Various Artists - Jermaine Dupri Presents...Young Fly and Flashy

Tuesday - August 16, 2005

Albert McCluster III

After taking over as President of Virgin Records Urban Jermaine Dupri was just waiting to show what he had in his bag of tricks for the label. He’s produced for just about errybody who is anybody in the biz and has been responsible for makin a few somebodies...though to fall off later.

This CD is definitely a venue for JD to get "hisself" out there with the radio blasted cut "Gotta Getcha", which has been getting much play on the airwaves and Janet blessed video...other than that the CD fall s kinda short to feature so many different MCs and styles.

Starting with Young Capone with Daz and T. Rock on the cut I’m Hot is a good cut, but fails to inspire...skip to the next...Just To Fight brings the monster out in Pastor Troy as his flow adds compliment to the hook.

Now I am an ol' skool fan of Da Brat and caught her totally blunt performance on VH-1's Surreal Life where she said that she was working on some cuts with JD and a new album...I guess I Think They Like Me (Remix) is one of those "cuts"...with assist from Bow Wow and JD...Brat shows that she can still lay it down...But again...next track...

Put Cha Hands Up is for the clubs...that's it. It's one of those songs that will fade into the memories and not really draw anything from you if you ever hear it again... With performances from the So-So Def/Virgin clan Dem Franchise Boyz, Da Brat, Bow Wow, Kato, T.Waters, downhome southern luv from the likes of Bun B. and some general input from Slim, J-Kwon, Stat Quo, KP and Envyi the president of Virgin Urban has proved he can bring in the young and the flashy...but, getting from just fly to hits just may be a problem.