 |
 |
|
| News |
|
|
| Links |
|
 |
| Fo Clips Eclipse - Just Be Thankful (1995) Producer: Ronnie Marlon Phillips Label: Dangerous Records Distribution: Warlock Records / ITM Media No. Of Tracks: 16 Fo clips dropped his first and only release in 1995 , he comes from Compton L.A and was also influenced by the bloods and crips. His album is one for keeping , its gangsta funk with a straight laidback feel. The album starts of with the usual 'intro' but then quickly moves on to 'Be Thankful' , This track is a classic , not only does it have a very meaingful message that you should be thankful for what you have got as at the end of the day there is always somebody worse off no matter what. The track opens with a classic soulful sample voice while bongo drums skilfully play in the background. The track continues with some very well spoken lyrics that you can only find in a rap album based on g-funk. |
 |
 |
 |
| 'G-funk' as the name suggests is a very funk track that opens with a another deep soul voice but from a different backing singer , this singing is accompanied by a soft female voice in the chorus reciting the words 'The music just turns me on'. I especially like it when artists recognize the gfunk genre and fo clips has done so by naming this track g-funk. The track flows very well with some really well placed lyrics , also in this track you can here the whiney synth and some simple DJ scratching. The next 2 songs 'compton street lights' and 'its on' are another too good tracks , the temp is a big slower in theses two tracks and they are not the strongest in the album but still good , 'its on' comes in strong with a wonderful chorus with some very special gfunk melodies so even though i am saying theses tracks are not the best they are still very good just compared to the rest of the album they dont stand out. 'No love' is a good song , good lyrics and a good beat however i think its this beat which is the downfall to this song , for me its just too repetative , the same beat is played throughout the track which does get a bit boring after 2 mionutes , this beat is split up with some simple dj mixing however its not enough to redeem this song , this song would have been good if say a light synth was played in along with the beat however i think this is the so called 'gangsta' track that most gfunk albums seem to have , although the rest of the album may be funky they dont want to stray to far from their roots so they inject the album with a gangsta cut. |
| 'Can you feel me' is where it starts getting interesting again :) you can tell straight away that this track is going to be tight with the opening beat , this beat plays all th way through this track and is just hypnotic , going along with this beat is a soft synth tone which is there you just have to listen for it carefully. as i move through the tracks on this album i can here that fo clips is trying to really set a message here , and the track 'hold on' does this once again. This track is just great , it comes with this very meaningful message , talkbox and as always some really nice guitar. the talkbox is worth a mention here as its used very well , some artists just go over board with the talkbox but when its used as well as it is here it makes for a very good tool , here all the wrords that he wants you to here are highlighted by the talkbox. 'Blues club' is an intro for the next song 'whip it on me' this cant really be called a rap track as i think it was just put it in the album as in intermission type track and to give the listner a break from the rap. What this track does tell the listener is that fo clips can sing very well as he has a great voice. This cant be said for alot of rappers as their talent usually ends with the rapping however fo clips is part of the minority here. |
| Its also good to note here that their was 2 releases of Just be thankful. Here we can see both versions on the picture above. The one on the Left was released in 1995 so we can say the original release , it was then re-released in 1996 and thats on the left , the 1996 updated things a little with different writing however there were no new tracks. 'Cant put me under' has a gangsta feel to it so as you can image its not me favourite track , we will move on to 'life Aint easy' this track continues the theme of messages in this album , it also demonstrates fo clips ability to sing once again which is a good thing , the track has a nice harmonay of guitar and lightly played keyboard as the backing melody. 'My people hungry' is a good track , this is a track on this album that is really infused with gfunk , a whiney synth in the background as well as a deep hook of keyboard. Fo clips sings in this track and along with the rapping he brings this track home. 'Far to in' is really rememorable with the synth and keyboard tones that it uses. There is a mix of various tones throughout this song as well as a good drum beat. k-tee also features on this track which is good as it splits us away from fo clips for a couple of minutes. The last 2 tracks continue this good album one with a great beat and the other with singing and the beat :). when thinking of a rating for this album its hard , one of the one hand we have an album which has very well written and produced songs and on the other we have a couple of stand out gangsta tracks and 1 one 'boring' track. I have decided to give it 4 G's. Yes i know its a high rating but you cannot deny that this album is a classic gfunk title and the good tracks far out weight the negatives to this album. G G G G Samples Be Thankful Far 2 In |