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.
Rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Take a
trip down memory lane and listen to & buy Home Sweet Home.
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