Relapse Review

Take the vocals off and this is a serious piece of work. It is the last full Dre production job of real weight, all coiled bass, minor key strings and drums with actual snap, and the technical rapping across it is absurd, syllable clusters bent into shapes that should not fit the bar. The problem is what he chose to put in those shapes. Nearly every song is a murder story delivered in a pantomime accent that starts as a bit and becomes the whole personality of the record.

Stay Wide Awake and Underground are impressive in a way that gives you nothing to hold. Beautiful is the exception, unguarded and slow, and it points at the album he could have made about getting clean. Deja Vu tells that story properly and gets buried. It is a fascinating record and a joyless one, and the vibe grade is not a criticism of the skill involved.