Yeeeaaah, boyyee! It’s yo’ man, Flava Flav, and I’m back, G.
That’s right, Flavor Flav, of Public Enemy fame, is back with his solo debut.
The self-titled album shows so many different sides of Flavor, from sentimental to inspirational to silly and a little crazy, your head will hurt. Or maybe that headache is caused by hearing Flavor’s unmistakable voice stretched over 20 tracks.
Flavor Flav
ALBUM: “Flavor Flav”
LABEL: Draytown Records
But, fo’ real, G. Yo’ man has been through a lot of dramatical stuff recently. His highly publicized and utterly bizarre relationships with Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen and the first winner of his dating reality series “Flavor of Love” crashed and burned.
Now, come to find out that yo’ man Flav is an expecting seventh-time father. Flav is protecting his lady’s identity. He will only say that the relationship occurred in between his failed relationship with Hoopz, “Flavor of Love” season one winner, and his new relationship with season two’s winner, Deelishis.
All these dramatical events were good inspiration for Flav, who kicks off the album with the gospel-sounding and highly inspirational “Let It Show.”
The album seems thrown together as an afterthought to his current media attention.
For instance, on “Two Wrongz” Flav gives a shout-out to the great year of 2005, even though the album was just now released. In “No Loot,” Flav references 1998-2000.
At this point, the hardcore Flav fanatic realizes that some of these tracks were probably lifted from his previous two attempts at a solo record, recorded before 2000. Both were rejected by Def Jam, his old record label.
This album sounds like a burned CD of favorite tracks from those albums, with hard-driven rap joints followed by “romantical” R&B tunes.
Flavor tries his best to be Rico Suave by crooning love songs, but, for those who haven’t seen his reality show, he is far from smooth. He is off-key at times and, when he does hit the right note, the lyrics are far from romantic.
Flavor Flav is known as Public Enemy’s hype man and he excels on the tracks when he sticks closely to this sound. He sounds especially good on the tracks featuring Flav’s exaggerated vocals and trademark exclamations over old-school party beats. A good example, and one of the most enjoyable tracks, is “Onga Bunga Bunga,” which consists of a bass-heavy, classic hip-hop beat and nonsensical tribal chanting.
Without Chuck D and the rest of the PE crew, Flav’s attempt at legitimate music falls short. His voice gets annoying after a few tracks.
Toward the end of the album, Flav starts experimenting with techno-house clubbing beats and voice warps.
You’ll know what time it is on the final track, “Hotter Than Ice,” a country song with a hip-hop meets hoedown beat, it’s time to turn “Flavor Flav” off.