Monday night, Beanie Sigel gave an audience
of about 100 people in Detroit a full preview of his senior set,
The Solution. Beans gave summaries of each song before it was played,
and silently rapped along to each track while sipping drinks and interacting
with the audience members. “It’s definitely to me my best body of
work,” Beans states at the beginning of the session. “A classic.“
Rounding out at 15 tracks long (including
two “bonus tracks”), The Solution is a full-course meal. Beans and Styles P trade bars/bodies on “You Ain’t Ready For Me,”
Beans successfully delivers a club banger with the Cool & Dre-laced
“Bout That,” and “Gutted” sees Jay staying in street mode to
keep up with the recently-released Roc boy’s call-out to herbs. Introspective
and conceptual material lies at the disc’s heart though: he, Scarface
and Raheem DeVaughn collaborate for the keep-ya-head-up anthem “The
Bridge,” and “Dear Self,” which Beans says is the first song he
wrote after his release, sees him arguing with his conscience in a mirror.
Curveballs include the Ozzy Ozbourne-featured “Judgment Day,” which
plays like a sequel to Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” with its guitar-driven
backdrop, and strip club anthem “Pass the Patron,” which sees him
rhyming alongside Ghostface, Peedi and a singing Diddy. With beats from
Kanye West and Just Blaze notably absent (as on Freeway’s new Free
At Last), production duties are dominated by Dre & Vidal and
Reefa, with help from the veteran likes of Rockwilder and Dame Grease.
A surprisingly charismatic Beans joked
with the DJ for playing songs too early, gave humorous descriptions
to songs (“In Philly…a nigga that tries to front on a bitch and
pulls up in his man’s wheels, that nigga’s ‘gutted.’ That nigga
that be coming to dice games talking bout ‘No bets,’ that nigga’s
‘gutted.’”), and freestyled acapella after the last track.
Beanie Sigel, The Solution tracklisting according to listening
party:
- All of the Above f.
R. Kelly (prod. The Runners) - Bout That (prod. Cool &
Dre) - You Ain’t Ready For Me f. Styles P (prod. Dame Grease)
- Go Low f. Rock City (prod. Eric Hudson)
- Gutted f. Jay-Z (prod.
Reefa) - Pass the Patron f. Diddy,
Ghostface, Peedi Crakk (prod. Rockwilder) - I’m In (prod. Chad West)
- Hustlas, Haze and Highways (prod. Dre & Vidal)
- What They Gon Say
To Me (prod. Dre & Vidal) - Judgment Day f. Ozzy
Ozbourne (prod. Dre & Vidal) - The Bridge f. Scarface,
Raheem DeVaughn (prod. Reefa) - Dear Self f. James
Blunt (prod. Dre & Vidal) - Prayer f. Raheem DeVaughn)(prod. Dre & Vidal)
- Children
Are The Future (prod. Dre & Vidal) [Bonus] - Creep Low
(prod. Reefa) [Bonus]