Unfortunately, as least for me, Magnificent City fails to meet those expectations. It isn't as if this album is wack, but it is just shockingly average. It's strange, both Acey and Rj seem to be on their games, all their usual elements are there. But for both of them, something I can't quite put my finger on is missing. Take the song "Disconnected." Rj laces it with his usual blaring horn sample but where normally a beat like this from him would leave your jaw on the floor this one just leaves me saying "that's a nice beat." This happens quite a bit as tracks like "Supahero" or "Cornbread," "Eddy and Me" all boast his trademark sounds but lack the usual flare that has him considered a premier producer. Don't get me wrong, he still produces some dope results ("All For U," "Fire," "Solomon Jones"), but I just don't hear his usual brilliance.
As said, Acey is pretty much in the same boat. Sure his
story-telling on "Solomon
Jones" and "Junior" is everything I've come to expect, as is his loving
ode to the sticky on "High Lights." Razor sharp rhymes such as this one are too
few and far between; "The legislation
wants regulation/they want to interfere with my cultivation/my personal usage
for meditation/and medication to help the patients/cancer, asthma,
emphysema/migraines, back pains, grass is greener/glaucoma, arthritis,
epileptic seizures/medicine man made me a believer." It just seems as if he
doesn't quite have his usual edge.
Supporting my feelings on this album - at least from the production side - the
advance of Rj's latest collaboration with Blueprint
has since come out and he blows the doors down with an LP full of incredible
production. It isn't as if he's lost his touch, he just doesn't quite have it
here. This is a good album, despite all the criticism here. I just wanted and
expected to love it, and I don't, I like it...it just isn't as magnificent as its
billing.
