Nov 20, 2015

Review: Home Sweet Home by @RapperBigPooh & @NottzRaw Written by: @Natural_Nation



Working with Mello Music Group for his second release this year,  Rapper Big Pooh brings us his latest album in the form of a collaboration with Grammy award winning producer Nottz.  As a person with a vivid imagination, this CD was like a godsend.  I’ve always enjoyed albums with concepts and this album stayed true to its title. Home Sweet Home easily joins my list of pleasant surprises for the year. Maybe it’s their Virginia roots that have them in sync but the two blend seamlessly together and without Nottz, I don’t think the duo would have nailed the delivery in way that they did.  So, without further ado let me take you through MY experience of Home Sweet Home...

In the Intro we get a taste of Big Pooh’s lyrical talent. We are presented with a simple beat and hook that are successful at keeping the emcees message at the forefront. The transition to Welcome Home is smooth. It feels exactly what it sounds like, comfortable and warm.  Rapper Big Pooh arrives home where he’s greeted by his family and begins to take in everything that he’s missed.

Preach is like the Sunday after you have a family gathering. All the elders insist that everyone gets together to go to church. Later you will all gather for an early Sunday dinner. This of course always turns into a late dinner because a hymn goes on for 8 verses too long. Whoever you caught a ride with knows everyone at church, so it takes them an hour and a half before they can get out the door. That’s the same person in charge of cooking the meal. Dinner don’t start till 10:00pm.

Jesus! You’ve finally gotten away from your aunties and uncles. Now you get to kick it with your cousins. These are those cousins that never left the area. You’re riding around with them in the passenger seat and they spend their time talking about all the things they’re “finna do”, but all they’ve been doing for the past few years is working the same fulltime job, blowing their money, and smoking cigarettes. (I wrote about 300Z recently and it still holds up and fits in with the flow of the album.) Homemade is like the first time you take that walk by yourself in your old neighborhood. You say "hi" to the people sitting on their porch. You stop at some of the old stores you used to go to, just to see if they’re still the same. You take in everything you used to be. It’s been a while but it’s good to be home.

Alone is that girlfriend you used to date back in the day. She stops by the house because she hears that you're home. She’s still a friend of the family. Everyone loves her and you know she’s a great girl but you know that she's not for you right now. You have too many things you want to do and refuse to be tied down by another person. So, you choose to be alone. During Memory your homies finally come through for the evening. You go up to your room put some music on and smoke as you reminisce about how you guys used to rip and run in the streets. You talk about girls, schools, and old jobs. You laugh, and wonder where the time went.

Prom Season, Home Sweet Home, and I Don’t Know come through and curb stomp all of the warm & fuzzy family vibes felt early throughout this body of work. The lyrics are hard, the beats are hard and so is Pooh’s delivery. It shows the juxtaposing realities in all of our lives, the good and the bad. It’s the reality check, the reminder that as great as our lives are, there are still daily struggles from our past and present that cover up the sunshine and rainbows. Fries brings us back to a lighter feeling. Rapper Big Pooh is spitting game to a couple of women who seem like they could be interested. Pooh’s flow and the instrumental blend perfectly together similar to the other tracks on the album.

The album ends with El Fin. Big Pooh tells a story of a young man going off to school looking for a fresh start. He stumbles upon a girl who he thinks is in to him. In the end she ends up embarrassing him and in his shame he ends up killing himself. Although delivered in a solemn way the overall message is how important it is to love yourself.  I really appreciate the way this album was put together. This is what a conceptual CD sounds like. Although the album ended on a colder note than it began it was still an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. I think it’s always important to remember where you came from and that’s what this album does.
Rating: 4.4 out of 5.                                      

  Take a trip down memory lane and listen to & buy Home Sweet Home.


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Multimedia Journalist, Founder and Chief Editor of WTM Host of A-Side B-Side Podcast and more. I like to talk about stuff and write it down. Sometimes to a microphone. Either way, I need you to feel this.

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