Review Summary: Slim Thug is just good, but EVERYBODY LOVES A PIMP.
Slim Thug is one of those artists noticed, not for their talents, but for what was born with them. In this case, Slim Thug has a baritone voice that sounds absolutely, for a lack of better word, boss. His baritone voice is perfectly fit for the Houston music that he came up with, and that is what makes
Already Platinum already more than your average rap album, even if it’s only a bit more. Although
Already Platinum, ironically, never ever went platinum, it’s still worth more than a lot of platinum rap albums in pure entertainment value.
Already Platinum is formulaic as any other mainstream rap album though, with bombastic street anthems, sappy ballads, weed carrier tracks, and autobiographical snapshots. The thing is, for this album, these highlights and lowlights hit much harder than usual. The street anthems here, the greasy Neptunes attempt at the Houston sound on “Like A Boss”, the stomping horns of “3 Kings”, and the slowed and chopped & screwed feeling of “Diamonds”, are tracks that out bang most rap album bangers, and perfectly compliment Slim Thug’s voice. “Boyz N Blue” makes up the weed carrier track, and occupies Slim’s Boss Hogg crew wonderfully, while the autobiographical snapshot “The Interview” utilizes a rampant soul track Slim wouldn’t normally be used to, but nonetheless rips to shreds. What faults the album here is the unusually weak abundance of sappy ballads track, from the weak and uninspired Neptunes synths “Miss Mary” to the southern B.I.G. impression on “Ashy to Classy”, which only show that the Houston native is not able to push the proper single, pointing to the reason why
Already Platinum never reached platinum status.
The other songs, ranging from dance songs to whatever else Slim Thug wanted to do for the record, vary in quality. “Playa You Don’t Know” sees Slim Thug sound incredibly uncomfortable over an eastern synth beat, while “I Ain’t Heard of That (Remix)” utilizes Slim’s excellent chemistry with Bun B with a catchy Neptunes beat and an infectious hook. One of the non-Mr. Lee highlights on the record feature Slim Thug sounding oddly comfortable with The Neptunes, like on the title track and “Click Clack”. The title track features an ominous beat and Pharrell putting on a verse that actually doesn’t sound half bad, and “Click Clack” is menacing, with Slim Thug and Pusha T’s gun toting and the pounding drums meshing together perfectly.
Already Platinum doesn’t really amount to too much, just an average rap album with a slightly more recognizable face, better than usual beats, better than usual success rate, but still tons of noticeable failures. Slim Thug is never going to win any lyricist awards, The Neptunes are falling off at this point, and the fact that the album is incredibly formulaic. That halts
Already Platinum from being better than anything than good. But what are you expecting, at his best moments, Slim Thug executes the greasy Houston chicken fried sound perfectly, and that’s all you can ask for. Just be warned if he doesn’t sound sincere when talking about women nicely, it’s because he’s not.
