Album Review: PRo – “Dying to Live”

PRo – “Dying to Live”
Released: 2011
Reviewed by: Joshua Dwight
Rating: 8.59 (Out of 10)
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Easily a most anticipated release by many, “Dying to Live” by PRo is an all around solid release. The style varies all across the album from slow and poetic to action packing intensified shotgun blows on the microphone from both PRo and featured artists such as Canon and Brothatone.

I can honestly say that there is something there for many, if not everyone. The various styles really season and salt the album which can give an appeal to a larger audience. This tends to keep an album interesting to the listener by not sounding the same all the way across the album, which would bring qualities of being bland, boring, and redundant, but this album simply does not do that. Each song is different in style, keeps things interesting, and PRo keeps moving right along.

Featured artists on this album are: PK, KB, Jenny Norlin, Jai, Lecrae, Tedashii, Niya, Rio, Suzy Rock, JSon, Trip Lee, S.O., Thi’sl, Chad Jones (aka Conviction), Brothatone, and Canon. While the production on this album was from: Elvin “Wit” Shahbazian, Joseph Prielozny, PK, Marv4MoBeats, PRo, Dirty Rice, Tony Stone, Geeda, Rio, Cheesebeats (aka Tha Kracken), and Big Juice.

PRo really turned it up a notch on this album and went outside of the box. Because of my taste for rock and metal I was immediately grabbed with “Full Court Mess” which featured KB spitting his double time verse interlaced with a slowing down and picking back up style. PRo on the other hand went from flowing soft to getting down right grimy,  intense, and screaming into the mic while rock guitars played in the background, it was truly one of my favorite songs, while also a side of PRo that I have never seen before.

“No Limits” is another track that is really unique and gives the listener a “Happy” feeling when listening to it. It’s one of those songs that sound like a fusion between Reggae, Pop, Hip-Hop, and R&B.

The grand finale “Get Buck” was an energetic track that finished the album off well. The song started out slow with PRo and Chad Jones until Brothatone started tearing the scene up with some double time lyrics, but it didn’t stop there when he was interrupted by Canon who threw down a grenade verse that was almost intangible, the only way to put it is that he exploded… literally.

My concluding thoughts to this album is that the quality of production is pretty excellent, and although PRo went outside of his typical style fans have come to expect, he did not sacrifice quality, and he was still “PRo” which may keep the fans satisfied.  PRo did go outside of the box like many Reach Records affiliates have appeared to be trending, which may be bad for the fans who may want PRo to stay the way he has been in the past, but that’s a call the fan is going to have to make. The way to describe it would be that you hear more “Singing” hooks with PRo rapping. Other than that it’s not a bad release and If your unsure whether you will like it or not you can always preview it in iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube which have been pretty good resources for previewing.

Comprehensive Ratings:

•       Music: 9 of 10
•       Flow / Delivery: 8 of 10
•       Lyricism: 8.4 of 10
•       Content: 8.6 of 10
•       Creativity / Originality / Relevancy: 8.2 of 10
•       Credibility / Confidence: 9 of 10
•       Personality / Character: 8.7 of 10
•       Presentation Quality: 8.1 of 10
•       Overall Production Quality: 8.9 of 10
•       Potential Impact: 9 of 10