Legendz

Not so fresh off the heels of the successful singles "Sexy Lady" and "Sexy Can I", Chicago rapper Yung Berg releases his debut effort "Look What You Made Me". Equipped with the cartoonish bravado only a hypeman can possess, Berg meanders through this work like a blind man walking through a maze. Just when you think he has begun to find his way, inevitably, he hits another wall.



In the intro to "Look What You Made Me," Berg takes time to thank his fans for "taking the time out to rip the package off the CD" and taking a look at what "they", the Yung Berg fanbase, has made him. The intro is reminiscent of Jay-Z's "The Ruler's Back" and while by Jiggaman's sixth album he needed no introduction, Berg certainly does. The rapper goes on to illustrate, quite impressively, his "come up" and his city. Sadly, this two minute and seven second intro would be one of the last sound bytes the listeners would get to hear of the Yung Berg who impressed DMX and others as Ice Berg years before.



He follows the intro with the Rob Holiday produced "Look What You Made Me". Over a stripped down drum loop Berg pays homage to the emcees who came before him and explains that it is they who have given birth to the Yung Berg we have today. The idea, stale as it may be, has become all but essential to the hip hop debut album. However, it is not the lack of originality that will bother listeners. It is not even uninspired lyrics like "Blame Jay-Z for me doing it how I do it/ Blame B.I.G. for me wanting to move units/ Ask P. Diddy why he had to run the city". It is one fact. "Look What You Made Me Do's" fatal flaw. While he spends an entire album both subtlety and not so subtlety showing us who he wants to become, Yung Berg neglects almost entirely to show his audience who he actually is.



Of his sixteen tracks, Berg spends eight of them on the subject of romancing a woman in some sort or another. It would seem that he is trying to fill a niche in hip hop that was has been filled for over twenty years. Whether it be him crooning on the Holiday produced "Outerspace" or with help from Ray J, Trey Songz, or Lloyd you will find LL Cool J Yung Berg is not. One should note that of the remaining eight tracks one is the intro and two of them are interludes. The first of which is an interlude in which the rapper congratulates the listener for having not already ejected the CD. Proving that even Yung Berg knows that his musical pill is hard to swallow. However, guest appearances prove to be the spoon full of sugar in Berg's medicine. On the Collipark produced "Manager," Lloyd does what he can to move the song along while the production will leave listeners wondering if they stumbled and fell back into 2004. Amerie provides the sole reason to listen to "Get Your Number", one of many hormone infused tracks on the album.



"Look What You Made Me" is not all bad. As I stated before, there are moments in which we can see glimpses of the Yung Berg through the haze of "Look What You Made Me". Utilizing home town producer Xcel, Berg is quite effective on "Do That There. The problem with this album doesn't lie completely in its content but maybe in Berg himself. A rapper who has made a career out of his own laid back swagger, perhaps he didn't feel the need to grab our attention. Perhaps, like his album's intro suggest, perhaps he feels much like Jay-Z and needed no introduction. Perhaps his record sales will indicate he was wrong. On "Look What You Made Me" we find out who he idolizes and that's about it. It is an album that feels entirely incomplete and unauthentic. Yung Berg's face sits atop his album cover telling us all to "look what we made him". Frankly, for this album, I don't think anyone should have to take that credit.



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street_soldier

propzzzz on diss.....