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DJ Khaled Releases New Album

And it really sucks – but at least Nas and John Legend are on it. That's something.

When you don’t produce most of your album’s tracks and sure as hell don’t rap, yelling your name frequently over tracks doesn’t mean that the song is your song. However, DJ Khaled continues to exercise this business model for his fourth studio album Victory that released this earlier week. Asking Khaled what he does for his studio albums might yield the same results asking Tom from Office Space, “What would you say you do here?” Seemingly, the Def Jam South executive puts artists and producers together, stamps his name on it and a DJ Khaled album is born.

This time being no different, Khaled delivers 12 tracks all inspired by either making money or representing your city, Victory lacks in the inspiration department. Even the beats sound tired and recycled, often bleeding together in between songs creating something that sounds like an endless merry-go-round ride at the slowest setting. Even the lyrics seem to overlap in singles “All I Do is Win” and “Put Your Hands Up.” One might call it foreshadowing but it seems like Khaled thought he had two great title ideas for “All I Do is Win” and decided the rejected title too good not to make a song out of for the album.

Alas, at least one track shines on this seemingly-devoid-of-all-originality album thanks to seasoned vets Nas and John Legend. The track, aptly titled “Victory,” would set a false pretense on the album quality if one sampled albums only by the tracks that shared the CD’s name. ‘Victory’ takes a break from the rest of the albums fast-paced beats and clichéd topics letting Nas and John Legend do what they do best. Sure, a song about struggling to get to succeed might not be entirely original but at least Nas and John Legend deliver the message properly. In fact, the track could easily stand-alone since it sounds so apart from the rest of the album. Which is good for you, because you can listen below and not bother with the rest.

DJ Khaled - What exactly do you do here?

Posted by Andrew Macnider on Mar 05, 2010 @ 9:00 am