Reggie

Redman guards traditions

Sir Redman seems finally content with his niche in hip-hop. He understands it clearly that he will never be number one, that he will not shadow those with brighter stars. At the same time, Redman remains a highly regarded and respected performer who has been doing rap for two decades now. While those know have a vague idea of what kind of music it is will hardly differentiate his style from the others with the help of a song or two, true fans of rap have long ago learned all the tricks of this man. Steering clear of sugary pop-tuned melodies, staying away from banging and artificial programmed effects, Redman keeps producing hardcore rap, the music he started out with in the early nineties. This was the time when you could hardly imagine any other rap; but today many of those who used to play with Redman in the same league look to erase stylistic boundaries and let in this music anything that could make it more attractive, profitable and expensive. Redman, in his turn, still believes in the power of language, steadiness of rhythm and variety of rhyme. His seventh studio long player, Reggie, surfaced right before the ending of 2010 to let the audience once again see how closely this man guards traditions of his music.

Old-school rap to innovative beats

The materials Redman gathered to process into Reggie have been long used by him in his music production. You can even say that this album is a kind of tour or glance towards the nineties, undoubtedly a more proficient period for this man rather than the beginning of the new century. Not resorting to the complexities of Shakespeare or Faulkner, never going far into metaphors, Redman is able to drop a good joke and express a grave accusation within two or three lines. Sarcastic words scattered all over this record should not be taken as a surprise, because they are a great part of what you get to expect from a man named Redman. However, the unexpected part is that the singer, from time to time, puts experimental beats under his words. The results are not bad at all in a number of cases like in That’s Where I Be (here we have a heavy club beat) or in Rockin With Da Best (pretty darkened beat). Yet there come a few songs which simply do not meet Redman’s style. All I Do, for instance, has a nice R&B foundation under it, the one many could use for their good, but it was Redman who tried to, and, apparently, not so successfully. Still, the music aside, Redman is rapping the way he always has. Even the short intro is enough to understand that the true and only Redman is with us again.

Praiseworthy conservatism

How can we explain those minor and rare experiments that Redman allowed on Reggie? Looks like he finally agreed to satisfy his label Def Jam’s request to add something different into his material. On the other hand, whether the MC wanted it or it just happened so, the music, albeit slightly adjusted, stayed far behind the vocals. The listener remains fascinated by what Redman solely does, especially that listener who understands English. In fact, if we want to talk about innovations on Reggie, we must first of all name not the music, but the lyrical issues. Redman, it could be because of natural aging, lessened his acridity and put a leash on his temper. In some of the new album’s songs he is excessively serious and close to getting involved into political propaganda, which does not look like him at all. Yet the magic of Reggie is that all of those who like Redman will like this album as well. Sure, it is not going to delight and astonish anybody, like the man’s highlight, Muddy Waters (1996), did. But it is not here to offer anything contrary to it. Redman does not want to change, and we don’t want him to change either.