Whatever Will Smith "Lost" a while back has been "Found" on his new album

When it was announced that Will Smith was gonna make another album, many people thought it wasn’t going to be good. I remember people in my Radio/TV class at high school saying things like “Will can’t make any good rap music anymore, he ain’t hard enough!” and “The last good thing he did was ‘Summertime!”. I’ve seen comments like these EVERYWHERE nowadays. To mainstream fans, he’s too soft (or as many people have idiotically said, ‘not black enough’) to be played on the radio with artists like 50 Cent. To underground fans, he’s not real Hip-Hop because he makes ‘pop rap’ songs like ‘Getting Jiggy with It’. It seems that people have forgotten what Will Smith was before he was a TV/movie star: a dope emcee. Of course, he isn’t on the lyrical level on many of the emcees that are out nowadays, but that doesn’t mean he’s wack. I respect the fact that he refuses to change his style to fit into the public’s idea of what a rapper is nowadays. Dropping his new album, “Lost & Found”, Will Smith continues his Hip-Hop career because of his passion for the music and culture, but does that mean the album’s good?...

1. Here He Comes (3 1/2 Stars)
2. Party Starter (4 1/2 Stars)
3. Switch (2 1/2 Stars)
4. Mr. Nice Guy (4 Stars)
5. Ms. Holy Roller (4 1/2 Stars)
6. Lost & Found (5 Stars)
7. Tell Me Why feat. Mary J. Blige (5 Stars)
8. I Wish I Made That / Swagga (2 1/2 Stars)
9. Pump Ya Brakes feat. Snoop Dogg (3 1/2 Stars)
10. If U Can’t Dance (Slide) feat. Nicole of Pussycat Dolls (3 1/2 Stars)
11. Could U Love Me (2 Stars)
12. Loretta (4 Stars)
13. Wave 'Em Off (2 Stars)
14. Scary Story (3 Stars)
15. Switch (R&B Remix) feat. Robin Thicke (4 Stars)
16. Switch (Reggae Remix) feat. Elephant Man [Hidden Track](1 Star)

The album opens with “Here He Comes”, which is basically a re-introduction into the rap game. Some fans might recognize this as the verse he spit over the “How We Do” beat on Tim Westwood’s UK Radio show recently. In all honesty, the track is decent, but the beat is what carries it. Produced by Will’s old partner, DJ Jazzy Jeff, we get a dope clubbish beat that samples original Spider-Man theme, while Will sings the chorus to the tune of the theme. Its basically the intro so things get better by the next song, “Party Starter”. Now THIS is the kind of club music that I want to hear. But don’t get it confused; its Not JUST a club song, that’s just how it starts out, but Will also goes on to speak on Hip-Hop, talking about he “longed for the good ol’ days”. This is probably the best ‘club’ track on the album, much better than the first single “Switch”, that’s for sure. That track is average at best, with a combination of a decent club beat, provided by Kwame, and poor lyricism by Will.

“Mr. Nice Guy” track that has had many people clamoring for his release, because it’s been promoted as Will’s response track to Eminem’s diss to him on “The Real Slim Shady”. To some this might seem laughable, but it's been blown out of proportion; Will’s ‘diss’ is nothing more than one line saying his diss didn’t bother him. Over an electric guitar-driven beat, Will responds to all of his critics, not just Eminem. He also sends shots at Larry Elder and Wendy Williams. His diss to Elder is the best though as he does his best impression of him, calls him an Uncle Tom, and says he’s lucky he didn’t dedicate a whole verse to him. Another track from later on the album, “Wave ‘em Off”, basically has the same concept (and guitar-driven beat) but isn’t as good. Anyway, following this is an even better song, “Miss Holy Roller”, which has Will taking on a topic not many rappers cover nowadays: born-again Christians. A very controversial topic, as he uses storytelling to show how some fundamentalists can be hypocrites and asks the question “If I don’t believe, would you believe I’m going to Hell?”

Following this would be the album’s two best tracks, the title track “Lost & Found” and “Tell Me Why”. The former has a beat laced with some heavily orchestrated violin loops and speaks on unoriginality in Hip-Hop. Will describes the rap game as “a circus with a bunch of clowns”. It’s true everybody and their mother has spoken on this subject and criticized mainstream rap, and some even do it just to get credibility among underground heads, but Will does deliver and gives us a great track. The latter is without a doubt, one of his best tracks ever, as he speaks on the problems going on in the world while Mary J. Blige sings the hook. He starts off telling us how it was hard to explain what happened on 9/11 to his kids, and then goes on to ask numerous questions, gradually yelling by the end of the track. This track is mostly perfect, though I do have ONE gripe with this track. To make him sound angrier when he’s asking the questions, he resorts to saying cursing and it is literally ‘bleeped’ out, which just sounds really corny: “Tell me why did Reginald Denny deserve his fate / and why the {fuck} can't love seem to defeat hate?!”. He claims to have ‘street cred’, yet bleeps his ‘offensive’ curse words so kids could still listen to his music. And yet, throughout this album, he still uses other curses like ‘damn’ and ‘ass’ … you’re contradicting yourself man! Other than that, the track is one of the best Will has ever done.

The thing that might turn people away is the fact that this album has a few club songs, but those club songs have overall concepts. Two perfect examples would be “Pump Ya Brakes” and “If You Can’t Dance (Slide)”, where he tries to bring back the humor he had as The Fresh Prince. The former is the better of the two; it features West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg and basically discusses violence in the club, telling the listeners to stop and think before things get out of hand. The latter is basically his most recent movie “Hitch” in song form, as he plays the ‘relationship advice guy’, giving guys advice about picking up a girl in a club. Later, he tries to flex his storytelling abilities on the much discussed “Loretta” Basically, it’s his version of the Eminem song “Stan”, as Will gives us a story of a fan that fell in love with him and ended up stalking him. Will’s rhymes are okay, but he’s carried by the production, which is some of the best on the whole album. But honestly, Will screwed up by doing this song. As I said, it’s his version of “Stan” and most people will only recognize it as such. It doesn’t matter if it was a true story, it will only be recognized as an Eminem rip-off by the general public. The album ends kinda badly, with two remixes of the first single, an “R&B Remix” and a Reggae Remix, listed as ‘Hidden Track’. The R&B remix is MUCH better than the original while the Reggae Remix is even WORSE than the original. See what I mean when I said it ends badly?

Now would you call this a classic album? Hell no. Is it Will’s best effort? Not even close. But I would say it’s better than his last few albums (“Willenium” and “Born to Reign”). Despite the fact that he’s pure pop, Will is a decent emcee overall who can still make a good album. Whatever Will had Lost a couple years ago he has found with this album.

Final Rating: 3 1/2 Stars