Album Review: MPH – “Cold Sweat”

MPH – “Cold Sweat”
Released: 2011
Reviewed by: Ed Welch
Rating: 6.0 (Out of 10)
[xrr rating=6.0/10]

M.P.H. aka Man Praisin’ Hard jumps onto the scene with Cold Sweat.  Just as this album’s title is an oxymoron, there’s more where that came from.  This album is full of hot and cold moments.

The first song on this project starts off with a pretty laid back beat and MPH shows off his witty style with numerous punch lines dressed with double meanings and jokes.  In short, I like it.  The wordplay is solid and the beat is manageable.  The only real mishap on this song is the sample in the beginning of the song of Jack Nicholson’s infamous line “You can’t handle the truth!”  It came off as cheap and corny and was a bad first impression…in my opinion.

His second song has a really catchy hook that will provoke you to sing a long, but unless I missed something, he’s basically just “kicking game” to a female. I guess Christian rappers need love too.  🙂  The 3^rd song on this project was actually pretty boring to me though. By the time I got to the fourth song, MPH’s flow started to get predictable.  Maybe it’s just this particular song…  I really didn’t like the beat selection for #6 on the album, but #7 is one of the better beats on the album.  I liked this song, but it ended weird. When I paid more attention, I realized it was just how the song faded out.  It faded way too slow and started to fade too early which made me feel like the song wasn’t over, but someone was just slowly fading it out, because they ran out of time or something.  Leaving more time at the regular level and fading it out quicker could probably fix this. It would at least be an improvement. By the time I got to number 8, I started realizing that MPH spends a lot of time (in comparison to other Christian rappers) talking about females.  Hmmm.  Nice hook though…

MPH really picks it up and gets a nice rhythm going for the next few songs (9, 10, & 11).  My favorite song on this album is #11 “Take a Look at Me Now”.  This is the song I had on repeat and had my head nodding the most.  I still haven’t gotten tired of it (and I’ve listened to it a lot).  In fact, I really wished this is the song he ended the album with.  The next (and last) song was pretty much a failed attempt at a good cipher.  The snare (which was the main part of the track) was way too loud, aka annoying, and ruined any attempt of really enjoying any wordplay presented.

The album as a whole is pretty good.  It is in need of some better mixing, because sometimes MPH’s voice doesn’t carry over as well on the “busier” beats.  MPH is a pretty good rapper.  He’s witty and has a lot of potential, but he’s not quite “there” yet.  With that being said, his “potential” is definitely worth listening to.  Even though I was reviewing this album, I was able to actually enjoy most of it.  I look forward to seeing more from MPH in the future.  But hey, everybody is a critic.  I’m just the guy who wrote the review.  Peace and much love.

Comprehensive Rating:

• Music                           5
• Flow                            7
• Lyricism                     7.5
• Content                        5.5
• Creativity                      6
• Credibility                     5
• Personality                    7
• Presentation                  6
• Overall Production        5
• Potential Impact            6