1. Feelin' Myself
2. Fa My Niggaz
3. Jump It
4. Witme??
5. Me Damac
6. Dreganomics
7. Since '84
8. That's Wusup
9. On the Run
10. Get Stupid (Remix)
11. 2 Night
12. Don't Snitch
"Call the hospital, he's having convulsions! No he's getting stupid and he's loaded, yokin'. Is the sto' still open? We need heem. It's a priviledged thing, yadadamean? All in the do', like YEE! S-T-U-P-I-D!"
In the last year of his life, Mac Dre finally perfected the sound he'd been aiming for after Stupid Doo Doo Dumb, and dropped THREE of his greatest albums ever in '03 and '04 (Al Boo Boo, Genie Of The Lamp, and this one), which just makes his stupidly premature death even more of a bummer. This one has three of his most well-known songs on it in "Get Stupid", "Fellin' Myself" and "Since '84", and it seemed like it was going to be THE album that finally introduced the new Thizz sound to the rest of the world.. It's loaded from top to bottom with Bay Area slang (see the above quote) and features some of the finest production ever by the Thizz team. Synth-based tracks like "Medamac" are clearly a direct predecessor to the hyphy sound that would REALLY blow up in the next couple years, but the best tracks here are the more organic funk tracks, like the title track and "Fa My Niggaz", which both make really great use of spaghetti western acoustic guitars. Mac Dre himself was also hitting yet another career peak with his rapping on around this time, his style was never really complex but his smooth flow just slides all over these tracks like melting butter. If you want to hear him rap about things other than getting stupid, pimpin', ghostriding whips, drinking and popping E pills, there are other records in his catalog.. On this one, he is 100% in party mode. Which isn't to say that he's slacking on the mic AT ALL, he never stops being entertaining and he's endlessly quotable for days. Thankfully this album isn't loaded up with Thizz 3rd-stringers.. Mac is the only rapper on almost all of these songs, and it keeps things brief by modern rap standards, as it's "only" 12 tracks in just under 45 minutes.
Overall, I'd say that if you want to hear Mac Dre's best album, get Stupid Doo Doo Dumb. If you want to understand why he was so important to the Bay Area rap community to begin with, you can't go wrong with Young Black Brotha. But if you want to hear his best late-period album, when he was arguably at his most successful, this is probably the one to grab. And the fact that he dropped classic material in 3 different decades (much of YBB was recorded in the 80s) is enough to solidify his place as one of hip-hop's all time greatest ever for me. Just make sure you listen to this one on a system with a sub.
