Rating: NNN
Before her appearance on the mega-hit Lean Back, Big Pun/Fat Joe protege Remy Ma’s debut album kept getting pushed back. You can tell from the once-trendy Chipmunks soul (Kanye-style, circa 2002-04) on Crazy and She’s Gone. Otherwise, despite her Terror Squad spinoff status, the deep-voiced Bronx battler’s working with the sort of production hotness usually reserved for her more obese, more famous pals. Over Cool & Dre’s intense synths, Ma flips an obscure Fat Joe ad lib into a hot 16, and the steadily improving Swizz Beats kills it on Whuteva. Ma’s is better at writing rhymes than album titles – she tells engaging stories and often her filler is head-shakingly forgivable: “I spit so butter they should call me margarine.” Too bad for the Alchemist-produced Thug Love featuring Big Pun – why are all the guy’s posthumous recordings so marshmallowy soft?
