Read at Soul Culture
Success & Failure is the fifth studio album from the St. Louis rapper Chingy, since his debut album and hit single, “Right Thurr”, which helped put him on the musical map. Chingy has since, however, been M.I.A. His last few albums seemed to pass the music industry unscathed.
Although billed as an album, Chingy claims that Success & Failure is in fact a ‘mixtape’; a throw-together of old tracks, a taster, I guess, of what is to come. If that’s the case then be sure to be incredibly disappointed.
With this new album, I wasn’t sure if Chingy was hoping to reclaim his status as a feel-good, club-track, pop-rap artist, prove his critics and “haters” wrong about his talent or pocket some extra change since being dropped from his label, either way, I think he failed.
After listening to the first track (after the intro) I was not impressed. After so many years away from the music scene, it sounded as though Chingy hasn’t made any musical growth since his debut album. As an older artist – Chingy turned 30 earlier this year – I expected something different from him, a new direction, an insight into his ‘what makes Chingy’, but instead got exactly where we left him.
“Iced out”, featuring 8ball, is an accolade to all the jewels, girls and money he has – a track I would have expected from the likes of 20-year-old Soulja Boy, a or back during the ‘ringtone’ era of rap music. Rapping about cars, jewels and girls is a bit immature for someone who has been in the game for as long as he has.
“Thurr Dey Go”, “Git It Boy” “All I Know”, continues in equal manner; the combination of trumpets, easy beats, over use of rrr’s, and southern slang become tiresome… even repetitive. The music game has changed so much, that it is impossible for Chingy to even consider competing against modern artists such as Drake, Rick Ross, T.I. and Nicki Minaj.
The rest of the album suffers from predictability, is unimaginative, and unoriginal, as he tries to recapture the young rap audience that has moved on to other gimmicky acts, such as Flo-Rida and T-Pain.
“Anythang” may just be the best track on the entire album – that says a lot – all in all, the album is a major let down, from a former Chingy fan. die-hard fans will be pleased Chingy stayed ‘safe’ and stuck with what he knew, but five albums deep into the game, this is just not good enough.
Soooo... *cough cough* Here's so good old Chingy for nostalga sakes :)
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