BLACKENEDWHITE is great because it flows, has a great atmosphere with consistently awesome beats throughout and some exceptional rapping. And it was a free-for-download album which is always great. Now take that record, re-release it on a semi-big indie label to, add two wildly out-of-place new tracks, take away a huge chunk of the original album's best songs and you've got BLACKENEDWHITE 2.0. And you have to buy this version. I know... what?
It makes it all the more annoying and bewildering that this neutered, compromised crap is what MellowHype wants the majority of new listeners to hear (and buy) when the original, untouched product is clearly better (and free). A slightly touched-up mix and two new songs don't mean anything compared to the absence of "Gram", "Loco", "Chordaroy" (meaning no Earl verses at all), "Hell" (arguably the best hook MellowHype ever had), "Based" and "Stripclub", wounding the "official" release of BLACKENEDWHITE horribly and making the album significantly worse on a lot of levels. How the fuck did shit like "Rico" survive when four better songs died so it could live?! Wasn't Circus a fucking bonus track? Now it's the album closer! "Gram" was considered by Tyler to be the best music OF had ever put to tape at one point, wasn't it? Remember: they want you to buy this version.
It's inexplicable and baffling to me that a remaster/reissue made for RETAIL has LESS music than the FREE original version and so many more flaws... but that's exactly what we have here. Bur we do get two new tracks thrown into the middle that at best segue into a better track ("IGotAGun" which admittedly transitions well into "Fuck The Po- oh WAIT, it's now re-titled "F666 The Police"... wtf?) and at worst, kill the flow hard by sticking out like a sore thumb ("64" being tossed assfirst between "Brain" and "Loaded", two of the album's more chilled-out songs). It's all the little compromises to the original release's tracklisting, content and flow (and yes, the retarded little song title changes) that makes it seem a lot more like a weak sellout than one of the rap albums to beat of 2010.
2 Bumps | Bump |
