Search - Freeway & Jake One :: Stimulus Package

Simply Epic

cbranson09 | Fredericksburg , Va | 02/17/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is simply what Hip-Hop needs right now, epic beats & amazing rhymes..Freeway does his thing on this, as usual. Jake One comes correct on the beats, as usual. What more can I say?..truly classic material. 5 stars!"

Hyped MC doesn't cut it on the underground

P. Riley | Los Angeles, CA | 04/17/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'll start my review by noting that it seems like all the other reviewers are very familiar with Freeway's whole career, and were already fans of his style long before this album came out. I, on the other hand, had, prior to the Stimulus Package, only heard him featured on a few other Roc artists' tracks, and the two tracks he did with Brother Ali earlier this year. However, I was pretty excited about this release because I love rhymesayers and was pretty intrigued with the Jake and Freeway combo as compared to how they normally bring in new artists: typically, they're scooping up some of the dopest underground rappers and helpin 'em come up; here, conversely, Rhyesayers brought on two artists that, while not industry heavyweights by any means, had achieved a fair amount of commercial mainstream success (Free on Roc, and Jake producing for G-Unit, etc.). Plus, I have Jake-One's "White Van Music" album, and really dig his production style, so I really had some high hopes for this release.

Unfortunately, within the first two weeks of owning it, it's pretty much already fallen out of rotation. The main reason: I can't stand Freeway. Dude has NO FLOW! His style is more like an avalanche, or a car-crash. It's just rough, and often lacks any sense of rhythm, and the rhyme schemes vary from apathetically basic to almost nonexistent; moreover, even his hooks are whack - which helps explain why he didn't do too well in the mainstream even with Rocafella resources pushing his product.The positive aspects of this album (discussed below) are good enough that I could probably forgive his harsh, noisy, grating style, but for the fact that even his subject matter, and the substance of his rhymes are, on many tracks (not all) just kind of frivolous, dumb, and sometimes uncomfortably crude. There certainly are exceptions though; I'd say one third of the tracks are at least a little clever, catchy, or otherwise enhanced by Freeway's redeeming bits of talent.

The beats, on the other hand, are pretty nice. It would make a pretty dope instrumental album, or perhaps if they had brought on more guest rappers and took the mic time off Free for a while it woulda been a four star album. I'm pretty excited that Rhymesayers has started their relationship with JakeUno and I'm excited to see if they hook up some other colabs for him. But, i think I'll stay away from Freeway in the future. If you are already a fan of Free, and appreciate his style, then you should probably cop this one, but otherwise, I wouldn't choose this over some of the other albums being released this spring."

HOT ALBUM AND CD PACKAGING IS ILL!!

G-MAN | brooklyn | 03/06/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....first off let me decribe the cd package this is some clever stuff for real it looks like wallet when you open it up and the cd booklet looks like money to fit into the cd it has like a credit card too that you can go to the website to download free stuff this so innovative i love it nobody does stuff like this no more no one puts the time into cd packaging no more...the album is hot if you like freeway and you know what he's about this will not dissappoint Jake One production fits freeway style of flow and it just knocks!!! Freeway is at home on these beats plus he broadenes subject matter (never gonna change,free people,outro)but the intro has the hottest beat and features Beanie Sigel (crazy!!) cop this CD freeway fans will love it new fans will dig the cd packaging for me the music comes first the cd packaging is just a added bonus"