Hip Hop Life
Label: Groovpix Entertainment
Author: Pedro 'DJ Complejo' Hernandez

What is Hip Hop life? Is it some big superstar concert featuring Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and Fat Joe as the cover implies? Maybe it's an in depth documentary on the life lead by those stars so prominently featured on the cover. Either of those two options would have made this release a tolerable, if not completely unoriginal, release. Instead this release is actually billed as a Detroit vs. Houston battle for the title of "Rhyme City Supremacy." Yes, you heard right, somehow there is a beef between Houston and Detroit to see which city is the best in terms of rap. There is no background info on why these two cities are chosen. Houston is a hot spot for rap right now but if that was the measuring stick then we'd be having a Houston vs. Atlanta battle instead. Detroit is of course known for generating a lot of talented emcees who are skilled in battles, but Houston is not. So there you have it, a rap battle between two seemingly random cities.

Despite the shaky premise for this release, it could still redeem itself with tight rappers/battles. Sadly, the best rappers to perform on the CD are the aforementioned Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and a random rapper who features on the song of another rapper. When I say best, I mean best in terms of flow, rap skills, etc. To gauge the mediocrity of the rappers featured I think Rick Ross and Young Jeezy would be better in a battle than any of them. The show starts off with comedian T.K. Kirkland who is apparently from G-Unit (why rappers feel the need to sign a comedian to their crew I do not know). Kirkland handles the hosting duties and were it not for a completely unreceptive crowd he might have done a good job. The crowd for this release absolutely sucks in every respect. There seems to be maybe 50 people standing in front of the stage, behind them the judges sit in coaches, and around them are maybe another 50 random people who walk around and seem generally disinterested. The crowd in front of the stage tries to get into the show at times but mostly seems to be there for show and not because they actually care about the battle. To make things worse, the battle takes place in Houston so you have a completely one sided crowd which really doesn't care about who has skills. The only time the crowd shoes some excitement is when Jeezy and Ross perform.

The rappers in the battle are not very skilled. The Houston rappers are the worst which is a horrible thing considering at least one of them is signed. The main names that stand out are Kiotti (supposedly signed to Asylum) and Mookie Jones (son of Oran Juice Jones of Def Jam one hit wonder fame). Kiotti is memorable just because they mention he's signed and in a battle so you expect – something. Instead Kiotti constantly calls the other rappers "fags," is that the best you can come up with? Mookie is memorable because he makes a fucking fool of himself as he tries to explain to Kirkland that his long hair is natural and "good" hair because he has "Indian" in his family. Besides the ignorance in proclaiming pride in your hair simply because it exhibits Anglo features, who really gives a fuck about a rapper's hair anyways? The Detroit rappers a little better but not by much and their verses sound pre-rehearsed. Most of the rappers featured also get to perform their own songs in between "battles" and those are generally a little better than what you get in the battles.

The only redeeming quality in this whole thing is the fact that Ross and Jeezy perform their hit songs. Outside of that, nothing is worth seeing. The whole event is a showcase in mediocrity. They fly in some DJ from the UK apparently because she wears hot pants while performing but to save on royalty payments she uses shitty break beats as the battle beats. Not only are the beats shitty, but at times they get up to 120 BPM, who the fuck can freestyle off that? Am I upset about having to waste my time on this? HELL YEAH! But I would have been so harsh if they hadn't completely botched this up in the end. See, after watching over an hour of crap they don't even tell you who won the fucking battle. That's right, if you want to know who won the battle you have to log on to their website as it instructs you at the end of the feature. I didn't bother checking and if I were you I wouldn't bother checking this out. Supposedly there are special features but the main feature sucked so bad I don't even want to see them. This whole thing comes off as a really bad promo idea to try to showcase some wack rappers. The fact that out there they might have made a few bucks from an unsuspecting fan buying this is despicable. Avoid this at all costs, don't let the flashy packaging, big names, and 50 copies sitting at your local Wal-Mart trick you into thinking this is any good.

(By the way, Fat Joe doesn't even perform, he might be on the DVD all of 5 seconds yet he gets on the cover.)

Content: 1 of 10 Layout: 1 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 1 of 10

Originally posted: April 24, 2007
source: www.RapReviews.com