Cool Cee Brown

by Jordan Selbo
August 8, 2007

Cool Cee Brown
Magnificent Bastard
Black Broadway

Are the archetypes of the gangsta and the soulman mutually exclusive? Can an artist who claims to pimp words and cook musical dope find common ground between callous blaxploitation and wrenching compassion? Excluding another Cee (Lo, of course), if any of that's possible, Cool Cee Brown's a good candidate to do it. Coming out of our nation's capital with a style and sound just as beautiful and contradictory as our Constitution, CCB mixes lyrical beatdowns with coos and croons; but in the end, it's nothing more complex than his talent that makes Magnificent Bastard a hybrid success rather than a failed genre exercise.

The sound of the album, as fitting CCB's varying thematic elements, varies wildly from boom bap anthems to reggae-styles to go-go machine gun drums (and sometimes all in the same song). Combining an ear for quality with an innate funkiness, at his best CCB straddles the line between cleverness and poignancy, as on the album closer (addressing an old friend): I went away to school.../ Four years later graduated and came back/ You looking at me crazy like, 'You ain't the same cat'/ I'm looking at you crazy like, 'You still the same cat.' And while a few of the slow jams are limp like the worst Mos Def noodlings, there's enough heat and passion (along with a stellar guest list) to overlook the misfires.

Besides the various mash-ups going down, Magnificent Bastard succeeds by following in the grand tradition of "The Message," Kool G. Rap, and Illmatic—by being both inside and (more importantly) outside his vivid tales of block life and love lost and found. If rap is still the Black CNN, then he's more reporter than newsmaker, deftly avoiding what I'll call "50 Cent syndrome," or the "realness" baloney that plagues mainstream rap at present. Observing, participating, and ultimately pontificating on the complexities of life in the original Chocolate City—now that's a picture worth framing.
- Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages

Cool Cee Brown :: Magnificent Bastard :: Black Broadway
as reviewed by Pedro 'DJ Complejo' Hernandez

Washington, D.C. is America's cultural and political center. Well, in all honesty we might have to give New York City the title of cultural center, but D.C. isn't far behind. With its rich history and attractions such as the Smithsonian, it's hard to argue D.C.'s importance in shaping and maintaining the culture in America. Yet, D.C. seems stuck in the past when it comes to culture. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the rap game where the city has made no significant contribution. One could try to attribute this to the fact that many people who would have claimed D.C. as their hometown choose to live in the surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties due to property prices. And it is the case that after 5:00 on weekdays there is a mass migration from D.C. outwards. But there also are a large amount of people who call D.C. their permanent home and it's no surprise that among those are a lot of rappers. Cool Cee Brown is one of the people that remains in D.C. and is also a rapper. Up to this point his music has also been confined to the D.C. area though things will hopefully change after fans tune into "Magnificent Bastard."

Cool Cee Brown starts things out on the right foot by featuring an appearance from Phonte of Little Brother on "No Fear." Though the track isn't the best from either artist involved, it at least gives those hesitant to peep a familiar name to go on. It's also a good sign when the song featuring the critically acclaimed guest rapper isn't the best track on the album. Listening to the rest of "Magnificent Bastard" it's clear why Phonte agreed to feature on the album in the first place. Cool Cee Brown's music is a mix of gangsta rap and conscious rap that is hard to come by. Cool Cee Brown does tend to sway towards the positive side of things on his music, but it is clear that his childhood growing up in Washington D.C. influenced him. So much like Common and Mos Def, Cool Cee Brown is able to make positive music with a street edge and without sounding preachy. "In the Kitchen (Yayo)" is the perfect example of Cool Cee Brown at his best as he makes a track about his hustle in the rap game. If you want to take it as an inspiring anthem about hustling legally you can do so, but if you wanted to use it as your inspiration for pushing real weight it would serve the purpose just as well. "When The Well Runs Dry" is another track where Cool Cee is able to walk a fine line as he addresses Hurricane Katrina but maintains sincerity and genuineness. "You Don't Know Me" is the deepest song on the album as Cool Cee takes us through the various tragedies in his life and shows us that just because a rapper is positive doesn't mean he hasn't been through the same things so-called "gangsta" rappers claim to have experienced.

Cool Cee can also drops songs about relationships without being cheesy or jumping to the other extreme and being too disrespectful. "Insecure," "Natural," and "Because" are all tracks addressed at different aspects of relationships. None of them are dedicated to the good aspects of relationships, and Cool Cee does focus on the negative side of things. But rather than present an image of all women as "hoes" or "bitches," Cool Cee makes it clear he's just expressing his recent experience in relationships – let's just hope he starts having some positive experiences some time soon. The album also contains a bonus track entitled "Hollywood" by Ultrathug and The Shitty Butt Gangstas. It's obviously a concept track in the spirit of Masta Ace's "Slaughtahouse" and it proves entertaining for what it is.

In the end, "Magnificent Bastard" was a refreshing and unexpected experience. I have to admit I'm not the biggest Little Brother fan mostly because I think they get too preachy. Fortunately, Cool Cee Brown avoids the pitfalls that stunt the growth of other conscious rappers. He also shows us that you don't need big name producers to put together an album's worth of quality music. The only big complaint one can throw out there is the fact that Cool Cee Brown tends to forget positive aspects of relationships when he's going through drama. Next time around he might want to take a step back and remember the good so he can provide an even more balanced album. Regardless, Cool Cee Brown is definitely someone worth peeping for those who enjoy good rap music. With more efforts like this, it should only be a matter of time before D.C. starts getting some rap respect.


Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8 of 10

Originally posted: July 3, 2007
source: www.RapReviews.com
- rapreviews.com

Posted by mattmatical
On 06/20/2006 @ 8:32 am
In category: Reviews


Artist: Cool Cee Brown

Album: Sinnerman

Label: Pro Se Entertainment

Reviewer: mattmatical


This is one of those reviews where the writer, as much as he’d like to avoid it, sooner than later has to get to the principal point because there’s just no way around it. But the good news first. Cool Cee Brown is a DC representative who already has a handful of releases under his belt, joining Joe D in the duo Dirty Water, whose discography includes such intriguing titles as “Drowning” and “Love, Lust & Everything in Between: The Limited Edition Valentine’s Day EP”. The same Joe D assists Cee Brown on his solo debut as the sole producer in charge. Together they craft an entertaining piece of work that recalls the image of the producer as an archeologist of sound and the image of the rapper as a vocalist equally experienced in songwriting and freestyling.

“Live from the Chocolate Metropolis,” these “hip-hop-ologists, graduates of black universities and colleges” (Duke Ellington School of the Arts and North Carolina Central University, to be exact) “hold beats for hostages” and “spit fire” to the point they “need lozenges.” Well said and not far from the truth. ‘Sinnerman’ is filled with interesting song concepts, notable beats and diverse flows. Amazingly, almost every beat has a different make-up. There’s the orchestral soul of ‘Live From Washington, DC,’ the euphoric, string-driven ‘Me and My Brother Joe,’ the high-planes-drifting ‘Science,’ the chopped guitars of ‘Make Me Feel Good,’ the Soulquarians-like ‘Do it to Death,’ the summery vibe of ‘F.R.E.S.H.’ You can tell these two sat down together, passing ideas back and forth before hitting us with the final product.


Lyrically, Brown prefers to give meaning to this rhymes, both in a indirect as well as in an immediate sense:


“85% deaf, dumb and blind
easily influenced by a brother with a cunnin’ rhyme
Some of the time they not even that talented
only seem to wanna rap about who the violentest
You need a brother like me just to balance it
and keep this hip-hop on some well-rounded shit
Hate ignorance, but that’s what I’m surrounded with
and God ain’t bless me with the gift to pussyfoot around the shit”


Not to focus on the content for a second, but on the form, it is rare these days to hear a rapper make an argument in complete sentences and show an understanding for logic and rhetoric. Knowing there’s still more to songwriting, Cool Cee Brown channels his creative writing into two exemplary songs, ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘Ballad of a Bright-Faced Girl.’ While the former takes an unexpected twist, the latter takes its inevitable course, leading the Bright-Faced Girl to a grim end. Here, Cee Brown beats a writer as prominent as Nas, at least on the ‘Black Girl Lost’ tip.


With local references ranging from Rayful Edmond to Sursum Corda, Cool Cee’s broadcast ‘Live From Washington, DC’ should endear him to Washingtonians, but with the decisions taken in DC affecting people all over the world, the self-proclaimed “rap Barak Obama” is well advised to think on a larger scale: “The Bloods and the Crips still trippin’ on a rag / and Bush still think bin Laden’s in Baghdad / I got homies overseas comin’ home with no knees / havin’ nightmares, shit replayin’ at slow speeds.”


There’d be a lot more lines to quote from this rapper who admits, “I talk a lot of shit / but behind the ignorance there lies the inspiration to revolutionize a nation.” Unfortunately the shadow of poor productioon looms over ‘Sinnerman.’ Its sound is unbalanced and unpolished in an unfavorable way. Many tracks here only hint at their qualities, suffering from a flat atmosphere and abrupt endings. Only Cool Cee Brown and Joe D know the true potential of their beats and vocals, because at least on ‘Sinnerman’ they fail to bring it out for the world to hear. “I’m unsigned and lovin’ it, with a 50 song catalog,” boasts Brown, but being productive is not everything that there is to a rap career - an appealing production is just as important.
- altrap.com