God Forgives, I Don't: Busby's Review

Y'all already know how I feel about Officer Ricky.  If you read my Self Made Vol 2 or my Teflon Don reviews, you already know my overall opinion on the dude and his label.  He is NOT that good and he is NOT that bad, he is just...average.  Now lately, I've been lightweight getting over his fakeness and I have been lightweight enjoying his music.  Not gonna lie, he plays his role quite well and he some how some way manages to use the same formula and make overall good music...lightweight.  Not gonna knock him for that, at the end of the day, it's only entertainment.  God Forgives, I Don't is the fifth studio album from the glorified bawse.  After a few set backs and a mixtape that made all the bloggers panties wet.  Ross finally drops his most anticipated album....

 One thing I cannot knock Ross for is that he has a CRAZY ear for beats.  Production wise, GFID is Ross's best produced album since Deeper Than Rap.  He really brought that cinematic feel to the album that made you feel like you were listening to a motion picture.  The first half of the album is pretty solid.  With songs like Pirates, Ashamed, and Amsterdam the production was amazing.  However, the only down fall on it is Ross's rhymes and flow.  In other words, Ross was just being Ross.  He was just rhyming about his fantasy mobster Scarface life and the shit just got repetitive and boring.  I mean the rhymes were good and all, but the production out shined him.  Ross is used to getting outshined, not just by the beat, but by the features too.

One of the highlights on this album was 3 Kings which features S. Carter and Dr. D.R.E.  Produced by Jake One, the record is pretty fucking good.  With Dre spitting his ghostwritten verse, and Ross spitting the same old shit, Hov came in and pretty much out shined everybody on the record.  I re-winded Hov's verse so many times that I forgot that I was listening to a Rick Ross album.  Ross also continued the Maybach Music series with his fourth installment, this time featuring Ne-Yo.   Here is a random tad bit about that song, the liner notes credits Drake, Jay-Z, & The Weeknd as writers.  Did they ALL help write that song? Were they suppose to be featured on the record? I don't know, but the track was pretty good.  L.A. Reid makes a cameo on the song too which was also pretty fucking random.

The other highlight of the album was the record Sixteen which features Andre 3000.  This was another moment where the production and the featured artist completely outshine Ross.  J.U.S.T.I.C.E League did their thing on the record, so it really came as no surprise.  The real star on the track was 3 Stacks who went on to rap for damn near 5 minutes.  I won't be surprised if 3 Stacks cockblocked Big Boi from coming to the studio again.  Anyway for the second time, I forgot that I was listening to a Rick Ross album.

Now the only songs I really wasn't feeling was the trap songs.  Hold Me Back, 911, and So Sophisticated feat. Meek Mill were pretty forgettable records.  Hold Me Back sounded nothing more then a reference track for the Self Made 2 record Actin' Up.  911 pretty much sounded like the previous track which was just lazy and careless in my opinion.  So Sophisticated was the only track out of this bunch that I kinda liked, mainly just for Meek Mill's verse (starting to see a pattern here?).  Other than that, I always seem to skip that potion of the album.  It pretty much fucked up the flow in my opinion.

 

The third part of this album are mainly the R&B songs which are pretty good for what they are.  The Pharrell produced track Presidential (feat. Elijah Blake) is a nice song to listen when you are riding around in your whip feeling the summer breeze.  Ice Cold featuring Maybach O a.k.a Omarion is a guaranteed hit, real talk.  I really wouldn't be surprised if Ross uses that as the next single, Omarion really kills the hook. Touch'n You (or Fuck'n You), features Usher and its Ross attempt to do a Trey Songz/Drake type record.  I never really cared for the song outside of Usher's hook, pretty forgettable unless you getting it on with a chick.  Same thing can be said about the Wale and Drake featured record Diced Pineapples.  Outside of Drake's hook, and Wale's wannable Maya Angelou spoken word poetry, the track is forgettable.  I have a feeling that there is a unreleased Drake verse sitting somewhere in Ross's studio.  Guess he didn't want Drizzy to renegade him again (even through through out the album, Ross BEEN getting renegaded).

Ten Jesus Pieces featuring Stalley was a good record to close out the standard issue of the album.  Production wise, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League came with it like always.  Ross actually shined on this song and was actually equal to Stalley.  The two bonus records were songs that were used on the Rich Forever mixtape that came out in January.  Triple Beam Dreams which features Nas is mastered now, and it sounds a lot more cinematic then the mixtape version.  J.U.S.T.I.C.E League made that song sound more epic then it was before.  The same thing can be said about the John Legend featured track Rich Forever, which is also a very epic way to close the album.

Now with all hate aside, and with the exception of those 3 trap records.  If you just take the album for what it is, God Forgives, I Don't is a pretty solid album.  Like I stated earlier, Ross plays his role well and constructed a very balanced album.  I can understand why he put those trap records together like that.  He had to cattle to his core audience, and he also gained some at the same time.  Again production wise it is very good, but Ross's subject matter is repetitive and lackluster.  He hasn't really grown as an artist and he keeps saying the same shit over and over and over again.  Than again as the old saying goes, 'If it isn't broke, why fix it?"  At the end of the day, its only entertainment and if the music is good that is all that matters...I guess...

But than again...when I read shit like THIS...I am reminded on why I don't like that fat fake fuck..

oh well..It is what it is...

Busby's Review: 3.5/5