Jackpot

Right Ugh
by: john reed

St. Louis based rapper Chingy may seem to be the heir apparent to the current big “buzz” in hip-hop (so much so, that he even named his debut effort Jackpot). But don’t let the self-important tile influence you.

While his first single “Right Thurr,” has come close to being the “song of the summer” (arguably right behind Beyonce’s “ Crazy In Love”), the rest of Jackpot beams with rehashed beats and unimaginative wordplay. Though Chingy must have thought he was putting out the "ultimate party disc” (like most hip-hoppers claim to do with each new product), he fails on too many counts.

“Wurrs My Cash" and "He's Herre" suffer from banality and over use of the exaggeratedly pronounced “rrrr’s” that he had used to good effect on “Right Thurr.”

Even relying on the skill of Ludacris (who serves at the producer of “Jackpot”), Chingy still comes off as jejune, in spite of all the media attention he has gotten (not in the least from Entertainment TV’s David Adelson, who had recently over-hyped Chingy’s then forthcoming debut in recent broadcasts. No big surprise, as Adelson is often wrong).

Where Chingy fails primarily is in his lack of originality. Most of his lyrics sound like leftovers from Snoop’s 1993’s DoggyStyle and his blatant Eminem copy on “Square Dance” just falls flat.

None of this will stop Jackpot from being a big seller, as it debuted at #2 in its first week of release.

Now, if you think the fact that the hip-hop world was in a state of unbearable unimaginativeness was just fiction, then spend your bucks on Jackpot. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself hocking it too a used CD store by late September. 15-Aug-2003 10:20 AM