Review Summary: Canibus releases old material that SUCKS.
Canibus wasn’t quite sure to do after
Rip the Jacker. He had gotten kicked out of the army for marijuana possession, so he managed to snag the chance to get his own album and hear it for himself. It was perfect in his ears, but what was the next thing he could do to solidify a position back in hip hop? Apparently, Canibus thought that releasing older material would bring out respect for him.
Mind Control was released in 2005, but it’s really material from the eras between
2000 B.C. and
C True Hollywood Stories. It shows too, because while it isn’t nearly as bad as C True Hollywood Stories, it doesn’t have the lyrics of 2000 B.C.
Too put it short and sweet, every track has it’s only little problem, no matter how big or small. Each one either has a lack of decent lyrics, a lack of good beat, or even just a lack of a catchy or even hooky hook. Not that any of the tracks are truly bad by themselves, but the album as cohesive unit makes for a flawed and unenjoyable listen. “Atlanta” for example, has one of Canibus’s most obscure beats, pounding drums in the back while a female vocal provides a haunting back drop for Canibus’s rapping, but all the potential created by the beat is ruined by Canibus’s god awful attempt at making fun of rappers from Atlanta. “Canibus Man” has the opposite problem, while it contains some of Canibus’s fiery battle rapping; the beat is a god awful mesh of Linkin Park-mimic chords and high pitched electronics. “In The Rain” has an excellent fast paced jazz beat and contains some personal lyrics, a first for Canibus at that time, but the hook is absolutely dreadful, being nothing more than Canibus trying to sing with a choir sample. Anything that can go wrong did on one track or another, making for a bumpy, inconsistent ride.
Mind Control ultimately didn’t do it one bit for Canibus fans. It got shot down by every publication and laughed at by just about every hip hop fan that heard it. It charted on the R&B charts on the billboard at #72, but that is the only effect it ever had. Now the album is incredibly hard to find, and frankly, that’s a good thing. The rhymes are nothing new or special for Canibus except for “In The Rain”, and the beats, like on most Canibus albums, vary from enjoyable to crap. Mind Control is just a mesh of everything that is wrong with Canibus, but not in the completely god awful form like C True Hollywood Stories.
Recommended Tracks:
“In The Rain”
