Cee-Rock
Bringin Da Yowzah
Cee-Rock "The Fury"
Turmic Records
Ranking 6/10

From the depths of Queens, NY comes Cee-Rock - the furiously fast lyricist known better as "The Fury." This hard-working independent artist's debut album, Bringin Da Yowzah provides promise, but lack finesse.

The album features some impressive production from the likes of Cee-Rock, DJ Erase, Promoe (of Loop Troop) and Mikey D. The underground beats are composed of all the essentials: piano loops, flutes, sampling and scratching. Lyrically, Cee-Rock provides a solidly fast flow, but tends to focus more on maintaining the rhythm rather than the content. As such, it is sometimes difficult to stay in tune with what Cee-Rock is rapping about.

'Yowzah' is a club-oriented track treated with some serious production at the hands of Cee-Rock. The eighties style chorus of "Cee-Rock the Fury" and the word of the day will get stuck in your head. 'Kill the Killin' is a funky electronica-esque track providing nice two-liners like "my soup's on so get out the croutons / no doubt I cut my rivals out like coupons". Cee-Rock explains his perspective on hip-hop and life on 'Get Smart' with lines like "my curse-less flow to some may seem soft / but it's hard cause I don't need death to come off" and the chorus of "you may be thuggish with the words you spit / but getting smarts is what you need to get / you wanna be tough, exercise the mind and drop the lines, felonious rhymes can now shine." 'Anderson Iz Nice' is a enjoyable laid-back track promoting Cee-Rock's flow.

Bringin Da Yowzah is a nice album to play in the background because without trying to listen to the lyrics, this album is quite solid. Overall, it needs some polishing and shining but does show considerable potential.

www.brockwayent.com

(Originally posted on HipHopCanada.com)

This review was written January 9, 2002