Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best Effort in years!, July 29, 2008
3.75 outta 5! Potential is the word of the Day w/ Mad Skillz b.k.a. Skillz. He a beast when he's freestyling and rapping about specific topics. Dude could improve his story telling abilities & beat picking abilities the latter of which he does improves on, on this album compare to the lackluster beats on Confessions of a Ghostwriter. The Albums starts off with a head full a steam 9 of the first 11 tracks are fire. Bink, Questlove, Jake White & another newcomer Fusion contribute on the beat side.v They're joints with Black Thought & Common in which Skillz makes them look old & inadequate. Freeaway kills Skillz on "Don't Act Like You Don't Know", which sounds like a leftover from the Brilliant "Free At Last' album. I rate this probably between the 9th or 10th best best album so far(July 08') this year. If he ever takes his time with his rhymes he could shock the world, Skillz needs more time working on the basics! There so much potential here
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic from Skillz, August 18, 2008
It's been almost 3 years since (Mad) Skillz dropped an album, andhe returns with a very solid, 4.5 star one here. Coming into the scence in the mid 90's he dropped 2 albums, and then kind of disappeared from making album for almost 10 years (doing alot of writing and some very nice songs I heard on mixtapes over that time frame) finally coming back with a decent album in '05. On this one, the man with the appropriate name, shows his skills delivery nice flows, metaphors, and story lines. Of the 14 songs on here, 3 are almost classics, only 1 is ok, the other 9 are good, most being real good songs. Guests aren't too heavy, rapping on 4 songs and doing the hooks on a few other ones. Production isnice as well. Khari Ferrari does 3 songs, Fusion Unlimited and Bink each do 2, and Jake One, Jazzy Jeff, Orthodox, Usef Dienro, Kwame, ?uestlove and Jimmy Rose all do 1 song. I also like in the booklet it has a story of how each song came together. A very impressive album to have from a very under rated MC, and will no doubt be a top 10, probably top 5 album of 2008.
#1 - 9.5 (tight beat)
#2 - 8.5 (f/ Dionne Folkes)
#3 - 9 (f/ Freeway -- nice beat)
#4 - 9 (f/ Coomon -- another tight beat)
#5 - 8.5
#6 - 8 (f/ Kristal -- nice story behind this one)
#7 - 8
#8 - 9 (f/ Truck North -- good beat)
#9 - 9.5 (f/ Black Thought of the Roots -- tight beat)
#10 - 6.5 (f/ Maumouna Youssef)
#11 - 9 (f/ Kenny Wray -- deeper song with nice beat)
#12 - 9.5 (f/ Cornbread -- tight beat)
#13 - 8.5 (f/ Khari Ferrari)
#14 - 9 (another deeper song and nice story)
D. Lewis -- Richmond, VA
check all my reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Ya Ghostwriter's Favorite Ghostwriter (Rating: 7 out of 10- -3.5 stars), September 29, 2008
Mad Skillz has been deep in the Va hip hop game since the early 90's, but unfortunately I've heard very rare material from him. I remember he caught my attention on the single "Crew Deep" from Soundbombing 3, and was supposed to have an album come out that ended up being shelved. Luckily I was able to get this album here, because it shows that he has been very talented, not to mention a very popular ghostwriter for numerous rappers.
His latest album The Million Dollar Backpack is pretty dope sounding. There are a few hit or miss songs here, but the songs that hit are great. My favorite is "So Far, So Good" with Common (there is a version with Talib Kweli that I've yet to hear). "Where I Been" is a great comeback song, to tell his fans whats been going on. "Don't Act Like You Don't Know" featuring Freeway, and "(For Real) He Don't Own Me" are other standouts.
After that song, the album sort of falls off. Songs like "Crazy World", and "I'm Gon' Make It" fail to work. "Hip Hop Died" sounds like just another rapper adding in his two cents on the state of hip hop. Other songs not named are neither bad or good songs, but they just don't standout like the rest do (although I liked "Be Alright", and "Preachin' To The Choir" was a solid standout).
Skillz dropped a nice album for the summer of '08. Although it's not groundbreaking, it does add to one of the better albums that were released this year. Skillz has been slept on since he has debuted back in '96 (From Where??? which is out of print). Right now, I advise those to wake up, and enjoy what Virginia has to offer (depending on your geographical terms, it's either southern or east coast). Peace.
Lyrics: B+
Production: B+
Guest Appearances: B
Musical Vibes: B+
Top 5 Tracks:
1. So Far, So Good (featuring Common)
2. (For Real) He Don't Own Me
3. Be Alright
4. Preachin' To The Choir
5. Where I Been
Honorable Mention:
1. Don't Act Like You Don't Know (featuring Freeway)
2. Hold Tight (featuring Black Thought)
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