Review Summary: I’d like to welcome you to the world of T.I.
Atlanta rapper T.I., or Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. is back with his seventh studio album entitled
No Mercy. For the better part of the record, the lyricism remains clever: “The coldest and the hottest, call me December-June”, though at times it can be rather cliché: “Take your clothes all off.” These lyrics are delivered by T.I.’s classic flow and are backed up by creative instrumentals produced by several different artists that more often than not, keep the listener entertained. While arguably not his greatest outing, T.I. continues to go strong in the face of constant adversity.
The record debuts with its strongest of the included fourteen tracks –
Welcome to the World. Kanye West and Kid Cudi are featured on this track, where West uses his verse to respond to the haters who judge him and the life he lives: “You must not really know where I come from, exactly where my heart or you would never, never, never.” On one of the more highly anticipated hip-hop releases of 2010, Kanye West offers his strongest feature of the entire year. Features have a bit of a love-hate relationship when it comes to hip-hop fans; they can either make or break a song and all it takes is a poor addition from a visiting artist to underwhelm the song. But the welcomed features don’t stop on track one; Eminem redeems himself from his poor verse on 2007’s
Touchdown with the fifth track,
That’s All She Wrote, a song in which the featured artist outshines the main one.
A brave but common move in the music industry is pulling the album-song title move as it naturally puts a high amount of pressure on the title track.
No Mercy definitely lives up the its original hype, but The-Dream’s inclusion on the track feels rather unnecessary. The song would have been a lot stronger if the chorus felt a little more aggressive, which cannot be achieved with The-Dream’s vocal style.
The latter half of the album is where the more cliché material begins to really sink in and bring the album to a disappointing decline before rising to its solid finale. The tracks
Strip,
Everything on Me, and
Lay Me Down are your overrated, far overdone “Give me sex now” tracks that just feel too tired in the mainstream realm, especially coming from an artist of T.I.’s stature; I simply expected more.
Thankfully, the album ends on a strong note with one of the more fulfilling tracks,
Castle Walls, which features Christina Aguilera. The song speaks about the façade of fame and how everything in T.I.’s life isn’t as glamorous as it is built up to be; Hollywood can turn you into a monster. Unlike the title track, the guest vocals in the chorus build the song; not destroys it.
No Mercy is strong, but not as strong as it could be. Poor features and cliché themes drag this record from its Album of the Year contendership I thought it would be awarded to an album lost in translation with every other hip-hop release this year. Nonetheless, this is a must-have for hip-hop fans and if you can excuse its obvious flaws, I have no doubt you’ll only gain from listening to it.
So before the New Year alters your world, take a moment to listen to No Mercy and find out what T.I.’s world is like.
Recommended Tracks:
- Welcome to the World (feat. Kanye West & Kid Cudi)
- That’s All She Wrote (feat. Eminem)
- No Mercy (feat. The-Dream)
- Castle Walls (feat. Christina Aguilera)
