Curren$y
Pilot Talk
Release Date: Jul 13, 2010
Genre(s): Rap, Pop/Rock, Southern Rap, Hardcore Rap
Record label: Def Jam
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Album Review: Pilot Talk by Curren$y
Great, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
And so the Blueprint 3 influence begins. Jay-Z’s album art depicted a cluster of instruments wedged in the corner of a white room, forgotten and invisible. His point was that these things don’t need to be left out of hip-hop. Live bands at hip-hop shows have been the trend for a while—Jay-Z himself has performed with the Roots on MTV, while Lil’ Wayne regularly tours with a band (plus DJ)—but it’s only recently that live instrumentation has really taken a firm place in hip-hop.
Based on rating 8.4/10
Almost midway into Pilot Talk, there's a line that gets right to the heart of Curren$y's appeal: "Xbox web browser/ Download a updated NBA roster/ Play a 82-game season/ Condo full of snacks, Spitta not leaving." Not too many rappers could get away with bragging about sitting in their apartments all day playing NBA Live and eating Doritos, and even fewer would try. But Curren$y has hit a certain level of mixtape-level cult stardom in part because he's perfected his amiable everydude stoner persona, and that comes across vividly in that line even though he never mentions weed. He doesn't have to; it's implied.
Based on rating 8/10
Currensy’s third effort came with wider distribution than his earlier two, but rather than act like a second chance at a spotlight debut, Pilot Talk is a featured-filled album with plenty of tracks that will be familiar to anyone who keeps up on their Internet leaks. In other words, it introduces newcomers to the Currensy mixtape experience, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. The key cut must be the spacy roller called “King Kong” where the rapper revisits his pilot obsession and talks of swatting them out of the sky with more precision than that ten-story ape (by the mighty “Address” he’s got “Crooks in my neck from watching all the jets”).
Based on rating 2.5/5
Rappers with a pronounced regional stamp often end up trapped beneath the weight of that label, their growth impinged by its limits and rules. Think of someone like Ice Cube, whose spot-on embodiment of L.A. gangsta-rap tropes made him momentarily fearsome but ultimately ridiculous, decommissioned ….
Opinion: Average
KORN “Korn III: Remember Who You Are”. (Roadrunner).
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