Album Review by Marcus Deutsch
Straight out of the Brooklyn Projects (yes, the same Brooklyn Projects that gave us The Notorious B.I.G, Big Daddy Kane, Jay Z etc…), Sauce Money has come to town with nothing but a rhyming dictionary and a business plan. He’s already a Grammy-winning lyricist, having provided all the parts not written by Sting on the godawful I’LL BE MISSING YOU TRIBUTE to the aforementioned Mr B.I.G, but I suspect Puff Daddy made most of the dough so Sauce Money is striking out on his own.
MIDDLE FINGER U is his debut solo album and the kind of stripped-to-the-bone, hard-as-nails and deliberately musicless hip hop that made us sit up and listen when NWA did it ten years ago. Now it’s as much as we can do to stiffle a yawn. Enter the ubiquitous cast of Niggas, Hos, Motherfuckers, Bitches and Faggots, and marvel at our hero’s sexual prowess and arbitrary acts of random violence (sorry, where did you say you were going to stick that Heineken bottle?). This tedious stuff is meted out, predictably, with all the good humour of an Armenian wake.
Purists will no doubt say that this is the “genuwine” article and disappear into the throng on the dancefloor. The rest of us will be happy just to get our coats and leave.
