On the surface, Beanie Sigel plays the familiar role of thug rapper from the streets most (if not all) Hip-Hop artists are pigeonholed as. However, beneath the surface of the State Property general lies Dwight Grant; a man not unlike every man, a psyche stuck in the middle of an internal struggle between his Broad Street Bully‘s Yin – the hard-nosed, take-no-shit-from-anything gangster who battled his way through life’s conflicts to become one of the premier rappers today – and Dwight Grant‘s Yang, the serene, religious family man using his natural gifts to escape that hard-knock life.
Shifting his own career into neutral to launch the State Property brand, including clothing, shoes, movies and future stars Freeway and the Young Gunz…Beans unfortunately went from starter to the bench via his current iron vacation, just in time to see his beloved Roc-A-Fella label get gutted by Damon Dash and Jay-Z, splitting his State Property brethren in the process.
Now with part of his clique with Jigga and the other siding with Dame, Beanie Sigel reaffirms his loyalty toward both camps with his third go-around, The B. Coming, and actually validating the Hip-Hop Classic tagline it’s been stamped with for the past couple months in the process.
Knowing that Beanie recorded the album through his infamous murder trial explains the somber mood throughout The B. Coming, as it is filled with emotional parables that would make even the hardest thug shed a tear.
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On the somber leadoff, Feel It In The Air,…Heavy D‘s wailing horns and newcomer Melissa‘s somber vocals provides the perfect backdrop for Mac Mittens to provide the best tale about paranoia this side of the Geto Boys‘ My Mind’s Playin Tricks On Me, while I Can’t Go On This Way delves deeper into Dwight Grant‘s internal struggle with Beanie Sigel:
My heart in the faith I don’t practice/I still pray along, forgive me for my actions/Cuz I still spit gangsta, think Muslim and act Catholic
But before the album turns into a Hip-Hop version of Analyze This,Beans pumps up the tempo on One Shot Deal with a lyrically rejuvenated Redman, the frenetic pace of Gotta Have It with Peedi Crakk and Twista and on the Snoop Dogg-guested, Neptunes-produced Don’t Stop, where Mac Mittens takes the time to reflect on the finer things in life, but not before addressing his recent run-ins with the law:
Let’s get dressed and toast to the occasion/cops couldn’t cage him/flows so amazin’/hot like Cajun…/nigga took the stand when he coulda took the fifth/yeah, eat a dick with AIDS on the tip/keep your name off your lips, not guilty!
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P. Diddy couldn’t have said it better!
Then Beanie reduces things to a simmer, while professing his love for that Purple Rain alongside Bun B. However, it is the album’s highlight, Bread And Butter, where the album reaches its pinnacle. Just Blaze perfectly weaves together three soul-laced beats for Sigel and Brand Nubian‘s Grand Puba and Sadat X to lyrically kick birds to the curb.
