Out of the crop of “up-and-coming” rappers from New York from several years back (also including Grafh and Papoose, among others), Saigon [click to read] has arguably maintained the greatest buzz. Whether it’s by virtue of his association with Just Blaze, natural ability or even his presence on the Internet is irrelevant; what matters is the fact that Saigon unquestionably has an audience. In light of this fact, the Brooklyn emcee has decided to give his fans something to listen to amidst the wait for his oft-delayed label debut, The Greatest Story Never Told.
For those who remain unawares, All In A Day’s Work refers to Saigon‘s claim that the album was recorded in a 24 hour period. Despite only clocking in at little over half an hour, this is still quite impressive – even The Blueprint [click to read] took two weeks to record. Saigitty starts it off strong with “To Be Told,” where he amusingly informs Internet thugs that he’ll “control-alt-delete you dead” over a soulful backdrop. “So Cruel” continues in a similar fashion, but suffers from a wailing, irritating hook.
By the time All In A Day’s Work‘s third track (“The Rules”) comes around, it’s very clear Saigon is in a zone. Moreover, so is Statik Selektah [click to read], whose up-tempo beat samples the hook from Busta Rhymes’ [click to read] “Wooh Hah!! Got You All in Check” for its own perfectly. Unfortunately, “My Crew” and “Prepare For War” feature rather pedestrian production in comparison to the first three cuts. Fortunately, Saigon’s and while his silly flow on the former saves it, the latter falls prey to a decidedly less energetic Saigon rhyming over it.
The “chipmunk soul” popularized by Kanye returns on “Lady Sings the Blues,” where Saigon spits: “Sixty percent of niggas spittin’ is inconsistent/ The other 40 came with the grain but then went against it/ Tryin’ to get rich in an instant.” He then proceeds to dissect the tale of Kirk Franklin meticulously as an example of the aforementioned rhyme. Sai may have saved the best for last, however, as he dissects the reasons why some of Hip Hop’s best didn’t maintain their notoriety: “I thought about all the kids I admired/The Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, why they ain’t remain in the game/They should never changed, they shoulda kept it the same/They let the music industry play tricks on their brain/If I remember correct, when Ra rocked with Jody Watley he lost some respect.“
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When looking at the amount of time Saigon had to record this album, the result is nothing short of incredible. However, when looking at the finished product, it has to be examined as a work on its own, rather than the context in which it was made. In this light, All In A Day’s Work suffers – though not terribly. As mentioned before, the album is incredibly short. A few of the songs, like “Goodbye” – which clocks in at 1:37 – feel like they are incomplete or cut short. This manifests itself onto the album as a whole. Although the concept of an album created in one day is an intriguing one, you can’t help but wonder what would’ve been had Saigon taken some more time with it. Perhaps the album’s leave-you-wanting-more effect was intended, as Saigon reminds us to look out for his next album on this one’s final track (excluding an unnecessary bonus song that follows). To that end, I’ll say this: if All In A Day’s Work is any indicator of The Greatest Story Never Told‘s quality, it may just live up to its billing.
