Ray Victory - Ready 2 Go! (DJ Nelly Nell/Strong Arm Entertainment/Nite Life Entertainment)

I don't know much about Ray Victory other than him being a rapper from Bmore, but when I first started hearing about him and tried to Google his name, I learned that there's also a porn star going by Ray Victory, so I don't know what's up with that. He's got this kind of breathless, garbled style that makes it hard to follow that he's saying sometimes, but on certain beats that style really works for him. On one track, he says "they say I sound like Freeway, but that's old news," so I guess he gets that comparison a lot. There's some hot original songs, but he does remixes of the Scola single and Paula Campbell's "Take You Home" and a lot of jacks of mainstream R&B tracks that kinda drag the momentum of the CD. I'm feelin' the freestyle over Beanie Sigel's "Purple Rain," though. He's also got some guest appearances from Bossman, Skarr Akbar, and Nik Barnes, among others. Ray's track "Root For The Bad Guy" appeared on the C Love/DNA mixtape, and he performed at their event at Sonar a few nights ago. He has some good energy as a performer, and it's not easy to be the first act of the night, either, but he made it work. He's also got a birthday event coming up next week, see his MySpace page or Nite Life Ent.'s page for info on that.

Ray Victory - "Tonight Tonight" (mp3)
This is my joint, Ray Vic rhyming over the Genesis song, not even really sample but just the straight track, and making it sound cold as hell. I know a lot of rock people who think Phil Collins is lame and that it's funny that a lot of rappers sample his songs or wanna work with him, but fuck that, he's made some great songs and this has always been one of my favorites. I like the part where Phil sings "I got some money in my pocket" and Ray goes "I got a couple dollars, baby!"

Ray Victory f/ Bossman - "Life As A Rapper" (mp3)
I heard this on Rap Attack a couple times before copping the mixtape and this song is just fire, definitely one of my favorite recent Bossman verses. Nice use of the beat from Alchemist's "Tick Tock" (also used on Mobb Deep's "It's Alright").

Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Dru Hill, mixtape/album review, mp3, Skarr Akbar