Rawse (2010)

Rick Ross spoke of his initial confusion regarding Justin Vernon's place in the studio for the creation of MBDTF and I was confused too, but not quite as confused nor surprised as Ross' effort on the album, particularly on Devil in a New Dress which is the stand out track with the stand out verse courtesy of officer ricky's charismatic low pitch talk-rap god bless the man i put this ice over *roar* so then looking back Teflon Don sounded better in retrospect and it became clear that he'd actually been sharpening up his act since 2009's Deeper Than Rap where some genius discovered that his raw voice and inability to stack creative and/or fluid rhymes actually sounded dope over lush beats, or at least that said beats should break up the monotony of hard hitting trap shit

And so we have this. A fine example of dirty south pop rap where Ross exhibits admirable quality control with his incredibly solid 11 track album. The production throughout was some of the year's best and in case anyone's scared of getting sick of Ross' style, there's 15 guests spread throughout the 11 songs, and guys like Cee Lo and Jay-Z go for emotive over intelligent or complex, suiting Rawse and the music because everything's just so dramatic

In the end, it's ignorant as expected:

Look at Haiti, children dyin' 'round the clock nigga
I sent a hundred grand but that's a decent watch nigga
I'm gettin' better 'cause it would've leased the drop nigga
I'ma get my money right just watch nigga
She had a miscarriage I couldn't cry though
'Cause you and I know she was only my side hoe

Or:

My top back, I'm circumcised
I pull it back, just to go inside

Like you think he's talking about his car, but WHAM it's actually his dick

But like an album from any genre, when it sounds this good, it should be celebrated, and Teflon Don still sounds fucking awesome. The only real problem other than its longevity is that you get the two Lex Luger tracks MC Hammer and BMF in a row, and that's just way too heavy

Upped for JC

B-

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