Review of Stylie Ray's Testimonies of Life

A while back, Steve Juon reviewed the KRS-One album, "Spiritual Minded" for rapreviews.com. Any of you that haven't read that review yet are encouraged to, because it will serve as a bit of a companion piece to my review of Stylie Ray's "Testimonies of Life." In talking about "Spiritual Minded," Steve made a very accurate observation: for the most part -- the sub-genre known as "gospel rap" is very weak and hard to take seriously. I agree with Steve that KRS' latest album stood head and shoulders above that crowd, and not only because of its excellent production and obviously top-notch rhymes. What really surprised people about "Spiritual Minded" was the way it managed to spread the Word of God without sounding corny or getting twisted up in stupid gangster shit.

So what does this have to do with Stylie Ray? Well, "Testimonies of Life," like "Spiritual Minded," is definitely something that most would call a "gospel rap" album. Unfortunately, that is where the similarities between the two end, because on "Testimonies," Stylie Ray manages not only to sound corny, but also get twisted up in all KINDS of stupid, thugged-out, gangster shit. Now, let me clear things up a bit. I am by no means opposed to thugged-out gangster shit. Some of my favorite hip-hop of all time could be classified that way. I am, however, opposed to corniness of any kind. Because of this, I found little to like about "Testimonies of Life."

On this album, Stylie and his cohorts don't seem to have any kind of focus. They go from inspirational, almost preachy tunes to hardcore, violence-laced tracks without any explanation. This contributes to some very disjointed and puzzling listening for anyone daring enough to listen to the entire album front to back. Besides lacking focus, "Testimonies of Life" seems to also be devoid of any creativity when it comes to song titles. With names like "Ride Wit Me", "Keep it Real", "Don't Give Up", and "Surrender" (among several others), I wonder why Stylie didn't at least TRY to come up with something original. That type of shit bugs me.

Another of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to rap music is MCs that have more braggadocio than skills. Stylie Ray is one of those MCs. It's not that he's untalented, though; he does show some competence (albeit infrequently). He's got a voice that reminds me of a watered-down Cormega and a style that has CLEARLY been influenced by Tupac. But he doesn't come close to the level of either of them, especially 'Pac (RIP), who he jocks without apology. With a weak, inconsistent flow, and an unconfident tone that presides, Stylie needs more practice. And sadly, he is outshone by every one of the guest rappers on this disc, and there are plenty of them.

The only big name on the disc is Spice 1, but I was much more impressed by Cindo Reel, who shows up on five different tracks. Bubblishiz is also kinda nice on the mic, but saying Cindo Reel stole this show would be a HUGE understatement. This cat has some serious potential, and I'd like to hear more of him. If he put an album together, it would definitely be on my wish list. In fact, if there's one good reason to check out "Testimonies of Life," it's Cindo Reel.

But if Cindo did decide to put out an album, I hope he would be smart enough to find some new producers to work with. The list of offenders on the production side of "Testimonies" is a long one, but the only producers who manage to craft a decent beat are something called Focus 4 a-FOC.aliptic MusicWorks on the track, "Keep it Real." It's got some heavy-ass low bass and a surprisingly jazzy feel for this "gangster" album. I'm tempted to say it's the only beat on here that is even tolerable, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate (although everything else sounds like a terrible Dr. Dre ripoff from a night when he was drunk behind the boards). And if you have the need to hear one of the worst, wackest beats of all time, listen to "Surrender." Listening to it, I feel like I'm in a fucking elevator. It's that laughable.

Another confusing and infuriating aspect of the album are the horrible interludes. There are two, and they both feature an aimless Stylie Ray talking shit about how skilled he is and how he doesn't give a fuck what y'all think. He's backed by some low-quality synth beats on each of them, but outrageously, the two interludes combine to make more than FIVE MINUTES of bullshit. What was the point of this?!? Actually, come to think of it, 95% of the shit on this CD would be considered filler material on almost anyone else's album. The ultimate joke on "Tesimonies of Life" though comes when Stylie Ray claims that he is "ahead of his time," and that he'll be "on your radio real soon." For the sake of the music that I love, I hope he is wrong about that. Please, avoid this album.