New: Saigon - Down The Road

Download: Saigon - Down The Road

Saigon's decided to continue the pattern of leaving album quality material OFF his album. his joint here sees Saigon hop back on (did he ever hop off?) his social commentary soapbox and he doesn't disappoint. The chorus is an interesting feature, it's like they took a polished, clean chorus and then roughed it up a bit around the edges. It works well. The beat is probably responsible for the song not finding it's way onto the album. The leading rift is great; probably the highlight of the track in fact, but everything accompanying it sounds rather bland and amateurish especially the the piano and the half-hearted attempt at an outro.

This isn't on the same level as Too Long but it's still a lot better than a lot of what was put on the album.

Lyrics

Rating: 7.5/10

Previously: Album Review: Saigon - The Greatest Story Never Told | Saigon - Bring Me Down pt.3 ft. Joe Budden | Saigon - Too Long ft. Black Thought [Bonus Track]

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Album Review: Saigon - The Greatest Story Never Told

1.Station Identification (Intro)
2. The Invitation   9.5                   
3. Come On Baby  9.0
4. War
5. Bring Me Down Pt. 2  8.5
6. Enemies 7.5
7. Friends  7.5
8. The Greatest Story Never Told  7.5
9. Clap feat. Faith Evans   6.5
10. Preacher   5.5
11. It’s Alright  7.0
12. Believe It  7.5
13. Give It To Me  5.5
14. What The Lovers Do  6.5
15. Better Way  6.5
16. Oh Yeah (Our Babies) 8.0

If i remember correctly, around the time Baby first came out and The Greatest Story Never Told was being hyped for release (yes, something like 2 years ago) it was said that the album was going to be completely produced by Just Blaze, and around 11 tracks long. That's what this album should have been. As it stands the album has too much filler and it's the production alone that really stops the album from turning into an inconsistent mess. A lot of those tracks you see that received 6.5/7 ratings are buyoed up by the production. Just Blaze is really the star of this album and he put in some of his best work on this release, The Invitation, Baby - one of the best commercial beats i've heard in a minute - and The Greatest Story Never Told are all incredibly well produced.

The chorus work on the album's a bit of a mixed bag. Bring Me Down's chorus is brilliant as is Believe It's, auto-tuned or not. I actually really enjoyed Swizz Beatz chorus on Baby as well. Then You have choruses where Saigon attempts to create some form of melody....and fails abysmally. Whoever told him to lends his voice to the choruses on Clap and GSNT should be shot as his tone-deaf-ass ruins those two otherwise great choruses. The abundant intro's/outro's/interludes had similarly mixed results. Clap was one of the let downs in that category while 'Oh Yeah's'  sample pretty much made the song (I got a real distinct vibe of The Wire from this).

'An Vietnam, them people came back crazy. I live in Vietnam; what you think i'm a be if i'm livin it an they just went an visited?

As for Saigon, he was hit or miss throughout. At times he did a good job of combining battle rap with social and political commentary. At other times his verses were just generic and basic. I particularly liked his little stories he threw into a couple of tracks such as the second verse of invitation. A couple of times he delves into a lil' self analysis as well and does a good job of commenting on his past and how that effected who he was and who he is today.

Probably think what you did to me was sweet, laughing at me like 'hehehe'
Fallin for your trickery and deceit
Don't flatter yourself, it don't take a genius to spell 'thug'
convince a kid at the mere age of 12 to sell drugs'  

The majority of his best work is found in the first half of the album. In the second half you find mostly uninspired rapping such as Give It To Me or Preacher where he took a one verse topic and decided to repeat it over 48 bars.

Miscellaneous Points:
- For whatever reason, Saigon seems to have left some of his best material off the album. Too Long would probably have been the second or third best track on the album and the Bring Me Down remix is superior to the original and includes one of Saigon's best verses.

- Jay-Z was really weak on Baby, he sounded like he couldn't keep up with the beat and was struggling not to be drowned out by it.

- Wasn't a fan of Q-Tip's chorus on The Invitation. His voice wasn't 'hype' enough for that beat and one of my pet peeves are choruses that consist of nothing but shoutouts.

For all that the review sounds pretty negative it was still a good album. Depending on how much emphasis you place on either lyricism or production the album could vary from weak to great.

tl;dr version: Great Production. Saigon himself was inconsistent and ranged from great to mediocre. Album starts off really well and falls off halfway through.

Highlights: The Invitation, Baby, Bring Me Down pt.2

Lowlights: Preacher, Give It To Me

Rating: 72

Further Listening: If you liked this check out his album with Statik Selektah, All In A Days Work. It's of a similar standard.

Note: No I didn't arrive at the rating by just averaging the scores of the individual tracks, not a fan of rating albums like that. 

Previously: Saigon - Bring Me Down pt.3 ft. Joe Budden | Saigon - Too Long ft. Black Thought
 

Saigon – Bring Me Down Pt.3 ft. Joe Budden

Download: Saigon - Bring Me Down Pt. 3 ft. Joe Budden

 It seems with both this and the bonus track released a couple of days ago that Saigon’s left some of his best material from ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’. His verse on this is better than any other battle rap verse on the album and would have been one of the best on it, period! The original (Ok well not original but Bring Me Down Pt.2) is one of my favourite songs off the album, largely due to the fantastic chorus and superb production where the guitar loop and great use of vocal samples create a real ‘pump you up’ type beat. It was nice to hear Saigon doing some double time as well, I wouldn’t mind seeing him give it a go more often.

Not to be outdone, Budden lays down a great verse that on first listen might seem to pale in comparison to Saigon’s, but after you come to terms with how nice Saigon’s flow and schemes are you start to appreciate how great the lyrics are in Joey’s verse.

‘My rock bottom’s like a goal for you’

‘Out-matched, out-classed there’s nothin you can teach me
In order to bring me down gotta be able to reach me’

Credits got to be given to Saigon for, first off, besting Black Thought on the bonus track ‘Too Long’. I didn’t see that coming. Now he’s gone toe to toe with Joe Budden as well, one of the best lyricists in Hip-Hop right now.

For more Saigon check out his latest release, The Greatest Story Ever Told, out now.

Previous: Saigon – Too Long ft. Black Thought [Bonus Track]

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Saigon – Too Long ft. Black Thought [Bonus Track]

Download: Saigon – Too Long ft. Black Thought

Why this is a bonus track I haven’t a clue. It would have easily been one of the best tracks off ‘Greatest Story Never Told’. The beat has a fantastic little guitar loop and some nice drums and the chorus is fantastic; by far Saigon’s best attempt at singing and far superior to a lot of his tone-deaf choruses on the album. Saigon’s two verses cover some ‘common’ problems that those in poverty face when trying to break out of its cycle. Black Thought, Hip-Hop’s most consistent MC, lays out a decent verse as well. I’ve gotta give to credit to Saigon for out performing Black Thought on this, I certainly wouldn’t have picked it.

Rating: 9/10

 

If you enjoyed this make sure you pick up Saigon’s Greatest Story Never Told, which I should have a review up of in a couple of days.