Ventilation [Explicit Lyrics]

Phife Dawg | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 2, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 21, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Groove Attack
• ASIN: B00004WZ65
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,218 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. Flawless

3. Alphabet Soup

4. Miscellaneous

5. Drugs

6. Club Hopper

7. Lemme Find Out

8. Ben Dova

9. Beats Rhymes Phife

10. Ventilation

11. 4 Horsemen

12. Melody Adonis

13. Outro

Editorial Reviews

Groove Attack, GAP068CD 13 Track

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pot. Kettle. Black., February 21, 2003

By 

Phil Watts Jr. (Petersburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ventilation (Audio CD)

Back in the days on the Blvd. of Linden...a band of guys hooked up to form the Tribe. The Questers helmed some of the greatest Hip-Hop recordings of the past decade. Sadly, around the making of BEATS, RHYMES, & LIFE, internal conflicts between Tip & Phife made the group unfocused, and after the unaptly named LOVE MOVEMENT album, there was hardly any love left at all. It was only right to split.

Phife has held in a whole lot during the entire ordeal, and he uses this CD as a vehicle to let it all out...hence the title, VENTILATION. So...what does he have to let out?

1)HIS OBVIOUS CONTEMPT FOR FORMER PARTNER Q-TIP: This especially seen in "Flawless", where he goes on in his first verse trashing Q-Tip's horrid attempt at commercialism, AMPLIFIED. "Sing ballads if it's all about the Maxwell look!" Too bad that in his attempt at dissing Tip, he actually gave Tip some bad ideas, as Tip would attempt to do just that in his (THANKFULLY) unreleased album, KAMAAL THE ABSTRACT. Thanks, for that aural atrocity! (Tip's 'singing' in "Barely In Love" still gives me NIGHTMARES!)

2)HIS HATRED FOR JIVE RECORDS: It was because of the success from Tribe, Too $hort, Spice 1, and the Hieroglyphics that Jive stayed alive long enough to bank on manufactured 'artists' like Spears and Timberlake. "How quickly they forget who brought (Jive) to the top!" Indeed.

3)HIS CONTEMPT FOR THE CURRENT ICED OUT HIP-HOP: He spends most of this CD bashing the Industry, "confused by the corny B.S. people listen to", like the iced out trends and R&B hooks. Too bad he provides just as much B.S. in this CD, like 'Club-hoppa', and 'BEN DOVA', where he ruins a slammin' J-Dilla track by telling girls to...BEN DOVA. He brings his crew of no-names, aptly named NO NAME, to ruin another J-Dilla track with garbage lyrics like "There's a lotta MC's that spit dat (ish)/and a lotta fools out there that just talk (ish)" BRILLIANT! Another No Name member says, "When it comes to rap, I GOT AN ARM LIKE A QUARTERBACK!" (What?!) and goes on to pop bottles at every party. They all get together for what is perhaps that DUMBEST HOOK EVER: "We here to git da paper, nevermind these (...)/THEY AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE CUZ WE ALWAYS GET ...!!" Kinda makes all of Phife's anti-Industry rants moot, doesn't it?

4)LOTS AND LOTS OF CUSSING!!: Without Tip & Ali around to tell him to tone it down, Phife uses that opportunity to CRAM AS MANY CUSS WORDS INTO EVERY SINGLE BAR AS POSSIBLE! In the aforementioned 'Flawless', he tries to find as many words as he can to rhyme with (ish)! This makes Phife sound worse than he ever was!!

In addition to the hypocritical anti-Industry rants and massive cussing, another problem is the production. Now, don't get me wrong. Phife does get some awesome beats from Hi-Tek ('Flawless'), J-Dilla ('Ben Dova'), and Pete Rock ('Melody Adonis', which Phife uses for his rehash of Common's 'I Used To Love H.E.R.'). The problem is that 1)most of these beats get wasted, and 2)it doesn't flow as an album, like the 1st 4 Tribe recordings. It's just Phife rhyming over a collecion of beats. Remember, people--THERE IS MORE TO PRODUCTION THAN MAKING A DOPE BEAT!

Phife's newfound freedom has made him regress as an MC. He went from a high-pitched fairy in INSTICTIVE TRAVELS...to the 5ft freak we all know and love. Too bad he didn't grow from that. Because of that, he cannot carry more than one song by himself.

With Tip & Phife making horrible solo efforts, I hope and pray that a Tribe reunion DOESN'T happen. Just leave us all with the wonderful memories that we have.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tribe needs to get back together..., October 25, 2000

By 

T. Walsh "mc-skittlez" (New Jeru) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ventilation (Audio CD)

i would really give this a 3.5

Phife Dawg's solo LP has its high points and low points...

**song by song rating**

"Flawless" is one of the LP's best tracks. Hi-tek mixes a good beat and Phifey is shooting some good lyrics including that diss to Q-tip (which I believe Tip deserves for what he's become)...

"Alphabet Soup" is mixed very well by Hi-tek and Phife delivers some good lyrics...

"Miscellaneous" is an OK track, nothing special about it...

"DRUGS" has a good beat and Phife spits some good lyrics dissing what has become of hiphop commercially...

"The Club Hoppa" was ok, but nothing special about this either...

"Lemme Find Out" is one of the LP's worst tracks. The Pete Rock mixed beat sucked and Phife didn't really do that much better...

"Ben Dova" shows us Phife's more humorous side. This is one of the best songs and it's something to party to...

"Beats Rhymes & Phife" is a reflection of Phife's life. The beat is good and Phife shows us his fun storytelling skills...one of the LP's best tracks...

"Ventilation" is Phife's kinda "don't **** me off" track. The beat and lyrics are good...but the lyrics and beat doesn't mix well together...

"4 Horsemen" shows us Phife and No-Name's freestyling skills. No-Name's mcs are average but Phife isn't that impressive either...

"Melody Adonis" is definately the LP's best track. Pete Rock showed us that he wasn't totally lazy on this release. The lyrics and the beat are really good...

so overall LYRICS - 7 (better in Tribe) BEATS - 8 (some mixed real nicely) CREATIVITY - 5 (has to work on that...can't be saying what hiphop should be all the time, even though I agree with him)

phife should have included Thought U Wuz Nice and If Men Are Dawgs, they would have made the LP better...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Break From the Norm, February 7, 2001

By 

James Jenkins (Chambersburg, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ventilation (Audio CD)

It was only a matter of time before Phife released his album. Since I have been a Tribe fan I didn't hesitate to buy this album. I was skeptical when Flawless was the first track on the album. Usually when the first track on the album is the song that is released it spells trouble. After listening to the album I was glad this is a hip-hop album and not a rap album (If you want to know the difference email me [e-mail]). The album lived up to my expectations. My favorite song is Melody Adonis. It's similar to the song Common did I Use To Love H.E.R., which describes hip-hop as a female. Beats, Rhymes, and Phife is a trip through his musical career (frustrations and joys). I only have one problem with this album. Phife is a lyrical wiz, so it was disoppointing at times when his profanitiy on the album seemed out of place and forced. All together this is a good freshman solo debut for Phife. He points out the various problems with the rap community. It's good to see he did have some good insight. I would recommend this album.