Review Summary: Not that good, but much better than his debut or whatever that faggot DJ Khaled is trying to put together.
Anyone remember when DJ Clue was relevant? Of course you don’t, and for the most part, it’s wise if you don’t. His annoying screams and wisecracking weren’t really for the enjoyment of rap listeners, and any potential late 90s and early 00s rap records had were stifled by his constants shouting. He gave the influence for even more bloated vocalist untalents like DJ Drama and DJ Khaled to raid the mainstream world with their interrupting burly gruff or scratchy and whiny voices respectively. However, despite his annoying voice, DJ Clue somehow managed to put together a somewhat decent compilation of mainstream rap at the time with
The Professional 2, containing some great tracks and some admitted trash, and although it doesn’t quite contain such highlights as the truly epic posse cut that is “Fantastic Four”, it does contain some of raps greats continuing to create excellent tracks, and is far more consistent than Clue’s debut.
Of the highlights, the most obvious is the “What The Beat” which contains some of the most serious sword slashing flows of Eminem, who at this point is in his ‘I don’t care what you think of my music’ era, and some of the funniest lyrics to come out of the mouth of Royce Da 5’9”. Other highlights include the anthemic funk bounce of DMX’s “Who’s Next? (X-Clue-Sive)”, the serious/humorous contrast between Beanie Sigel and Freeway on “Coming for You”, and the driving sequel “Fantastic Four pt. 2”. Most of the tracks that succeed, obviously, come from MC’s who are still inspired to rap at the time, or were comfortable around the raps they are rapping with. “Getting It”, for example, features a relatively comfortable collaboration between the still relatively spazzy Busta Rhymes and Rah Digga collaborating over a trudging horn beat that both rappers have experience around.
However, the weak tracks remind us that this album is more of a sloppy miss matched picking job that could’ve been done better at random. It’s comes to mind what Jay-Z was thinking when he was in the middle of creating “Changing The Game (Remix)”, which features an uncalled for collaboration between the Dogg Pound and the Roc, two rap groups that never should have met. “Live From The Bridge” is one of the weakest Nas tracks of the time, featuring some less than inspiring story telling and a lackluster guitar beat that attempts to be haunting. The albums freestyles, even one of Hova, are completely unnecessary, and artists like Nore and Capone and Mobb Deep, who were already on their way downward, sound phoned-in and bored.
Other than the already mentioned highlights and obvious favorite of mine “RED”, another weed smoking, ass kicking track from Redman,
The Professional 2 is just another copy and paste rap compilation that is usually much more inconsistent even than the regular rap album, but in this case it’s just as inconsistent.
The Professional 2 is far cry from perfection, but in the realm of rap compilations, its about as good as it gets. Certainly better than any albums by that superhack DJ Khaled.
