Album Review: Brooklyn's Don Diva by Foxy Brown

Female rap is outta control. Kim’s judging Girlicious. Remy’s in jail. Lauryn’s on Pluto. (Canada, stand up! It’s your turn, ladies.) And Foxy just spent a year in jail for various irresponsible misdemeanors. Her blossoming (and horrifying) romance with Def Jam “Boss” Rick Ross might ….

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You'd think seven years -- turbulent years that involved a bout with near-total deafness and in-public temper issues that led to some time behind bars -- would allow Foxy Brown more than enough time and experiences to make Brooklyn's Don Diva anything but a reheated version of 2001's Broken Silence, but that is what it most resembles, as opposed to a bold step forward or a reclamation of her power. A couple tracks and a few stray lines aside, these verses could have been dashed off by the MC at just about any earlier point in her career -- a shame since the hypnotizing likes of "Too Real," featuring snaking and skanking production from Statik Selektah (and a verse from AZ), and "Star Cry" hint at how potent the album could've been, given the soul-searching tension between anger, sadness, and swaggering combativeness. During the latter, she temporarily rejects her possessions and fame, fights back tears through "I'm just like y'all, but I probably hurt more/After 13 years I feel I deserve more.

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