the "Death Row" era, he could have put a 2009 twist on it and maybe then it would have been worthy of being called a Warren G album. This album is also different than the garbage on the radio, it's not necessarily better, just different. It seems like Warren G or who ever made the music for the album ran out of sounds when creating the beats (track 11 for example), half of them are so simplistic, they lack any kind of creativity. The Warren G "G funk" sound that has been present on his previous albums is almost totally absent here and where he did attempt to create a little bit of that "G funk" sound he came off sounding really soft; there's a few that are so weak it seems like they were meant to be on an R&B singers album with Warren G featuring which I guess would have been more understandable. Then there's a couple of tracks where it seems like Warren is trying his best to come up with Dr. Dre type beats (Dre's more recent type stuff) and ends up sounding below average at best. The best tracks on this album are "100 Miles and Running" (it pretty good, not classic but a good track) and "Let's Get High" was alright, I mostly like the feel that Travis Barker's drums created. Besides that, everything else was either uninspired or lazy or too pop sounding (track 8 with Snoop for example, but pretty much everything Snoop is on nowadays is pop, but that's a different story). I might sound like I'm just hating on Warren G but I'm really a long time fan of Warren's, I have appreciated his music through out the years and I LOVE that old classic westcoast golden era and that's why it's hard for me to hear Warren G (one of the best to ever do it) sounding like this. Maybe I'm just trippin, maybe you don't hear what I hear...