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Life & Arts

Scrappy lacks crunk factor

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar 

In The King of Crunk & BME Recordings Present: Lil Scrappy and Trillville the self proclaimed Prince of Crunk-- thanks to the producing proficiency of Lil' John -- provided half of an album that lived up to its performer's title. 

If a disc jockey felt like the scene wasn't hype enough in the club back in 2005, one of Lil' Scrappy's joints would likely be in the forecast. But that was about all Scrappy was good for. To put it nicely, the guy was lyrically challenged.

A year and a half later, with his recent release of Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live, one could make a strong argument that the Prince of Crunk still boasts the beats to start a few fights in the club, but don't expect much else.

Bred 2 Die Born 2 Live's most lyrically enjoyable, or rather, tolerable tracks happen to be the one's featuring other rap artists. Of course, everyone's heard his single "Money in the Bank" feature Young Buck, which, considering its simplistic beat and metronome style foundation, has done quite well for itself. 

On the album's second track, "Touching Everything," featuring Young Joc, Lil' Scrappy decides to give listeners a vague description of a typical day in the life of the Prince of Crunk, in which he supposedly "touches everything" that goes on in the ATL. The track was produced by Jazze Pha, as evident by his patented "Ladies and Gentlemen" address in the first couple of seconds of the song. It's beat is about as laid back as crunk can get, but it still gives off that Dirty South vibe. 

For those listeners looking for that "head bustin'" bow throwing type of track to get the adrenaline flowing, "Posted in the Club" is the way to go. The eighth track of the album, produced by Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia and featuring other members of the group, is probably the most up-tempo song on Bred 2 Live Born 2 Die, and, as expected, Scrappy raps about his various encounters with haters while he's posted up on a wall in a club and how he'll knock anyone out who "steps up."

Another club-ready track on Bred 2 Live Born 2 Die was produced by Lil' John and for the most part summarizes the album-- and Lil' Scrappy's career as a rapper. Lil' John has produced some of the hottest beats in the last five or six years and "Gangsta Gangsta" is no exception. The track is pretty hot when in comes to that side of the spectrum, as is the entire album. No one can complain about the instrumentals.

However, Lil' Scrappy could have done much better with his side of the bargain. In "Gangsta Gangsta," he calls himself the "hardest (dude) on the planet" and goes on to say "I'm so gangsta I eat the cereal without the milk." No, this is not a joke. In fact, the track itself is about as serious as they come. Eating cereal without the milk doesn't make you gangster--unless you can't afford to buy milk. 

This artist is what some would call lyrically challenged.

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