Summer 2001, was a good one for music, with the East, West
and South making their own noise, but North Carolina’s son is here to put NC’s
name on the map. Petey Pablo’s debut
album, Diary of A Sinner,
has landed and, with four tracks by Beat
Club owner Timberland, you would
expect something new. But you’ll be sadly disappointed.
The eighteen track opus, which has been awaited with the release of the summer
hit Raise Up, which was produced by Timberland and tells crowds to take your shirt off, lift it round your head/spin
it like a helicopter gets you moving. But it gets lost in the obscurity of
originality. Although the MC tries to come with something new, his often Mystikal sounding voice becomes dreary
and as he also switches his flow, which shows flexibility, the beats let him
down.
I produced by Tim also gets heads bouncing and other stand out tracks include Live Debaco which has a beat which
is guaranteed to lose you but Petey’s
adaptable speed/laid back flow keeps the track going. Also La Di Da Da Da is a nice sound,
which sounds like an outtake from the Organized
Noize dungeon. But the album falters from here on out. His lyrical speech
doesn’t extend further than the usual money, cars, women and struggling in the
hood.
The other tracks sound like album fillers between the good songs and you spend
more time fast forwarding tracks rather than listening to them. Such tracks
include My Testimony, Fool for Love and 919, where Petey adopts Nelly‘s
singsong flow.
As a new Jack to the game, Petey Pablo
hasn’t made any new dents in the hip-hop matrix and his album will fall by the
wayside. But, as with many previous hip-hop records, the album will probably
hit platinum. Undeservingly so.
DOAS did go platinum, but contrary to what this reviewer says, this album went platinum DESERVINGLY so. He deserved it. Everything about the album was original. Petey has his own style and was not afraid to go deeper than a lot of MCs are willing to go (“Truth About Me”). I REALLY hope we see more of Petey in the future.