Sometimes when I’m revisiting these albums I try to figure out where I was in my life when bought the album. Sometimes it’s easy to remember “this was that bulk purchase I made at Soundgarden around the time that…” or “this was when I ordered all of those cds because I had just…”
But then other times I really wonder why I copped it in the first place, and sometimes I revisit a CD hoping that it’s not as bad I remember it being. That was the case with R. Kelly & Jay-Z’s Unfinished Business.
“In the first week I predict a million sold.”
It’s funny but back in 2004, when the album was released, R. Kelly’s outlandish prediction actually seemed feasible. Man, what a difference three years makes.
This album as so many strikes against it… First off, Tone and Poke produce it almost entirely, and since we’re talking 2004, that means that Tone and Poke were at least three years past their “use by” date. And that grandiose production leads to the album’s next flaw.
Every song has the feel of a momentous event song. When R. Kelly and Jay-Z first teamed up on “Fiesta” (what did happen to Boo and Gotti?) it was kind of a big deal because those two guys were huge. But by this point it would have been cool to have some chill songs that didn’t sound like the soundtrack to excess or like something a character on Entourage would use as theme music.
Another problem was the equal billing. It would have been nice to have a song that didn’t necessarily feature both in equal amounts—though in fairness most of the songs have more contribution to the crooning half of the combo. Having a song or two that featured Jay-Z primarily would have probably made for a more enjoyable listening experience.
Moreover, the album would probably have been much better if there had been any flourishes of what makes R. Kelly stand out among his whiny R&B contemporaries: the ability to make the absurd seem acceptable. No feeling on booty, no remind of jeeps, nothing anywhere near a closet on the down-low. Boo.
At this point I should probably mention individual songs, but what’s the point? Every song is about how great Jay and Kelly are. Every song has them naming what they possess, thus every song bleeds together. If you’ve heard the first song on the album, you’ve heard the last one (literally). Again, a lack of variety is why this album really suffers.
And equally if you’ve heard this album once, you’ve heard it enough. Clearly that’s why I realized the first time I shuffled it off to the side.
