There’s a borrough in N.Y. called Brooklyn, Biggie came from there, Jay-Z does too, and, of course, Foxy Brown. Since her debut album “Ill Na Na” and China Doll in 1998, Foxy had several ups and downs including an accident and beef with Lil’ Kim enlarged by Foxy herself with 16 diss bars on CNN’s “The Reunion”. Now, the three-year-lasting silence is broken – “Broken Silence” hits the stores.

After the intro which features a lot of media messages about Foxy’s downs during the last years, we come to “Fallin’” feat. Young Gavin singing the hook, Fox tells us that she is still here and proves some skills. “Oh Yeah” feat. Spragga Benz tries a reggae-influenced experiment, then we come to the first smash “BK Anthem” where Foxy represents her borrough – that shit is hot, even though the beat needs some habituation. On “The Letter”feat. Ron Isley, Foxy goes deep and thanks her mom, her brothers and her baby for all the things they've done when Foxy was down. I really feel this one, too, both the content as well as the rhyme flow. “Candy” features a Neptunes beat – listen to it, and you’ll know that it’s the Neptunes production, sounds like Jay Hova’s “Just Wanna Love You”. Foxy, indeed, shows that she has talent, and the beat goes to the fullest, too. “Tables will turn”, produced by Dave Kelly, is way too nervous, and Baby Cham’s appearance shows how keen Foxy was on giving the record some reggae/ragga elements – not my thing. “Run Dem” feat. Baby Cham, however, satisfies, at least Fox does… On “’Bout My Paper”, the Ill Na Na gets down with “Danger (been so long)-Shake that Ass” Mystikal who gives this album a welcome new influence. “Run Yo Shit” with Capone-N-Noreaga, well, I really do feel Nore’s drunken intro, the rest is average. The Neptunes also produced “Gangsta Boogie” with a very, very strange sample and an even more bizarre hook – “Na Na Be Like” satisfies at all, “So Hot” feat. Young Gavin has the coolest production by Clue & Duro (haven’t we heard this beat before…?), but isn’t that cool as far as the rhymes are concerned. My favorite is "Saddest Day" feat. Wayne Wonder, even though the hook is done by a featured artist once again, but at least the arrangement is tight and Fox's lyrics are too. On “Broken Silence” feat. Darius, the title track, Foxy goes deep once again, but the production… Darius performs the hook, and he does quite well, but I wonder if Foxy has no clue about doing hooks herself or if this is promo, half of the featurings she did on this record (and there are quite a lot, quite a lot more than I mentioned) are responsible for the hook of the track they appear on.

My overall view is mixed up: On one hand, Foxy proves why she was or still is that great, “BK Anthem” for example is quite tight, “Candy” too, but several other tracks just pop through your ears, and after you listened to them, you got nothing new. I think that Foxy’s three-year-lasting absence should have given her enough time to do some stuff that’s more wicked – out of 18 tracks, I’m hardly able to feel more than five. So, Foxy fans, go to the store and check it out, the booklet at least satisfies because of the pictures – all those who ain’t real fans, I don’t think this is a hip hop classic.