Off The Record #11 - "5E" by N.O.R.E.
11th Edition
July 31st 2018
N.O.R.E
"5E"
It’s been 5 years since Victor Santiago, Jr. or better known as N.O.R.E. released an album amongst speculation (from Tweets he published in 2015) that he would be releasing a sequel to either ‘Melvin Flynt –Da Hustler’ or ‘N.O.R.E.’ and that it would be his final album to focus attention to having an executive role, rather than an artist. Fast forward to three years, and it looks like neither of those plans came into fruition, deciding instead to release his seventh and latest incarnation, ‘5E’.
Formerly known as Noreaga (after Panamanian dictator Manuel Noreaga), he first came into prominence in 1995 as half of the Hip Hop duo, Capone-N-Noreaga (C-N-N). The Queens, New York duo appeared in The Source magazine’s ‘Unsigned Hype’ column. The following year before the release of their debut album, Capone was jailed for a parole violation, and Noreaga completed the album with the help of fellow New York rappers including Mobb Deep and Tragedy Khadafi. The album received critical and commercial acclaim, and saw them partaking in the infamous West Coast/East Coast Hip Hop dispute. Noreaga released his solo album in 1998 entitled N.O.R.E., an acronym for Niggas On the Run Eating. He is currently the CEO of his own label, Militainment Business.
‘5E’ was released on July 27 and holds nine tracks with an additional two bonus tracks (do bonus tracks even matter anymore in this age of MP3s?) with a run time of forty minutes. All but the intro track has a feature rapper or producer on them such as Fat Joe (who’s on two of the eleven songs), Tory Lanez, The-Dream, Phokus, Jadakiss, Wycleff and Pharrell Williams, among other names I don’t recognize too well.
The final track featuring Pharrell Williams entitled ‘Uno Más’ had a music video which was released on April 10 2018 with a sweet tropical Dancehall riddim. Another music video was released for ‘Don’t Know’ featuring Fat Joe on the same day the album was dropped.
Music video for ‘Uno Más’ featuring Pharrell Williams
Music video for ‘Don’t Know’ featuring Fat Joe
Overall, I felt the album had great productions backing the rappers, from Hardcore/Gangster Rap to catchy, radio-friendly tunes, however the vocals are somewhat mediocre on half the tracks. Still 100% better than what’s coming out these days. I hope more old-school Hip Hop musicians step out from the office and back in the studio soon to influence more quality sound to the scene again. I’m a big bass-music fan, so ‘Woof’ with The-Dream really stood out for me. I recommend giving this album a listen as there is nothing unbearable about it, just could be better. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Stay tuned for the next edition and be sure to follow me at @stickykeys! Also if there are any albums you would like me to review, drop a comment below.
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I always thought that Nore was dope and that when Capone went away it seems that turned out to be a good thing for Nore. Not that Capone is wack, both of them are dope emcees but Capone going to jail didn't hurt Nore's career...