Album Review- Diggy Simmons - Unexpected Arrival

The hottest thing in the streets other than Mindless Behavior for these teeny boppers right now is Diggy Simmons. The son of Ru DMC's Rev Run and the nephew of Defjam founder and hip-hop legend Russell Simmons, he gained fame on the mTV show Run's House, and while early on the future of the family in music looked dim as brother Jo-Jo now known as Young Simmons was the focal point of the musical endeavors. However, Diggy came into his own which was pointed out on this blog as well as others in the past few months. He dropped a mix tape and got signed to Atlantic and finally after a couple of years of hard work, he is here and thus is my album review of Unexpected Arrival.

"Hello World" is Diggy's chance to try and introduce himself and create something to talk about for the album. Mostly bragging, he tells his focus is 'money and girls'- duh, so original, while trying to downplay where he comes from so he can try to stand on his own merits. "Need to Know" shows Diggy trying to get personal with some self doubt in a way as he asks if you would still love him and look out if he didn't have his background or burgeoning skills. "88" is the first single and features Jada for some reason, maybe to add street or normal hip-hop credibility and he gets outshined by the youngster over an energetic track. "Two Up" is a more mature party track designed for a lounge and not the teen spots where Diggy suggests you put up two fingers and live it up.



You can tell Diggy has good connections and a professional pedigree, as "Special Occasion" features soulful singer Tank. This is also a song about enjoying life to the fullest. "Glow in the Dark" is about Diggy being a shining light, or a star amongst his peers and being the one. "4 Letter Word" is a song directed back at his core fan base, the young ladies and he tries to be unconventional with today's generation but this sounds like something from the 90's hip-hop mash-up heyday in the way the hook is worded and sung. Jeremih is more year appropriate to sing the hook on "Do it Like You" where they team up to tell a young lady no one else has it like them.

The idea behind "Tom Edison" plays out too long on the initial hook but this is more of a filler where Diggy is trying to do some traditional rapping. on "Unforgivable Blackness" Diggy tries to scratch up some depth on what is an otherwise simplistic album. It works as a song that a 16 year old who is directed toward the pop audience would do. The album ends with "The Reign" which isn't about much either.



The album is unexpected in a couple of ways, the first is that it sounds very mellow and more mature, with the exception of "88". The beats and hooks are more mellow and laid back and while Diggy does show that he has skill, the biggest issue is that he hasn't really lived life and so he doesn't have a grasp of actual issues though he does talk about the trappings of growing up with some success and tries to get deep, it just only goes as far as he can go and because he hasn't been very deep he can't get there. Not to say it's bad, I can definately listen to some of these songs with the kids in the car but overall, the feel just seems odd slightly and the pseudo-pop can remind me of Lupe Fiasco's last album, though this is actually better.

oh yeah and if you are under 22 I don't even want to see a comment from you. You haven't heard anywhere near enough rap to have an educated opinion on this, just grab your skateboard and skinny jeans and roll on out of this blog here.

Rating: 2.5/5

Comments

  1. No comment-even though I'm old as shit lol

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