Posted on 04/22/2008
To be fair, maybe if I was a sixteen-year-old girl, I would love Ray J's music. Maybe I would buy his ringtones, and beg my mother to buy me tickets to his concerts, where he would perform with Omarion and Bow Wow. But, I'm not. So to me, Ray J has produced an album as a weak attempt to capitalize on his newfound "fame." So though the project is entitled, All I Feel, his vulgar tales of drugs, sex, and money, come across as forced, and downright outrageous.

 

I suppose this is seen foremost in his lead single, "Sexy Can I," a club hit, that sounds more like one long staccato chorus, in which Ray J boasts about his sexual escapades.  But the thing about "Sexy Can I," is that it's pretty much the template for almost every other song on the album. As if, Ray J, came up with that song, and felt like he cracked some sort of code. The song, "I Like To Trick," a song that sounds like something The Dream wrote (and probably is) begins with "All five models swallow..." and brags about his habit to spend money on strippers.  "Gifts," is a song about how well a stripper "works the pole," and how Ray J loves to tip, and take pictures with his camera phone.  Notice any similarities? Honestly, how many songs can Ray J make about the exact same thing!

From there Ray J, transitions from the strip club, to his issues with infidelity. First with the hood tale, "Girl From The Bronx," Ray J describes how he cheated on his "crazy Brooklyn girl," with a girl from the Bronx.  Classic. From there, Ray J explains that he has fallen in love with his mistress, in "Jump Off." And just when you think Ray J has said it all, we get to hear Ray J's advice to the husband of a woman he's sleeping with, in "Boyfriend."  By the way, these tracks come one after another.

I know that music is music, and has become more of a source of entertainment than a platform for honest expression. I recognize that its naïve to expect substance in today's pop culture, especially when careers are built solely on how hard a song knocks in the club. Ray J isn't alone in his absurdity, but he lacks the swagger that so many of his cohorts embody, which in turn makes the album incredibly corny. As a matter of fact, the only remotely believable songs are the "Intro," the "Outro," and the title track, "All I Feel," a trite ballad about heartbreak. The rest of the album seems like a manufactured façade, to trump up his new image. Hay, I guess he's just sick and tired of being Brandy's brother, though I'm not sure that this album can keep him from the belly of obscurity. But like I said, maybe if I was a sixteen-year-old girl, I would love it, which is a problem that should probably be addressed at a later date.


- Jason Reynolds