Rewind back to 2005.
Almost four years ago to the day, Houston’s Mike Jones
released his debut, Who Is Mike Jones? And so began the
year-long domination of Houston Hip Hop and Swisha House. The
irony of Jones‘ self-deprecating album title and debut
is that he again has fallen into relative obscurity since. Between
label politics downgrading his second album to an EP and the short
attention span of fans, “who is Mike Jones” may be
a legitimate question to some. With The Voice, Jones
attempts to recapture the success of his debut.
Mike Jones
introduces his new album much the way he did his first – he
even provides a new cell number for fans to hit up. “Swagger
Right” kicks The Voice off to an inauspicious start,
though the subsequent “Houston Oilers” is decidedly more
entertaining with as both Jones and the production he raps
over sound much more engaging. “Boi!” definitely follows
the blueprint of Lil Wayne‘s “A Milli,” but
still – it hits incredibly hard. This one’s for people
with subs, folks.
“Cuddy Buddy”
must be the five-thousandth T-Wayne feature, with Jim
Jonsin, Bigg D and Twista. Fortunately, Twista and
Jones (who does a damn good job keeping up with the Chi-Town
rapper) keep the song from being a disaster, despite Wayne‘s
best efforts to ruin it. “I Know” is some more
cookie-cutter catering to the ladies, though it’s decidedly
better due to Trey Songz‘ considerable singing ability.
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“Give Me a Call”
employs the services of the always-hilarious Devin the Dude,
who definitely channels “Fuck You.” Though not on the
level of the Dr. Dre classic, Jones and Devin
provide a fitting ode to the booty call. The third time’s a
charm, it seems, as Jones finally nails the “thug love
song” with “Next to You.” “Swagg Thru da
Roof” is another Auto-Tune debacle – even Mike jumps
partakes in it for the halfhearted song.
Throughout the course
of the album, Mike Jones is hell-bent on reminding us that he
went double-platinum in ’05. Unfortunately, rap just doesn’t
sell like it used to – and someone needs give Jones the
memo. With throwaway tracks like “Happy Birthday” and
“Scandalous Hoes II,” he’s going to have to do much
better if he wants to get back on top. “Hate on Me” and
“Grandma II” close out the album, and illustrate that
when interested, Mike can kick an thoughtful verse. On the
former, he rhymes, “…came from nothin’ to
somethin’/I ain’t get no handouts, got mine from
hustlin’/Hustlin’ from nothin’ to somethin’,
I had to get it/No time to play with it/My money, I was committed/And
when I got my paper I split it/With everybody that was down with
it/But all of the sudden, everyone start hatin’/…when
people needed money, they holla’d at me…/I put everybody
on their feet, and this is how ya’ll turn around and treat me?“
In the past, Jones
showed some self-awareness when he said “back then hoes
didn’t want me/Now I’m hot hoes all on me.” Now,
he’s flipped the script and now almost exclusively catering
women with halfhearted and predictable slow grind anthems. Mike
Jones may have been able to shed some pounds, but he still hasn’t
figured out how to trim the excess from his albums. Instead of
relying upon the gimmicks that made him famous in the first place,
Mike Jones should focus on giving the fans a new reason to
care about who he is.
