The second album is never something easy to conquer; suffering from the ‘Sophomore Jinx’ is something that happens too often especially when you released a classic piece of hip-hop 2 years prior. Redman managed to conquer the jinx but not without a struggle. This album is totally different to ‘Whut? Thee album’ in both music and lyrically, hes fucking bugged out on this joint!
Reintroducing us to the Funk Docta Spock is the menacing tones of Doctor Trevis, the psycho ward doctor who returns from the first album and we are thrown straight into the head nodding of ‘Bobyahed2dis’. I suppose this track signifies more of what the last album brought but that’s where it starts and ends. The first single ‘Rockafella’ doesn’t appeal to me (Although the remix does, but sadly it doesn’t appear on the album) with its sample of ‘I wanna do something freaky to you’, which Dr. Dre had used 2 years before on ‘Nuthin but a G thang’. What captivates you is the intro to this song ‘Rockafella (RIP)’ is a snippet of the demo tape that the emcee Rockafella made before he passed on. The beat and his flow are pretty damn raw and I wanna hear more of this fast paced song. ‘1 million and one Buddah spots’ is Reggie flexing his lyrical dynamics about his favorite subject, that’s right the BLUNTS.
‘Noorotic’ and ‘Basically’ were experimental for their time but still came out well, the simplicity enables Redman to make you listen to what he’s saying without distraction. ‘Green Island’ seems just as different but its just straight up fucked up with its country guitar and well no words can describe it as Redman yet again meets Reggie Noble. One of the best tracks on this album is ‘Sooperman Luva II’, yet another continuation of the Johnny Guitar Watson inspired original. The B side of the album has a major slump, getting too grimy and monotonous (on tracks like ‘Wuditlooklike’ and ‘Slide & rock on’) so when the crisp clean tones of Sooperman come in its like a breath of fresh air. The production is amazing on here as Reggie tells another story in the series of yet another alter ego ‘Sooperman Luva’, this time he’s getting it Basic Instinct style. ‘Can’t wait’ is yet again Redman at his best again sampling the Mary Jane Girls ‘All night long for the hook, and it spawned the hook for a future Kris Kross hit with ‘Tonights the night baby so suck up on these’
It seems Redman was in a Transitional phase when recording this album, he hadn’t settled on where he wanted to be both lyrically and as an artist, for those of you who picked up ‘Muddy waters’ you will have known he got there in the end. Overall this album was disappointing after such a funky classic but well worthy of picking up for ‘Sooperman Luva 2’ alone.
