FFWD’s: Strong Arm Steady|In Search of Stoney Jackson
Coming out of California’s underground scene, Strong Arm Steady (SAS) returns with their official second album In Search of Stoney Jackson. This time SAS has producer Madlib behind the boards on all the tracks for Stoney Jackson. What this does is make a cohesive sounding album where all the songs fit with each other. With the abundance of features of the album, Stoney Jackson also sometimes feels as if it’s a Madlib compilation instead of a Strong Arm Steady album.
Tracks like the Phonte featured “Best Of Times”, Talib Kweli on “Get Started”, & the Planet Asia & Fashawn assisted “Questions” are all great tracks but the supporting cast outshines the supposed stars. Another standout track with great features is the posse cut “True Champs” featuring Montage One, Evidence, Oh No, & Roc C. Not to say Strong Arm doesn’t have tracks where they are the main attraction (“Cheeba Cheeba” & “Smile” are the only tracks that doesn’t have features), but even then, the star of the show is Madlib. For my money “Two Pistols” is hands down the best song off the album due to the beat (The beat on “Ambassadors” is worth a listen too).
There are some parts in which the album stalls and seem boring (“Pressure”, “New Love” & and the interludes like “Chants” could probably have been left off) but in all, it’s good ride while looking for Stoney Jackson. The main problem is that I didn’t have a feeling that this album would make first time listeners seek out for more SAS material. The talent is there but on the next album, the search sound be for the spotlight on themselves.
Download: Strong Arm Steady feat. Planet Asia & Fashawn – “Questions”
Download: Strong Arm Steady feat. Montage One, Evidence, Oh No, & Roc C – “True Champs”
Download: Strong Arm Steady feat. Mitchy Slick – “Two Pistols”
These rappers do have talent but they still are booorrrrrriiinnnnggggg!
What you mean by these rappers?
“Two Pistols” has the beat of the year so far.
fuck outta here mackkkk
I agree with you on just about everything B-Easy. The beats on this album are ridiculous. However, I was a little dissapointed by Strong Arm Steady’s lyrical performance. I’m hoping Madlib comes with the some formula for OJ Simpson (Guily Simpson collabo).
Top 5: Best Of Times, Cheeba Cheeba, Questions, True Champs, Two Pistols
Grade: (3.5/5) B
On point review Easy, you’re definitely right that Madlib’s production outshines Strong Arm Steady on this album. But I mean what would you expect in having Madlib produce the entire album knowing his history and status as a producer. “Best Of Times” and “Chittlins & Pepsi” are my favorite joints on the album for Madlib’s production (especially the latter) and Phonte’s verse (he needs to drop a solo album already…). SAS are decent rappers IMO (only really knew them from Xzibit association) and don’t really make this album theirs like you stated, hopefully they change that on future albums.