8Ball Presents – Memphis All Stars: Cars, Clubs, & Strip Clubs

Posted on Mar 20 in Reviewsby adminPrint

Its been somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years since 8Ball has been one of the largest heavyweights in the rap game (pun intended). Alongside his partner behind the mic, MJG, the Memphis duo has gone on to garner tremendous respect almost rivaling that of other southern duos such as UGK and Outkast. Knowing the pinnacles that the two have reached 8Ball uses the early part of 2009 to drop a much needed compilation to help shed light on some of the other heavyweights out of the M-town. Serving as a somewhat feature heavy solo album Memphis All Stars: Cars, Clubs, And Strip Clubs should be a culture rich ride through the Tennessee town known for blues as well as bass.

8Ball, MJG, and Tela hook up for the second coming of “Sho Nuff” with the collection’s opening effort “Gangsta Luv.” The three go hard over a smoothly blended, bass-less, and key heavy backdrop. After a very promising beginning things immediately go down hill with sorry efforts such as the MJG and Yo Gotti assisted “Getting In” and “Smoke Somethin.” 8Ball enlists the expertise of Gangsta Blak to help him proclaim how difficult the veteran grind can be on the 90’s sounding “My Whole Life.”

After an appealing effort 8Ball comes back with Three 6’s lost female MCs Gangsta Boo and La Chat on the ill placed “Good.” Aside from a stupid ass choice of topics “Get Gone” actually turns out to be one of the high points of the early half of the collection where understudies Devius and Da Volunteers mesh well with their mentor on the bass heavy standout. Kingpin Skinny Pimp and 8Ball trade verses over a well-scripted sample of Jodeci’s “Freakin You” on the strip club ready “Dollaz.”  A seemingly serious affair with Three 6 Mafia, 8Ball, MJG, and Project Pat turns out to be far from that, as the Memphis Titans don’t cash in on the disappointing “This Aint.”

Big Ball gets things back on tracks when he takes a few notes off of Bootsy Collins’ legendary track “I’d Rather Be With You” for another strip club tailored effort “Soo Thick.” “Stickin2MyFingaz” turns out to be an average at best track even though it really doesn’t manage to do its subject matter the least bit of justice. 8Ball’s flow is on point reminiscent of his earlier days on the album’s biggest sleeper joint “100%.” El Hakim The Poet spits six solid minutes of spiritual enlightenment before 8Ball cleans up with a couple of verses geared towards educating the streets on the closing effort, “Love Spoken.”

Memphis All Stars is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, twist and turns. Some of the album is great while other parts are horrible. The overall picture for the M-Town is a very bleak one with some of the older favorites still showcasing the capability to spit venom while others prove they need to retire from the game all together. Luckily for the listener 8Ball handles a bulk of the work on the compilation and even allows MJG to fill some of the collection’s holes. Honestly this compilation won’t get you fired up to hear anything other than a new 8Ball & MJG record.

VERDICT – 11 / 20
LYRICS: 3
PRODUCTION: 3
DELIVERY: 3
CONSISTENCY: 2