Notes & Personnel Info |  | The Parental Advisory version of this CD is available with two different covers, one featuring Trillville (Reprise 48556), and the other featuring Lil Scrappy (Reprise 48691). | | Personnel includes: Lil Scrappy, Trillville, Pastor Troy, Hotballs Johnson, Mr. Easy, Cutty, Bohagon, Caskit, Big Nod, Grip, Lil Jon, Bo Hagon, Stay Fresh, Buck Thrusthorne. | | Producers: Lil Jon, Scrappy, Don P., Joe "Da Bingo" Bing. | | This is an example of Southern Rap "Screwed" mix style. | | Personnel: Lil Scrappy; Caskit, Big Nod (vocals); Craig Love (guitar); Don P, LROC (keyboards); Trillville. | | Additional personnel: Cutty, Hotballs Johnson, Lil Jon, Pastor Troy, Slim Thug, Stay Fresh, Twista, Buck Thrusthorne. | | Audio Mixers: Jonathon "Lil' Jon" Smith; Chris Carmouche; John Frye. | | Recording information: Circle House Studios, Miami, FL; Larrabee Studios, West Hollywood, CA; Maddhouse Studios, Atlanta, GA; Platinum Sound, Albany, GA; Soundlab Studios, Atlanta, GA; Stankonia Recordings, Atlanta, GA. | | Photographers: Zach Wolfe; Michael Blackwell. | | The crunk sound bubbled out of secret swamps underneath the gritty streets of Atlanta well over a decade before Lil Jon and his Eastside Boyz were proclaimed kings. However, undeniable ex-DJ and record executive Lil Jon brought out the music's most granular, elemental form and drove the aggressive, infectious, dance-floor grinding sound into an unforeseen stratosphere of platinum. Fittingly, the rap guru showcases two of Atlanta's strongest purveyors of crunk, Trillville and Lil Scrappy, with two individual albums worth of material packed and intertwined on one relentlessly pounding record. | | Lil Scrappy opens, declaring "I'm on top of the world, ma," which embodies the inebriated spirit of the Southern-fried sound, then promptly gets rowdy with anthems like "Head Bussa" and the sinister "No Problem." Trillville's three-headed monster of Big Mouf, Don P, and LA brings it even harder and more unyieldingly, rapping disturbingl over a variation on the Halloween theme on "Get Some Crunk in Yo System" and righteously rhythmic over a game-show refrain on "Weakest Link." Lil Jon knows how to mix music, and the two acts he combines weave into each other perfectly for one beat-fueled party. | | Dang! Maybe it's the fact he's got more than one artist to choose from, but whatever the reason, DJ/remixer Michael Watts is positively on fire here. The Swishahouse main man and Texas' greatest contribution to syrup sippers everywhere bounces between destroying and pumping up Lil Scrappy and Trillville's split album, creating a hypnotic haze that's one part party, one part bad trip. He doesn't go half and half like original producer Lil Jon did. Instead, he switches artists every three songs or so, sticks the Bohagon bonus track in the middle instead of on the end, and makes the album busier and fiercer with tight edits and perfect flow. He's screwed (slowed) things down more on other releases, but he's only chopped up tracks this vigorously on his bootleg mixtapes (and if you can find the Swishahouse mix of Prince's "Purple Rain" -- whoo-lawd!). Thunderous booms and jerky stutters are the way Watts takes Trillville's more hook-filled chants on, while Lil Scrappy gets every third or fourth hectic lyric rewound. Since no major label has allowed Watts to chop and screw a compilation's worth of artists, this has to be the best aboveground example of what the man can do, and without a doubt the most varied. Chopping and screwing will remain a simplistic, freakish, and totally unnecessary genre to most, but Watts' savage ripping of these Lil Jon prot?g?s will make skeptics with even a sliver of excitement for the druggy sound into jaw-dropped believers. ~ David Jeffries |
Engineer: Chris Carmouche; John Frye; Kevin "KD" Davis; Ifmel Nino Ramos; Jonathan Cantrell; Mark Vinten; Taj "Mahal" Tilghman; Luis Diaz; Marion Meadows |
Musical Guests | | Lil Jon | | Pastor Troy | | Twista |
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