Cassidy’s a
fighter. There’s no doubt about that. First the kid comes out with a poppy-ass
album dancing alongside R. Kelly (and
looking uncomfortable as fuck doing it). Then he comes back a little more
street with I’m A Hustla, producing
the single of his career with the same name. Just as he’s starting to hit
stride, the young rapper gets hit with a murder case, though he manages to get
out after a little over half a year in prison. Add a near-fatal car accident,
and this kid’s been through a lot. With a new outlook of life and a breadth of
experience, Cassidy’s back with B.A.R.S. – no doubt meant to be a
statement album. But does he end up making a statement reflective of his
struggles?
B.A.R.S. begins
with a blazing intro which plays out as two of Cassidy’s countless alter-egos, B.A.R.S. and Da Hustla battle
it out. While the concept isn’t anything new (Cassidy himself has been on the alter-ego tip for a while), the
execution is fantastic. The momentum continues with My Drink & My 2 Step. While it’s a harmless, feel-good club
song, it serves very well as an “I’m back, bitches!” joint and shows that Cass really does know how to make a
hit.
Unfortunately, things take a quick turn for the worse. Where My Niggas At is as generic as its
title suggests, and Will Never Tell(Uh
Uh) illustrates Cassidy’s oft-lazy
as hell rhyming. However, no song shows how shitty Cassidy can be when he puts his mind to it as Innocent. Not only does he rhyme “man” with “man” about eight times
in the song, he drops lyrical gems like this as well: “I spanked the murder like a bad ass six-year-old/I knew I was gonna be
rich since I was six years old/Now I’m the richest rapper under twenty-six
years old.” Complex stuff – don’t hurt yourself, Cass.
Fortunately, after a considerable number of craptacular
songs, things get better down the stretch. Once Cassidy cuts the bullshit cookie cutter rhymes, things get good in
this album – really good. Leanin’ On the
Lord is ambitious though disjointed, but it’s clearly a step in the right
direction. Damn I Miss The Game is
truly a gem, as Cass talks about the
state of hip hop: “Cats hustlin’ and
bustin’ their gat/But Kurtis Blow
wasn’t talkin’ bout hustlin’ crack/Everybody on their grind/But Run DMC never killed nobody in their
rhyme/They wasn’t on that beef shit/And Melle
Mel was the first one to talk that street shit/The day since NWA came out/Cats turned gangsta and
took that same route.”
The album finishes out reasonably strong, as Done for Me is great joint with Cassidy counting his blessings. I Get My Paper and Take A Trip are forgettable, but not terrible by any means. The
unlikely pairing of Cassidy and John Legend produces the song of the
album in Celebrate, and the album
closes out nicely with All By Myself.
B.A.R.S. is a step
forward for Cassidy. While he hasn’t
improved much (if at all) as an emcee, his subject matter has improved by leaps
and bounds. Unfortunately, the problem here is execution. While a lot of dudes
rhyme really well but aren’t sayin’ shit (Busta
Rhymes, anyone?), Cassidy has
the opposite problem. With his annoying penchant to be overly-simplistic, many
of these songs sound like they could end up on a PG-13 rated version of Sesame
Street. Fortunately, perspective is far harder
to gain than skill, and in that respect, Cassidy
succeeds.