AZ – Nine Lives

    Most emcees don’t have what it takes to make it to a third
    album, but then again most emcees aren’t AZ.
    Since his first appearance on Nas‘s Life’s A Bitch, AZ has been the author of some of the finest rhymes ever written.
    Well, nothing has changed; AZ is still
    an incredibly talented lyricist. The improvement that he needs to make is with
    respect to his choice of topics (which are sometimes repetitive) his choice of
    production (which is occasionally less than invigorating), and the need to make
    an album that flows creatively from one track to the next.

    9 Lives does have more surprises than
    letdowns. One example is Love Me on
    which AZ imparts some of his
    considerable wisdom atop a hopping beat, and nicely timed piano chords. The Intro features AZ rhyming at his best to hard hitting snares and a majestic
    melody. What Cha Day About has some
    excellent layering of strings and great knowledge raps by AZ. Although it’s produced by Quran
    Goodman
    I Don’t Give A F**k is a
    real head-nodder with nice chorus scratching, and beat programming and
    sequencing that sounds just like a Primo
    concoction. Let’s Toast is powered by
    a tight sample that was used proficiently late last year by MOP, and similarly this track benefits
    from its use as well. The current single Problems
    has the kind of tempo and character that fills both summer dance floors and
    airwaves.

    Truth be told this would have been a nearly flawless album if it weren’t for
    the inclusion of the gimmicky AZ’s Back,
    and the marketing mishaps of Everything’s
    Everything
    with Joe, That’s Real featuring Beanie Siegal, and the Foxy Brown assisted What Ya’ll N****s Want.

    3 thoughts on “AZ – Nine Lives

    1. another classic az album. all az albums are classics, there is a few weak songs on this album, but it is still classic overall! az is definitely in the best rapper of all time conversation with biggie nas 2pac big l cormega and maybe a few others! an underrated and underappreciated rapper with more talent than 99.99% of the more mainstream type rappers who get all the credit!

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