the BROS. project
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Lee Sang Min (Roo'ra) has been busy producing a project album entitled the BROS. Although this will probably be viewed as a challenge to the project albums released earlier this year (most notably by YG Family and Honey Family), this CD is really quite different in scope than those collaborations. the BROS isn't strictly a hip-hop album and it isn't as uniform in sound and style as the YG Family release.
Not surprisingly, the CD opens with a set of songs by Roo'ra. The first is the rap song winwin. This song reminds me a lot of Will Smith's Wild, Wild West. The lyrical interlude that breaks the song in half is a nice touch. Also by Roo'ra is zen [RealAudio], which is -- really bizarre1x No one can accuse them of lacking originality on this one. Other songs on the album peformed by Roo'ra are natural [RealAudio], which mixes zen with a latin/samba beat, and dejavu [RealAudio], a rap-based song.
Also not surprising is the inclusion of Diva on The Brothers. Lee Sang Min produces Diva, after all. Diva really isn't a hip-hop group. The rapping they do in nude [RealAudio], for instance, almost falls into the ballad category as it is so soft. The seventeen-second and [RealAudio] can hardly be counted as a real song.
Esther Han contributes to the album with 8mm [RealAudio]. This is one of the more successful pieces on the CD. The interplay of voices and electronic sounds, especially the trumpet bits make this a pretty song.
For those looking for something more along the lines of hip-hop, you might want to listen to a man [RealAudio] by x-large. This is probably the closest you're going to get on this album, and I'm not making any promises about how close it actually is. The rap here is rhythm rap, not freestyle. Also doing some rhythm rap is bobby in stoker [RealAudio] (apparently no capital letters are permitted on this album). Outside of the rap passages, this song really sounds like disco.
The introduction number by chakra (also called chakra [RealAudio]) is a frantic club/techno/rave number. It's not for those with high blood pressure. forever christmas [RealAudio] is a lot more reasonable, but still not that interesting. Slightly more intriguing is milennium baby [RealAudio]. It's got a reggae underpinning, which adds a lot of spirit to the piece. Also included by chakra is long term [RealAudio].
Most people will recognize zinnii as the "jinni" recently departed from Diva. It probably makes me a traitor, but I think dear [RealAudio] is just as good (or better) as anything Diva had on its last CD.
The final cut on the CD is the obligatory group project piece, bros 2000 [RealAudio]. This has a pace equal to chakra's chakra, which is not to my taste. The song does showcase the agility of the contributor's rap voices, but I'd rather have a little more clarity and a little less frenetic energy.
By Denise Ahn
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