Album #1: The Preacher's Son - Wyclef Jean

Track Listing:
Intro
Industry
Party To Damascus (feat. Missy Elliott)
Celebrate (feat. Patti LaBelle and Cassidy)
Baby Daddy (feat. Redman)
Three Nights In Rio (feat. Carlos Santana)
Class Reunion (feat. Monica)
Baby
I Am Your Doctor (feat. Wayne Wonder and Elephant Man)
Linda (feat. Carl Restivo)
Take Me As I Am (feat. Sharissa)
Grateful
Next Generation (feat. Scarface and Rah Digga)
Rebel Music (feat. Prodigy of Mobb Deep)
Who Gave The Order (feat. Buju Banton)
Party By The Sea (feat. Buju Banton and T-Vice)
Party To Damascus Remix (feat. Missy Elliott)

I've always like Wyclef, so that made this a safe choice. I wanted to start with something I would enjoy, so as not to be turned off to the entire idea. Some people have mentioned that I could download 52 albums in a few hours if I wanted to. While this is true, it's not the point. My reason for doing this is to download one album a week, listen to it at least once a day, and then write about it. Hopefully most of them will be completly new music, opening up new styles and genres for me to enjoy. And I really don't want a RIAA lawsuit. That was just a joke.

Back to The Preacher's Son. This album has what I've been missing from mainstream hip hop recently, a message. I'm so tired of rappers talking about how much money they have, what cars they drive, and all that bullshit. Who cares? I love tracks like Where is the Love by Black Eyed Peas. Tracks that have a social message. Wyclef brings this with this release.

Industry:
Shots go off mothers cry
Busters ride homicide
Black on Black crime needs to stop
yall cant blame it on hip hop
Cause what we say is what we see
and what we see is reality
a ghettos a ghettos we got to live in the sorrow
so we will live to see tomorrow

This is a hip hop album but the only rap you'll hear is from guest stars. Instead 'Clef sings the verses and the chorus in his distinct reggae voice. You would think that so many guests on an album would detract from the main star but not so in this case. They fit right in and never step out of place. The most notable are Missy Elliot on Party to Damascus with a distinct middle eastern sound, Carlos Santana on Three Nights in Rio with a smooth Latin beat. All go great with the overall reggae feel. Scarface and Rah Digga on Next Generation :

Feel the tears of the angels looking down on me crying
For a lying ass but yo forgive us in a while
And I'm sorry, never let me forget that I'm your child
While I'm locked up in this basement staring eye to eye with Satan
In this cold dark world with no patience
We get plotted on by agents with talks of replacing
The Africans, Jamaicans and the Haitians in this next generation

Nobody cares about the feelings of the poor
Man they suffer while we spending eighty billion on a war, uh
Cutting school budgets, US stockmarket plummets
Condition's only worse and I wonder what become it
Metal detectors replace music classes
Angry little kids wanna beat their teacher's asses
The red and blue's, somebody gotta lose
Reality TV be reality for who

Who Gave the Order:
Well what you gonna do, what you gonna do, what are you gonna do
Incarcerate a million and only free few
What was done to others, it shall be done to you
Open up your eyes and you will see the full view
Work all day, and you can't get raise in pay
Civilly bodies being taken away
I wonder what the voice of the people have to say
Stand up and defend your rights today

That's heavy shit. That makes you think. That's what music is for. That's what this album does.