Ventilation: Da LP [Explicit Lyrics]

1. Intro

2. Flawless

3. Alphabet Soup

4. Miscellaneous

5. D.R.U.G.S.

6. Tha Club Hoppa

7. Lemme Find Out - Phife Dawg, Pete Rock

8. Ben Dova

9. Beats, Rhymes and Phife - Phife Dawg, Supa Dave West

10. Ventilation

11. 4 Horseman (192 N' It) - No Name, Phife Dawg

12. Melody Adonis

13. Outro

Ventilation: Da LP,Phife Dawg,Groove Attack UK,Alternative Rap,East Coast Rap,Pop,Rap & Hip-Hop,Underground Rap

Average customer rating:

i liked this album

weak

Legendary Solo Effort

Solid effort from a real MC

Predictable, Disappointing, and Boring (2.5 Stars)

Ventilation: Da LP
Phife Dawg
Manufacturer: Groove Attack
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

East Coast | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music
General | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music
Experimental Rap | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music
Pop Rap | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music
General | Rap & Hip-Hop | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B00004WZ65
Release Date: 2000-10-02

Tracks:

Intro
Flawless
Alphabet Soup
Miscellaneous
Drugs
Club Hopper
Lemme Find Out
Ben Dova
Beats Rhymes Phife
Ventilation
4 Horsemen
Melody Adonis
Outro

Amazon.com

Former A Tribe Called Quest MC Phife Dawg admirably takes a back-to-basics approach on his first solo foray, clearly reveling in his lone wolf status. "Should never have let me off the damn leash," he gleefully exclaims on "Flawless," a track which directs thinly veiled barbs at a certain vivrant former bandmate. However, a full-length tirade against former associates isn't on the agenda as Phife primarily voices his dissatisfaction with style-over-substance in hip-hop, and he isn't in the mood to bite his tongue. With Tribe's plush melodic compositions no longer cushioning his flow, the five-footer goes all out, dropping authoritative critiques on "Alphabet Soup" and "D.R.U.G.S.," both helmed by ascendant producer Hi-Tek. Aside from his usual marauding, canine inclinations ("Ben Dova"), Phife tries to infuse conceptual breadth through storytelling ventures with mixed results. Even though his ambitious lyrical attempts don't always work, his skills are matched and enlivened by supreme beat-layers such as Pete Rock ("Melody Adonis"), but when attached to underwhelming microphone assistance on posse cuts and bland production, things begin to falter. Fortunately, this is hardly the overwhelming scenario, and Phife's intact skills prove he's definitely not ready to be muzzled yet. --Del F. Cowie

Album Details

Hip-Hop/Rap. Phife Dawg was an Original Member of One of the Biggest Rap Groups Ever, a Tribe Called Quest.

Customer Reviews:

i liked this album.......2006-12-15

Phife kept it street and underground on this album. My favorite songs are Flawless(i think he dissed QTip on this song), Miscellanous, Bend Over, Ventilation. I like some more songs on the album but i can't remember the song titles. What happened to his other solo album Songs In The Key Of Phife which was supposed to come out 3 years ago? I wish he would do more solo albums. Phife is one of my favorite mc's. I always liked him more than QTip.

weak.......2006-11-03

Other than "flawless", this album is embarrassing. Phife is one of the best MC's of all time so we expect him to hold a higher standard than this.

Legendary Solo Effort.......2006-01-30

Phife Dawg had been a well established MC in the game as a result of his classic work with A Tribe Called Quest. Known for his slight islander drawl on songs like "Stressed Out", Phife always got a sort of second fiddle rep from critics. Well, Phife decided to dispell these notions and prove that he is dope in his own right. Dissapointing? Absolutely NOT. Phife brings out some big gun producers such as DJ Hi-Tek as well as Pete Rock, who provide the perfect sonic background for Phife to tear up. You can hear the hunger and passion in his voice; his emotion is palpable. The album title, Ventilation Da LP explains it all: Phife Dawg, raw, real and telling you how he feels. On gritty songs like Flawless, Alphabet Soup, D.R.U.G.S., Lemme Find Out, Ventilation, Melody Adonis, and the autobiographical piece and probably my favorite Beats, Rhymes & Phife, Phife Dawg lets the listener know what really been going on inside his dome. Its a trip worth taking multiple times. Trust me, you won't be dissapointed.

Solid effort from a real MC.......2005-11-11

This is what I call a controversial album. Each review I read either stated that the album was wack or dope. Ventilation: Da LP is far from being wack, as you could guess coming from former A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg, it's a very good LP but in order to appreciate it up to its true value, you have to be aware of Phife's mindstate while listening to the CD. First of all, don't think you'll be getting to hear the usual Tribe's Phife, the gentle, calm and witty one we all know and love, because you'll be disappointed. Indeed, I found this album very interesting in a sense that we get to know another side of the Trini Gladiator, the somewhat "dark" side. And this is where a lotta critics fell to capture the true value of the album. Don't blame Diggy for loving sex, women and parties, HE IS JUST BEING HIMSELF AND EXPRESSING HIMSELF. Now I know it disappointed a lot of people (included myself at first) being that we are used to hear a clever Malik dropping clean rhymes full of wisdom, but the fact that the style is different doesn't mean that he lost his skills on the mic, he's just using them in a different way. Listen close and you'll be amazed by his wordplays and poetry. I agree with the fact that sometimes he may curse a little too much but at least it shows that he's sincere about what he's saying and that it comes from the heart. I thank him for the whole anti-industry thing, I found it refreshing and it was about time that somebody step up and talk about all the BS going on in Hip Hop nowadays (which is worth all the cursing!). Besides, the fact that the media always unfairly considered Q-Tip as the best MC of the group (Phife was slightly better to me) angered him a lot and it shows (I completely feel him on this one).

On the other hand, Phife made a mistake with some songs like "Ben Dova" or "The Club Hoppa" lyrically wise because he totally contradicts himself on these songs. I'm all with denouncing commercial/materialistic/dumb Hip Hop, but he comes himself with some of that sh*t right after saying that he's fed up with it. This type of contradiction had me scratching my head. But actually this may not come so much as a downfall after all since, like I said before, partying and having sex is a part of Phife's character which he couldn't express in a group like Tribe because he had to limit his lyrics' subjects and the clean and spiritual style of the group. So as long as we're talking about just one or two songs (every album has a weakness), there's really no problem with that.

The No Name feature on "4 Horsemen" was truly laughable but I can understand why Phife did it, they come from the same place, grew up together and Phife decided to let them shine a little on his solo album, I would've done the same with my homies so I can't be mad at him (by the way, Phife's verse is deadly on this song, real sharp).

Anyway, besides very few disappointments, MOST of the lyrics are ill, Phife has always been one of the best MCs in the game, easily one of the best ever, and this album is just another proof of the superiority of his talent, he handles words with a lot of ease, and even if some of the subjects are not as deep as we could have expected, the skills are definitely still there and show up on most tracks. Try to listen to today's rappers like 50 Cent & Co after listening to Ventilation, you'll see the difference, Phifey clearly rules.

And now, the beats. Great. Anybody who says that the beats were wack on this album must be crazy. They PERFECTLY fit Phife's style, they're raw, soulful, boom-bap style, and stick perfectly to the overall message and spirit of the album: Real Hip Hop still exists. Again, the beats evolved a little bit since his Tribe days but you can always trust a production team composed of Pete Rock, Hi-Tek and Jay Dee amongst others. Even "Ben Dova" or "Club Hoppa", if their lyrics can disappoint, the beats are dope, and never commercial or radio-friendly. REAL HIP HOP FROM START TO FINISH.

And I don't even mention songs like "Beats, Rhymes & Phife", a biography in which Diggy tells us how he fell in love with Hip Hop and how he made it to the top, the Pete Rock laced "Melody Adonis", an ode to the love of his life (beautiful, arguably the best song on the album) or even "Alphabet Soup", with Mutty Ranks dropping knowledge.

At the end of the day, Phife comes with more than a solo album, it's an individual album, where he revealed some aspects of his character we didn't necessarily know, while keeping it real with sharp and clever lyrics, dope beats and most importantly: LOVE. Go cop it!

Predictable, Disappointing, and Boring (2.5 Stars).......2004-09-15

You'll never find a bigger ATCQ fan than me. You'll never find a bigger Phife Dawg fan than me either......but I believe in writing honest and unbiased reviews. I regret having to say that this CD comes dangerously close to being wack. It's not so much that Phife can't carry a song by himself, but something is missing. Phife actually has some dope solo tracks under his belt:

1) Butter - (from "The Low End Theory" LP '91)
2) 8 Million Stories - (from the "Midnight Marauders" LP '93)
3) Baby Phife's Return - (from the "Beats Rhymes & Life" LP '96)
4) His Name Is Muddy Ranks - (from "The Love Movement" LP '98)

These songs are all tight, and it could be argued that "8 Million Stories" and "Butter" are classic joints. With that being said, "Ventalation: Da LP" is a subpar release from a dope MC. There are so many reasons for the LP being a faliure.

Like other reviewers have pointed out, the first thing to stand out is the overuse of curse words. In my mind, cursing takes away from skills because anyone can make a curse word rhyme. It takes more skill to rhyme without cursing and I think that's one of the things that made ATCQ so appealing. Don't get me wrong, Tribe did curse from time to time, but Phife curses so much that I had to check the credits to make sure Richard Pryor didn't write the lyrics.

Another reason the CD is boring is because Phife hasn't improved lyrically. These are the same rhymes that you'll hear on any ATCQ LP...but with more swearing. That lack of improvement (or decline in skills depending on your view) makes at least 70% of this CD skippable.

Another reason to come to mind is the suspect production and the number of wack joints on the album. Supa Dav West needs to stick to singing because his production is suspect. I was even more shocked to hear such subpar production from Pete Rock on "Lemme Find Out". I'd have to say that "Ben Dova", "Miscellaneous" and "Lemme Find Out" are straight wack. "4 Horseman (192 N' It)" has a tight beat (courtesy of Jay Dee), but Phife and the aptly named trio No Name totally wasted it with some of the wackest lyrics I've heard since Vanilla Ice. Even the hook sucks: "This I'm holdin' down for Linden Bully like what / runnin' through life and not givin' a f*ck / gotta get your paper / nevermind these sluts / they ain't goin' nowhere / we can always get butt". It gets no sadder than that.

There are some good tracks on this album though. "Alphabet Soup" and "Flawless" are good, but they come off as skippable. "Tha Club Hoppa" reminds me of the ATCQ Phife that handled business on the previously mentioned solo joints. And then there are certified bangers like "D.R.U.G.S." (produced by Hi Tek) and "Melody Adonis" where Pete Rock redeems himself with a tight beat and Phife actually uses it well.

Overall, I'd have to say that this CD is somewhat dissappointing. The beats were suspect and Phife might've lost a step or two on the mic. If you're an ATCQ fan that was expecting more of the same on his solo joint, then you'll get most of the lyrics you're looking for, but most of the beats won't do anything for you. I'd only reccomend this to collectors that have everything else associated with Native Tongue / ATCQ.

Standout Tracks: Alphabet Soup, Flawless, Ventilation, Tha Club Hoppa, and D.R.U.G.S. (My Favorite)