Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  Adult
Boston  |  Portland  |  Providence
 
Music
CD Reviews  |  Download  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features  |  New England Music News

Freeway

Free at Last | Roc-a-Fella
By RICHARD BECK  |  February 5, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
inside_FREEWAY---FREE-AT-LA
Nothing against Just Blaze! or Kanye West, whose flashy production anchored Freeway’s 2003 debut, Philadelphia Freeway, but the Philly native isn’t the popster they hoped he would be. No, his guttural, constricted delivery is too weird for that. On this follow-up disc, however, a more modest set of soul-heavy beats rules the day. Having graduated from knuckleheaded threats to a more hardened ghetto perspective that sometimes blossoms into tender complexity, Freeway sounds at home, particularly over the sweetly weeping keyboard loop that grounds “Reppin’ the Streets,” the album’s best track. When he isn’t feeling the pressure to make half-assed appeals to some special-interest subset of rap fandom — “Take It to the Top f. 50 Cent” for the ladies, “Spit That Shit” for the haters — Freeway lives in the pocket of a beat so confidently that you don’t even need to hear the beat to get it, as on “When They Remember,” where he raps, “Nobody but the prophet Mohammed Islamic scholars holla!”
Related:
  Topics: CD Reviews , Kanye West , Just Blaze , 50 Cent ,  More more >
  • Share:
  • RSS feed Rss
  • Email this article to a friend Email
  • Print this article Print
Comments

ARTICLES BY RICHARD BECK
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE PLAY’S THE THING  |  June 30, 2008
    The audial oddities of Blevin Blectum
  •   SILVER JEWS  |  June 24, 2008
    Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea | Drag City
  •   DIMINISHING RETURNS  |  June 24, 2008
    The Hold Steady make it hard to Stay Positive
  •   IRI-DECENT  |  May 29, 2008
    Kanye West and Rihanna at Tweeter Center, May 15, 2008
  •   BANGERS + MUSH  |  May 21, 2008
    Dizzee Rascal and El P at the Middle East Downstairs, May 11, 2008

 See all articles by: RICHARD BECK

MOST POPULAR
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 
HOT TOPICS
 More Topics . . .



Featured Articles in CD Reviews:
071214_help_list

Boxed and ready

The cream of the season’s CD/DVD crop
list_gumbay

Cult Cargo

Grand Bahama Goombay | Numero
070406_list_kaiser

Kaiser Chiefs

Yours Truly, Angry Mob | Universal
070302_list_dean

Dean and Britta

Back Numbers | Zoë/Rounder
070223_list_elvisperkins

Elvis Perkins

Ash Wednesday | XL
Saturday, July 05, 2008  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
StuffAtNight Latest:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group