With so much pressure these days on artists to hit it big with their first release (as a second one is no longer guaranteed), it is not surprising that young rappers and producers would look to proven styles and artists for inspiration. That is precisely what Famous and production duo Burd and Keyz do on the Canadian rapper’s new album Goddess Girl. Famous hails from Toronto, a place he calls “a city everybody underestimates.” That underdog status, and the “prove everyone wrong” mentality it breeds go a long way to explaining why much of this 31-minute album’s songs can be traced back to familiar and relatively recent sources. It appears as if Famous wants to be everything to everyone, and make recognizable sounds and tap into established fan bases – not a bad way to approach a career. And though he succeeds admirably much of the time, at the end of the record the listener may be thinking less about Famous and Burd & Keyz and more about of the artists that inspired them.
Goddess Girl opens rather ignominiously with “I Wanna Know Your Name.” The collaboration with singer Oh is one of the few examples where Famous is simply following a formula, this time it’s the R&B collabo, with Oh sounding remarkably like Usher. Unfortunately, the results are far closer to “Spotlight” than “Yeah!,” but this faceless track proves to be the exception rather than the rule. For the most part, when Famous and Burd & Keyz create a track in a certain mold they succeed in creating something that is worthy to stand next to its muse. “The Declaration” is one example, sounding like Philadelphia Freeway-era Just Blaze, all bright string samples, bells, and soaring horn samples. Another success is “Fresh Cut,” where Burd & Keyz create a track in the Zaytoven niche with stuttering drums and plinking keys, Famous even switches up his normally well enunciated flow for what could almost be called a southern drawl, though an easy to understand one. About Famous’ voice, there is really no getting around the fact that a lot of the times he sounds nearly identical to Kanye West, in both timbre and cadence. While there is nothing a man can do about the actual sound of his voice it’s hard to believe that Famous hasn’t been greatly influenced by the Chi-town super star. Obviously, having influences is part of being an artist but they shouldn’t be so overt as to distract the listener, which is what happens on tracks like “Time to Decide” and “Goddess Girl” where one could close their eyes and swear Mr. West was the one on the mic. Luckily for “Time to Change,” the track is good enough to overcome any comparisons. It’s the most introspective track on the album, one where Famous decides what kind of man he wants to be and where he shows that bragging and boasting are not all he hopes to do, or as he puts it “I like shit-talking / it’s just another part of me.” The same can’t be said about the title track which has a hook, again by Oh!, which is more repetitive than catchy and opens with the less than thrilling lines: “You could be my goddess girl / ‘Cause to me you’re the hottest in the world / As soon as I saw you / You were like, ‘Who are you?’ / I was like, ‘Who am I? / Yo, I’m Famous, I’m just that guy.’”
Without question, these guys have talent. If they did not, this would just be an exercise in imitation. But it takes real skill to create a song in a recognized style and nail all the things that make the style great while avoiding sounding like a mere parody. If Famous can resist devolving into a Kanye Clone and, in the future, avoids “’Ye at his worst” lines like “The definition of a hater: one who hate’s ya” and “She look like the girl I seen in / In the magazines in,” then there is no reason not to expect him to grow into a rapper worth watching. Here’s hoping on his next release he reveals more of himself and less of his record collection.
