Foxy Brown has had a helluva few years. After a brush with deafness (she recovered after corrective surgery) and numerous legal scuffles, 2007 ended with a stay in NYC’s Riker’s Island jail. A well-chronicled human tornado since she debuted in ’96, she’s one rapper who seems to live what she speaks—simultaneously an admirable and regrettable trait for a woman whose strong sense of self is often marred by her rough instincts.
Her last single before Brooklyn’s Don Diva, 2005’s stunning “Come Fly With Me,” was Foxy at her finest—she spit lyrics with a veteran’s ferocity. Unfortunately, nothing on Don Diva approaches that song’s promise, as she rehashes topics already nailed on 2001’s Broken Silence (Def Jam): the luxuriousness of her wardrobe, the fierceness of her fists, the illness of her nana. It’s as if Fox is rapping her own Wikipedia entry. But following the controversy of 2007 alone, even semi-witty brags and disses like “Louis Vuitton/don Boucheron bracelets/them other bitches need more facelifts” from opener “Rumors of Fox,” lack emotional context and land with a thud.
Only two tracks seem to truly penetrate her thick skin. On “Too Real,” she poignantly wonders how she dropped from the top of the world onto the bus to Riker’s over a mesmerizing Statik Selektah production. And on “Star Cry,” Fox symbolically deconstructs her own armor, offering a glimpse of Inga: “Look beyond my fur coats and Chanel purses/Put aside the Christian Dior/And look inside my soul/See, I’m just a little insecure.” It’s no “BK Made Me,” but it helps flesh out the otherwise disappointing Don Diva, and lightens the dead-weight of clunky production and two too many appearances by Black Hand buddy Grafh. It’s the rare moment when Fox isn’t her own worst enemy.
Source: Vibe.com
Her last single before Brooklyn’s Don Diva, 2005’s stunning “Come Fly With Me,” was Foxy at her finest—she spit lyrics with a veteran’s ferocity. Unfortunately, nothing on Don Diva approaches that song’s promise, as she rehashes topics already nailed on 2001’s Broken Silence (Def Jam): the luxuriousness of her wardrobe, the fierceness of her fists, the illness of her nana. It’s as if Fox is rapping her own Wikipedia entry. But following the controversy of 2007 alone, even semi-witty brags and disses like “Louis Vuitton/don Boucheron bracelets/them other bitches need more facelifts” from opener “Rumors of Fox,” lack emotional context and land with a thud.
Only two tracks seem to truly penetrate her thick skin. On “Too Real,” she poignantly wonders how she dropped from the top of the world onto the bus to Riker’s over a mesmerizing Statik Selektah production. And on “Star Cry,” Fox symbolically deconstructs her own armor, offering a glimpse of Inga: “Look beyond my fur coats and Chanel purses/Put aside the Christian Dior/And look inside my soul/See, I’m just a little insecure.” It’s no “BK Made Me,” but it helps flesh out the otherwise disappointing Don Diva, and lightens the dead-weight of clunky production and two too many appearances by Black Hand buddy Grafh. It’s the rare moment when Fox isn’t her own worst enemy.
Source: Vibe.com
