Ill Na Na [ECD] [Remastered] - Foxy Brown (Rap)

“Ill Na Na” dropped in 1996 and was the debut album from the Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown. It dropped a year before she went on to actually record as part of the Hip Hop super-group going by the name of The Firm (with the other members consisting of Nas, Nature and AZ) and this came as the release that gave her the chance to get her first big push into the game as here she gets to work with the likes of Method Man, BLACKstreet and Jay-Z.

...Firm”

Here you find that she gives a little hype-up for The Firm’s first (and only album) interestingly mentioning original member Cormega (who would be replaced by Nature) and does so on top of a very popular piano loop that has been heard throughout the Hip Hop and R&B world and seems to work perfectly when you consider that she is concentrating things upon the Mafioso Rap style that peaked during this period on the East Coast.
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“Ill Na Na” dropped in 1996 and was the debut album from the Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown. It dropped a year before she went on to actually record as part of the Hip Hop super-group going by the name of The Firm (with the other members consisting of Nas, Nature and AZ) and this came as the release that gave her the chance to get her first big push into the game as here she gets to work with the likes of Method Man, BLACKstreet and Jay-Z.

1. “Chicken Coop” (Intro)

2. “Letter To The Firm”

Here you find that she gives a little hype-up for The Firm’s first (and only album) interestingly mentioning original member Cormega (who would be replaced by Nature) and does so on top of a very popular piano loop that has been heard throughout the Hip Hop and R&B world and seems to work perfectly when you consider that she is concentrating things upon the Mafioso Rap style that peaked during this period on the East Coast.

**Four Stars**

3. “Foxy’s Bells”

Here you see that she does an interesting track here by covering LL Cool J’s “Rock The Bells” to take things back to the first New School period of Hip Hop from 1983 (when Run-D.M.C. made their debut) as she gets on top of the “Take Me To The Mardi Gras” break and makes for one of the flyest jams that you could possibly come across during this period. I can’t see a thing wrong with this track and it promises a lot for later work.

**Five Stars**

4. “Get Me Home”

This one was a big single from the album and one that I felt brought out something big in the album as you find that in spite of the fact the pace drops after coming off an Old School-influenced tune, this one still has lots of energy livening things up within it as you get a sensual one where she is backed up by the perfect choice in the R&B group BLACKstreet (in particular the on-trend Talk Box work by Teddy Riley).

**Five Stars**

5. “The Promise”

Here you find that as she moves on something that had a bit more mainstream appeal, she chooses to get into some Hardcore Hip Hop this time around as she works with Havoc of Mobb Deep to show that she is willing to go just as deep as all the others in the underground East Coast Hip Hop scene of the time. She competes with the best as she does her thing here and completely switches up the direction of the music.

**Five Stars**

6. “The Set Up” (Lude)

7. “If I...”

You get more heavy material here from her as she shows that there’s really no stopping her once she’s got started. I have to say that I felt that it wasn’t quite as impactful as the rest up to this point but what you get from it does show great originality from her and how she is able to take things in ways that only a female MC could and ensures that she does it to the best of her ability to keep you guessing where things could be taken.

**Four Stars**

8. “The Chase”

Here you get some intense Mafioso Rap material and one that I felt really stood out on the record as it gives her a chance to show exactly what role she takes as part of The Firm. It is an opportunity to show just how strong her storytelling is and to be honest it isn’t quite where it should be at this point, but I felt that this could be ignored this time around as it certainly isn’t a weak recording on the album.

**Five Stars**

9. “Ill Na Na”

On the titular track to the album you have Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man coming up to provide a little extra assistance on what I would have said is one of the biggest joints on the album as you find that here she takes things back once again by jumping up top of some throwback material and in this case she gets you grooving by laying down The Commodores’ “Brick House” to give her all the Funk she could possibly need.

**Five Stars**

10. “No One’s”

Off such a funky jam, it seems that she is unable to move too fat from the party atmosphere as she brings forward a tune that still seems to connect with the club end of the music. I felt that here you get a track that was really on-trend for the kind of things that were popular during this period and so while it sounds fresh now, I’m sure that had it dropped as a single, it would have been embraced in the same way at the time.

**Five Stars**

11. “Foxy’s Boogie”

She just doesn’t stop bringing the Funk, as you can probably guess from the title, and you find that here she comes with a track that I felt was clearly on the better en d of the record as you see that she brings one where she takes from a variety of popular tunes from the time in order to from the rhymes that she offers this time around and it makes for one that makes you feel welcome as she does another party jam.

**Five Stars**

12. “I’ll Be”

This is the final track from the album and one that straight kills off the album 9 you really couldn’t have placed it anywhere else on the record) and you find that with her grungy production to work from, she comes out with a jam that has her teaming up with the then-newcomer Jay-Z for a jam that you really won’t be able to do without if you enjoy the other club recordings found through this LP.

**Five Stars**

13. “Outro”

This is a killer album from Foxy Brown and one that I felt killed off The Firm’s album that followed on from it (when this was really supposed to act as a hype record in the lead-up to that project). I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy what The Firm came up with together, but here you have a much more polished album with Foxy taking the leading role and bringing lots of Funk Rap to support the more intense Mafioso stuff that isn’t for everyone.
 

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