Search - Huey :: Notebook Paper

Huey- Notebook Paper

Constant | Vancouver, BC Canada | 06/20/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The Rap game is full of young artist's looking to make a name for themselves. St. Louis native Huey (A.K.A. Lawrence Franks Jr.) is another one of those MC's who's debut album is "Notebook Paper" (2007). On the "Notebook Paper" (Intro) Huey explains his album's name, then gets things started backed by a repetitive banging beat. Huey shouts his lyrics away on early forgettable efforts like "Bout Dat" & "Aye". The album's first single is "Pop, Lock & Drop It" a subpar track. Huey's lyrics are abysmal and the production from The Bakery Productions is very basic. Screwed up "Closet Full of Clothes" feat. Kydd Trell (a member of Huey's group The Camp Boyzz) follows, more skip material. More below average material follows, listening to this MC midway, bland beats, subpar lyrics and Huey's lack of charisma had this reviewer hitting skip. R & B singer laces "When I Hustle" with a smooth chorus, unfortunately Huey does very little with the track following the usual formula's. First standout track for me is "Nobody Loves the Hood" - Huey rhymes about street life, and how a lot of children have to come up without parents and direction. The follow up track has Huey giving thanks to god and happy to have found another avenue to make it on "Glad 2 Be Alive". Bow Wow & T-Pain appear on the remix closer of "Pop, Lock & Drop It". Huey can also be found on R Kelly's fiasco of an album "Double Up". The album cover has Huey sitting in a classroom, I think he would be better off spending some time in there working on his rhymes and flow, "Notebook Paper" is not a release I would recommend for the collection."

3-1/2 stars -- Surprisingly solid

Anthony Rupert | Milwaukee, WI | 10/28/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When I first heard Huey's material, not only did I think of him as a one-hit wonder, but I also dismissed him into the crowd of other disposable young MCs like Rich Boy, Unk and MIMS. I realize it would be too easy to do so, but as it turns out, his album Notebook Paper is much better than I expected.



"Pop, Lock & Drop It" really isn't an accurate representation of Huey's talent (especially that uninteresting chorus). There are much better songs than that, like "Aye" and the title track. And even though "Bout Dat" has a dated title, it's also pretty decent.



Another interesting thing is that when Huey switches from "standard" fare and shoots for introspective tracks, it actually works. "My Zone" is a hard-times-growing-up story that doesn't sound so clichéd, and "Glad 2 B Alive" features a nice hook from T-Pain in his normal voice (yes, T really can sing when he wants to). "Nobody Loves the Hood" is also pretty interesting aside from the fact that the male crooner goes way off-key toward the end of the song.



Even songs for the ladies work well, as evidenced by "Luv N Ya Life" and "2 Nite". In fact, the only real missteps come from a few guest stars. The braggadocious "Closet Full of Clothes" features some cat named Kydd Trell kicking some pretty lame rhymes, while "Money Ova" has Diamond (of Crime Mob) being wack as usual. Bow Wow also fails to impress on the obligatory end-of-album remix-of-the-first-single.



Notebook Paper proves that Huey is more than just another young no-talent for the 106 & Park crowd. People probably didn't pick this up because of that assumption, but you really shouldn't mind spendin' paper to get it.



Anthony Rupert"

Pretty Good Debut

L. Hoyt | 07/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Notebook Paper from Huey is a pretty good cd. The lyrics are a little below par but the production is pretty nice and the songs just fit him. Pop, Lock, & Drop It, the first single from the album is a good song and the remix featuring Bow Wow and T-Pain is a little better. You have to be into the southern rap genre to like this cd but overall is worth buying.

Top 5:

1.Closet Full Of Clothes

2.Pop, Lock, & Drop It (Remix)

3.Aye

4.When I Hustle

5.Pop, Lock, & Drop It"