Ever since Royce Da 5’9’’ managed to get his name on Eminem’s first LP on the track “Bad Meets Evil”, he’s been in the game. Actually, his name never got up, but he never vanished though. And when he appeared on DJ Clue’s “The Professional Pt. II”, we knew that this guy was going to blow up like nitro and dynamite sticks. Columbia Records also seemed to recognize his talent, got him signed, so now here he is – Royce Da 5’9’’ with his debut album “Rock City”.

Produced by people such as the Trackmaster aka Poke and Tone or the Neptunes, the album is very “up to date” as far as the productions go. “You Can’t Touch Me”, a track done by Poke and Tone that already came out as a single, is mos def able to bounce clubs everywhere. “Rock City” featuring Eminem represents a different style. Eminem co-produced the beat and let it go in a more rockish way, it’s a hard but slow production and Eminem doing the hook. “Boom”, Royce Da 5’9’’’s single that was an independent release about one year ago and that was produced by the legendary DJ Premier, appears on the album, which was a slight deception for me – the track is superdope, but it’s just not that new anymore. “Life”, a sensational track with a girl named Amerie doing the hookline, goes down deep and shows Royce’s little son what life is all about. A very warm and affective track. DJ Premier once again did a tight production on the bonus track “My Friend”, which handles about a man’s and each man’s best friend, you know what I mean, don’t you, GUYS?.

Well, mainly, Royce just did, what everyone has to do in order to blow up in the game. He got himself a handful of hardcore producers, let them do all the music and just had to flow over that. As so often, such albums are good, but not the hell of a good record. In fact, Trackmasters just bounce every club, okay, but this can’t be the only thing, the whole rest is kinda aforementioned in the game, everything’s already been here at least once. Nevertheless, Royce has a tight style and he’s going to get his name established in the hip hop world, he’s undoubtedly talented enough. It’s just not the record that you listen to a hundred times and then flip it all over again. No more no less. (Emm)