Let’s be honest. Few expect much from Yung Joc when it
comes to lyrics. Even Yung Joc openly admits he can’t rap (and
sadly, here he is making rap albums and selling lots of them). Still, Joc
is releasing the follow up to his widely popular debut by dropping Hustlenomics
with good reason. After all, the man had everyone from your buddy to Tom
Cruise doing his dance. Why not release another album if you can dup
people into buying it?
“You laughed about my dance. I walked it out the bank,” he boldly
proclaims early on in the album. This assures the listener that Joc
isn’t as foolish as some may have thought with his “eenie, meenie, miney,
mo” past. That’s all peachy, but what happens when there is no
special dance? The lyrics impress like broken arms throw balls. It’s tragic.
“I’m the seventh letter of the alphabet. I’m a g,” he notes in the
chorus to “I’m a
G.” He follows this, by claiming he’s “a A,B,C,D,E,O.G.”
For some reason, he has a kid recite the alphabet wrong in the chorus. It reeks
of a confused emcee with little imagination.
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“Coffee Shop,”
which was meant to be his next “big” single, sounds like one of the worst
things to hit radio since mp3s, with terrible guest verses and a beat that
sounds like a track out of Hip-Hop Harry. Later, the Trick
Daddy-assisted “Chevy Smile” is reminiscent of a corny automobile
commercial (I hope they got a check, though. A hustler would, right?).
He isn’t a complete mess on the mic. He manages to flow well over some of
the beats, but it isn’t enough. Hope for a positive outcome is lost with more
blunders throughout the album. One example comes as Joc boldly
goes against the rules of the language. “I bang Brazil broads under the
palm trees.” He does not bang Brazilian broads. He bangs Brazil broads.
Lyrically, many of the other songs are simply forgettable fillers.
Relief comes in the form of production, which is very good at times. The
thumping sounds grab one’s attention from the get-go with “Play Your Cards.” The
same goes for “Getting
to Da Money,” and “Hustlenomics.” “Brand New” and “Living the Life”
add a smooth sound that helps balance out the album’s sound, but there isn’t
enough heat to truly help the album survive.
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This is not some haterade concoction. Yung Joc shows that
he is not a good rapper. As mentioned, he admits to this in some recent
interviews, so you can’t expect much from the man lyrically. But knowing he is
a shitty rapper doesn’t give him a pass to make a shitty album. On an album
full of bewildering lines, no special dances and no real draw in general, Joc
is left without much to dance on. Even if he does “walk it out the bank,” we
are still grading a rap album and Hustlenomics is a class that should
be missed.
