Published on Sep 30, 2003
Chris Wong Won, better known as Fresh Kid Ice of 2 Live Crew
fame, has seen his share of ups and downs in his career as a
rapper. He’s seen the band he co-founded at the top of the
publicity heap and has sold millions of albums over the years. He’s
also seen 2 Live Crew go through more lineup changes than a
baseball team stricken with food poisoning, to the point where he
literally
is 2 Live Crew at this stage in the game.
So it does make sense to credit
Stop Playin’ to both Won and 2 Live Crew, even if he shares
the spotlight with numerous up and coming rappers (some of whom
prove they have the talent to make names for themselves), and while
there are some weak moments on this disc, it does suggest that 2
Live Crew is taking the right steps toward launching a full-scale
comeback.
With a basis in Won’s 2000 solo disc
Still Nasty (where it appears a few of these songs first
took life), the Trinidad-born rapper still can dish out the sexual
lingo and make a sailor blush with some of his rhymes. But this
aspect of 2 Live Crew seems to have toned down significantly —
sure, you still have songs like “Gimme The Pussy,” but it sometimes
feels like Won is trying to create a Montell Jordan-style groove
behind the raps, as heard on songs like “Shake Junk Queen” and
“Chinaman (In Ya Life).” It’s a more mature sound to the raps, and
it works well with the style of rap that Won is delivering
here.
There are some audio throwbacks to the old days, like on “Booty
Drop” and “Still Nasty (As He Wanna Be),” but to Won’s credit, he
seems to use these to tie his past in with the present, and the
mixture works well. In a sense, Won is to be credited that he
doesn’t try to coast on the coattails of his past, choosing instead
to hint to it while pushing his raps and music forward.
This doesn’t always work as well as Won would like — especially
on the title track, which also serves as the first single. It’s not
that the track is bad, but Won’s vocals seem to be buried in the
mix — something especially noticeable when other rappers
Fish-N-Grits, Big Will and SIN can be heard relatively clearly.
The instrumental version of “Stop Playin'” — which, in all
honesty, only shows how much the samples are missed at times —
also suggests that when 2 Live Crew tries to keep the songs simple
in their structure, they run the risk of becoming stale very
quickly. With no real variation in the musical backbone of this
track, one is left to question if it will have the staying power of
older songs like “Me So Horny”.
Still, Won holds his own remarkably well, getting help from such
rappers as Madd Blunted (“Shake It” — with a dancehall reggae
groove that is infectious — and “Gettin’ High”), Men-E-Faces
(“Shake Junk Queen”) SPIN and MC Madness (“Booty Drop”). With all
of this, though, I did find myself wishing that Won had depended
less on other rappers and stuck to delivering more of the raps
himself. Granted, 2 Live Crew has always been a collaborative
effort. But, as said before, Won is 2 Live Crew, at least until he
determines who else would fit the group well.
Chances are the average listener will go into
Stop Playin’ not expecting much from 2 Live Crew, especially
with former Svengali Luther Campbell long gone from their
spotlight. But Won makes a solid case with this disc, and even
dares to hint that 2 Live Crew could well be on the cusp of a
full-fledged comeback. With
Stop Playin’, he proves that he’s on the road there, but
that the journey is still continuing.