AZ is yet another emcee that saddens me extremely. On his debut album Doe or Die, he basically proved he was worthy and had the potential to be one of the illest emcees of all time, going neck-a-neck with his mentor Nas for a quality debut album. Since then, his career has been on a downward spiral in both respect and fame. His sophomore album Pieces of a Man was a commercialized piece of garbage which was virtually unlistenable with the exception of what... three songs? We all hoped for AZ to return to his roots on his third album in 2001, as it appeared that his mentor Nas achieved this feat on Stillmatic. So in 2001, AZ released 9 Lives, and sadly.. this was not the case...
Track List & Rating
1. Intro (**) 2. What Cha Day About (****) 3. I Don't Give A F*ck (**) 4. At Night (***) 5. AZ's Back (*) 6. Problems (*) 7. Everything's Everything f/ Joe (**) 8. That's Real f/ Beanie Sigel (*) 9. What Ya'll N*ggas Want f/ Foxy Brown (*) 10. Let's Toast (*) 11. How Many Wanna f/ Amil (*) 12. Love Me (***) 13. Quiet Money f/ T.B.S. (*) 14. Outro (NOT RATED)
AZ starts 9 Lives on the right track, apologizing for his recent gangsta mentality and The Firm album. AZ busts a short freestyle with relatively good lyrics, but the production is sort of annoying, with screeching violins not matching AZ's vocals whatsoever. But the vocals are respectable enough. "Intro" goes right into "What Cha Day About", which is one of the album's highlights, and most likely the best song on the album.
AZ returns to a mentality that he owned on Doe or Die, which is pure street-poetry. AZ gives us some vivid and complex street lyricism to match this narratives, loaded with intelligent wordplay. He loads us up with similes and metaphors like the way he used to, making me believe that perhaps he was back to his old ways. Sadly enough, this was not the case for the rest of 9 Lives.
Afterwards, the Nas sampling "I Dont Give a F*ck" comes on. AZ raps some relatively good lyrics, but the subject matter sends this track to its grave. Instead of an attempt for AZ to be controversial, or maybe even street poetic, he gives us pure materialistic brag-rap where AZ raps about his money, violence, sex, and drugs, which is typical gangsta / commercial rap lyrics. I guess AZ's words at the open of this album were all empty promises, as he keeps his gangsta mentality on this track. The beat is respectable too, but the subject matter kills it.
However, on "At Night", AZ returns to introspectiveness, as he raps about the dangers of the ghettoes, specially at night. However, in my opinion, the word "night" means death, or coming close to death, as a metaphor that AZ was trying to pull off. AZ's lyricism is above average, but not groundbreaking or unique. He has his moments where he gives us a multi-syllable rhyme scheme, but other times where he comes off extremely weak. The subject matter is respectable, as it is about the streets, but its not pulled off as good as AZ is capable of. The production is ok, with some changing bassline, claps, and violins, but nothing too special. This is just an average track, but after this is where 9 Lives begins to falter.
Almost every song from here on out is complete trash. AZ completely crosses the line into commercial rap, touching on all the subjects from money, or drugs, to gunplay. Its just terrible at times how much this man has faltered.
On "AZ's Back", AZ adopts a triple-cadence flow to rap about his status, touching on money, drugs, and violence, which is of course, commercial subject matter.
The track "Problems" sounds like introspectiveness, but dont be fooled by the title, it sucks. AZ raps about violence, money, and his so-called Gangsta life. Besides the fact that AZ's lyrics are uninspired, the track is plagued with a terrible beat, yet very listenable chorus.
R&B singer Joe joins AZ on "Everything's Everything". Joe's appearance, the jiggy and loud production are definite attempts at commercial appeal, and AZ follows suit with his lyrics. However admittedly, AZ sounds better than some of the usual crap on this song, inserting a couple of lines of introspectiveness here and there, but nothing too advanced or complex.
Mediocre emcee Beanie Sigel joins AZ on "That's Real", which is pure gangsta. Beanie and AZ drop simplistic whack rhymes about shooting people up for drugs and sh*t. The flows sound dull and it seems as if both AZ and Beanie are bored, but then again, there isn't much to expect since the album's been such a waste thusfar.
Two words: Boring and stupid.
The Firm has a small reunion as Foxy Brown joins AZ on "What Ya'll N*ggas Want", with more gangsta lyrics, loaded with references to money, drugs, and guns. "Let's Toast" is a purely materialistic piece of garbage where AZ stresses his money and jewelry, and the fact that he has so much of it. He paints himself the picture as a kingpin loaded with dough, like every other rapper, which namely sucks. "How Many Wanna" features the... argghh... talentless Amil. Amil sucks and is a plague on the music industry, and AZ isn't any better on this track. This is a pure club anthem, filled with shake-ya-booty rhymes and lavish lyrics about drinking, sex and money.
9 Lives final moment of goodness is with "Love Me".
AZ returns to a stricktly street poetry mentality, which helps a lot. AZ gives us complex lyricism, rapping about his hip hop career, from the days of Illmatic, to the current day. AZ storytells extremely nicely and descriptively, and the lyrics are amazingly good. The production is also top-notch, with a simplistic double-piano-key instrumentation, some samples and scratching, and a hard drum / bass accompaniment. However, the track isn't perfect, as AZ's drops the ball on the lyrics at times, but its definetely listenable.
Its a shame that an artist with so much talent like AZ has to plague himself with bad albums like this. Its so f*cked that his debut album Doe or Die was a definitive classic, and since then everything he's put out is either average, mediocre, or ridiculously stupid and horrible. This is one of those albums that should be strayed away from, even by the hardcore AZ fans. Its obvious to me that this is the equivalent of Nas Nastradamus, as it is a complete sell-out record. Even with the listenable tracks, its not enough to keep you entertained for long. This is a terrible, terrible album that nobody should have to endure...
1 1/2 Stars.... rounded down to 1
More details
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Weak
How does it rate alongside the competition
Weak
Cover / Inlay Design and Content
Satisfactory
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