If you come ‘round these part enough then you know that I
have a strong love/hate relationship with Ms. Chrisette Michele. She basically
has followed L.L.’s post “Bigger and
Deffer” steez of every other album being dope. I really didn’t love her
first album (it had some dope songs but I didn’t LOVE it) but I absolutely
loved her second album “Ephiphany.” But her third album “Let Freedom Ring” was
just aiight if that. So using Jay Z’s math equation I SHOULD be absolutely in
love with Ms. Michele’s fourth studio album “Better." I don’t know if I
can go that far cause after “Let Freedom Reign” dropped, I kinda wrote Ms.
Michele off and wasn’t even checking for her til I saw her performance on TV One's poetry series “Verse and Flow” of her new song “Supa.” Now that song and performance made me
fall back in love with shorty. I can’t tell you how many time I watched that performance and how many hours, days, weeks, months I spent scouring the net
looking for a MP3 of this song to no avail. Then I heard her next single
“Better” which to me is straight up and down perfect. Next up was “A Couple of
Forevers” and when I first heard it I was like “damn, all Pop and Oak (my 2 new
fave R&B producers) did was loop up the O’Jay’s “Stairway To Heaven?” But I
can’t front, the words mixed with Chrisette’s voice help make this song her
own. So with 3 damn near perfect songs under her belt, “Better” should be a 5
mic classic right?
“Better” sets off with two uptempo bangers “Be In Love”
which has Chrisette telling us “love wasn’t good, last time I tried/kinda
fatal, lost my fight/I’m a trooper, I’m alright/I wanna love again, try one
more time” and “Let Me Win” which samples The Soul Searchers “Ashley’s
Roachclip” break made famous by Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid In Full and has the
ill chorus of “this game is like a gamble/it’s my heart you handle/need you to
be gentle/you should let me win/I’m not sure how to play it/don’t know what to
say I’m/trying to catch a break boy/you should let me win.” The Orthodox and
Ransum produced “Love Won’t Leave Me Out” gives you that classic 60’s
feel while the Pop and Oak produced banger “Snow” has some ill menacing drums
and keys that intro the song and has Chrisette warning her next lover that her
temperature is like snow, “I’m not the one you should be running to/I’m not the
one you want to get close to/tried to be warm, something went wrong/trying to
warn you, my temperature is like snow.” “Visual Love” has Chrisette explaining
to any dude checking for her, “I know your eyes tell you, you love me/but that
don’t mean you do/you can’t do nothing for me/if your love isn’t true/your eyes
tell you, you love me/but that don’t mean you do,/and I ain’t gonna let you
hurt me/when you see someone new” and while
I thought the trend of every R&B singer having that 80’s Prince
sounding song had run it's course, “You Mean That Much To Me” checks in to prove me wrong. The Chuck
Harmony produced “Get Through the Night” has that “Rhythm Nation Janet” slow
jam feel to it and Philly’s favorite son Bilal checks on the album’s last cut
“Can The Cool Be Loved.”
My only beefs with “Better” is the song “Rich Hipster”
featuring Wale is absolute trash and then Chrisette forces us to
listen 2 Chainz who is probably one of the worst rapper I’ve EVER heard on "Charde" which absolutely ruins the song and third is the fact that the one of
the best songs “10 Foot Stilettos” is only on the deluxe version. This banger
could EASILY check in as black women’s new anthem (you know black chicks are
feenin’ for an anthem when they accept Beyonce’s “Girls Run the World” as their anthem) with lines like “strap me in real tight/I’m too cute to fall/I’m super
high, far away from it all/got a bag to match, carry all my burdens/make it
through it all, even if I’m hurting” and “high above the drama/stuntin’ like a
rock star/watch me by the walk in my ten foot stilettos/can’t nobody get to
me/here where it’s easy to breath/I’m just standing free in my ten foot
stilettos” but you leave this off the regular version CD?!?!?!? And on that
note, why do labels even have the “deluxe edition?” I guess it’s another way to
try to get an extra $5 bucks out the consumer. “Better” may not check in as the
5 mic banger I thought it might (and might is the key word) be but even
with a couple of flaws here and there, that can’t stop “Better” from proving my
“L.L. theory” is 100% on point. So with that being said, I guess I’ll hate Ms.
Michele’s next album...so I better (no pun intended) enjoy the hell outta this one.
4 outta 5
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