Superbad suffered from the weight of the absurd expectations that Boosie created for himself. Coming off a string of excellent mixtapes, notable for both their ferocity and fearlessness, Torrence Hatch’s sophomore Asylum release seemed formulaic and calculated. With his mixtapes keeping an equilibrium between searing political polemics like “Fuck the Police,” weed anthems like “Loaded,” chromatic portraits of hood life, and the occasional soft-hearted “for the ladies” jam–few contemporary gangsta rappers conveyed their complexities and contradictions as well as Baton Rouge’s best.
Perversely, Superbad attempted to smooth out his rough edges–precisely the same reason why people liked Boosie in the first place. He’s raw, not in an unpolished way, but more that he’s prone to telling reporters that his hobbies include sticking E Pills in “girls’ bootie holes.” Eddie Murphy raw. By no means is it a bad album, just one plagued by bad decisions: the constant and grating presence of Lil Phat and Mouse, little conceptual or thematic unity, and a song regrettably titled, “Miss Kissing on U.” (Ben Westhoff’s Washington City Paper review addresses these in more depth.)
The LP’s best track was arguably the Young Jeezy and Webbie aided, “Better Believe It,” a monolithic slab of victory lap-rap. In a show of the respect that Boosie commands in the South, he enlists Bun B and Trae (and Yo Gotti and Foxx–I imagine the latter fit him into his busy schedule of performing his one verse of “Wipe Me Down”and chasing quarry) for the remix. Boosie boasts that he has “Black Fans, White Fans, Jew Fans, Spanish Fans, Bumble-Clots, and Mexicans.” Bun B does vintage 16-bar Bun B. Yo Gotti provides a competent Jeezy facsimile, and Trae’s shredded double-time drawl tears up the sinister synth lines of the stone cold stunner of a beat. Facing a jail bid, it’s hard not to hope for more of this stuff rather than listen to Boosie “wishing to sip on a girl’s daquiris.” And though I imagine Boosie only has 17 Jewish fans, the shout out was a nice gesture. Boosie l’chaim.
Download:
MP3: Lil Boosie ft. Young Jeezy & Webbie-“Better Believe It”
MP3: Lil Boosie ft. Bun B, Trae, Yo Gotti, Foxx-“Better Believe it Remix”
