Buy or Bootleg:Jada Kiss - The Last Kiss

I remember back in the day when I couldn't wait for a CD from one of my favorite rappers to to hit the shelves. I would mob to the local record store with the homies,(Tower Records or the Warehouse) and grab my favorite packaged silver disc the day it came out. I would go back to the house, close my room door, throw it in my disc man and turn up the volume in my head phones to the point where I wouldn't hear someone shouting directly in my face. Man, things surly have changed.

My homeboy recently bought the Jada Kiss album through ITunes and transferred it directly to my computer. Sadly, the nostalgia of ripping off the explicit lyrics package was missing from this recent purchase, and I settled for an immediate listen on my way to work. Now before I give you my personal take on the album I should warn you that I've never been a huge fan of Jada. I mean, I think he's talented, but he throws out a one too many punch lines for my taste and I'm a little more content driven. With that being said, the album overall is pretty average. My expectations were already fairly low to begin with so it didn't take much to succeed them.

The first two songs on the album are pretty much typical Jada, and that's a good thing. Track one has some clean production that was made for someone to attack it and he does it justice. It's a well versed song to start the album with. The second track follows up almost seamless with a more smooth approach as Kiss talks about his presence in the game.

After the the first two cuts, the album was filled with peaks and valleys. Jada is pretty consistent on the album with his flows, but it's his choice of guest appearances and specific track selections that fall short. For one, the Swizz Beat produced "Who's Real" is terrible. It sounds like something that was just thrown on the album before its release because the two artist are homeboys. "Stress Ya" featuring Pharrell isn't too much better. When a hip hop artist tries too hard to score that hit its very noticeable, and this one is no exception. Kiss does his job on the track, it just doesn't sound like it belongs on the album.

The album is not with out a couple of bangers. "Something Else" is a hardcore track that reminded me of why I actually took the time to listen to this album. Jada and Jeezy both do their thing and this one is definitely something for the streets that you'll hear in passing car speakers for the next couple of months. "What If" featuring my boy Nas is a keeper. The only problem is that it reminds me a little too much of "Why" and I keep waiting for Anthony Hamilton to sing the hook, but its a another good concept that shows that Kiss has a little more range than the average rapper.

Overall I would say the album is what I thought it was, average. I would buy the album if I was fan of Jada Kiss and I don't think you will be disappointed. One of my main issues was that there were way to many R&B hooks on the album and that's not what I expect from Kiss. So if you're already lukewarm on Jada, I would bootleg it from your boy who picked it up. Hey, that's what I did and the fact that I'm not gonna delete it from my Ipod says a lot.