Warren G Album: “G-Files”

I had been anticipating "The G-Files" since Warren G announced it in 2002. Then he released "In The Mid-Nite Hour" in 2005, which proved to be a solid album from Warren. When he said "The G-Files" would be released in 2009, I was excited because I figured he would improve upon the last album and create one of the year's best hip-hop albums.

However, Mr. Regulator let me down. "The G-Files" is a below average album and easily one of his worst. Why? The album is 13 songs and a skit, with G only appearing on 11 of the actual songs. The song topics are old and uninspired, such as "The West is Back" and "Let's Get High." The topic of the west coast being awesome, and smoking weed has been done a million times, and many times by Warren himself.

I don't know, I just had high expectations for Warren G, considering "In The Mid-Nite Hour" pushed the envelope lyrically and musically in 2005. I thought this album would do the same. But it seems like he back tracked and tried to create an album that would have appealed in the Death Row era or teenage pop rap fans. The last two tracks, "Ringtone" and "Crush" (feat. Ray-J) are something I would expect from someone like Soulja Boy or Plies.

There is one highlight of the album, "100 Miles and Runnin" (feat. Raekwon and Nate Dogg). The song is a classic example of collaborations between Warren and Nate. Although it seems odd Raekwon is on the song, he's lyrically on point and helps create the album's best song.

Overall, I believe die hard Warren G fans will be disappointed with this album. It doesn't live up to the hype, and doesn't offer anything fantastic besides the one song. I've come to realize that Warren G can either hit or miss with his albums, and in this case he missed...by a lot.

Warren G returns after 4 year to finally drop his long awaited, pushed back "G Files" album. All in all, I think this is better than his last 2 albums ("Return of Regulator" and "Mid-Nite Hour"), not as good as his 4.5 star "Take A LOok Over Your Shoulder' & "I Want It All" and worth 4 stars (just below his "Regulate...G Funk Era" album. His last 2 being disappointing I think he is moving back into the right direction on this one. With 13 songs (1 he isn't on), you get 4 ok songs, and 9 good ones, with a few being real good but no classics. He does have some bad attempts on here to appeal to the radio and teen-rap, overall I thinkk it's a nice album. Guests are on all but 2 songs, but that's with all his albums, guests are heavy. Production is nice as well, not surprisingly since Warren did 12 of the 13 (the other done by THX). A nice album to have for those longing for that old great G-Funk sound.

#2 - 9 (Halla & Bad Lucc - No Warren -- nice beat)

#3 - 8 (f/ BJ)

#4 - 7.5 (f/ Black Nicc & Travis Barker)

#5 - 8.5 (f/ Raekown & Nate Dogg)

#6 - 7.5 (f/ Halla)

#7 - 7 (a bad attempt at a radio friendly song)

#8 - 7.5 (f/ Snoop Dogg & Cassic Davis -- anotehr bad attempt at a radio friendly song)

#9 - 9 (f/ RBX -- nice beat)

#10 - 9 (f/ Halla & Bad Lucc -- nice beat)

#11 - 8

#12 - 9 (deeper song f/ Black Nicc, Halla & BJ -- nice relaxing beat)

#13 - 8.5 (f/ BJ -- goood beat)

#14 - 8 (f/ Ray J -- another radio friendly song)

Warren Griffin III -- b. 11/10/70 -- Long Beach, CA

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Yeah, I basically agree with M. Lindberg except for this part "But it seems like he back tracked and tried to create an album that would have appealed in the Death Row era or teenage pop rap fans". When I think of teenage pop rap i think of the garbage that's on the "rap/hiphop" radio stations right now and the Death Row era was right at the time of classic westcoast gangster rap, these are two totally different types of music. With that being said, I think that this Warren G album is nowhere near the music that was coming ouf of Death Row backin that time. I wish he would have "tried to create an album that would have appealed in the "Death Row" era, he could have put a 2009 twist on it and maybe then it would have been worthy of being called a Warren G album. This album is also different than the garbage on the radio, it's not necessarily better, just different. It seems like Warren G or who ever made the music for the album ran out of sounds when creating the beats (track 11 for example), half of them are so simplistic, they lack any kind of creativity. The Warren G "G funk" sound that has been present on his previous albums is almost totally absent here and where he did attempt to create a little bit of that "G funk" sound he came off sounding really soft; there's a few that are so weak it seems like they were meant to be on an R&B singers album with Warren G featuring which I guess would have been more understandable. Then there's a couple of tracks where it seems like Warren is trying his best to come up with Dr. Dre type beats (Dre's more recent type stuff) and ends up sounding below average at best. The best tracks on this album are "100 Miles and Running" (it pretty good, not classic but a good track) and "Let's Get High" was alright, I mostly like the feel that Travis Barker's drums created. Besides that, everything else was either uninspired or lazy or too pop sounding (track 8 with Snoop for example, but pretty much everything Snoop is on nowadays is pop, but that's a different story). I might sound like I'm just hating on Warren G but I'm really a long time fan of Warren's, I have appreciated his music through out the years and I LOVE that old classic westcoast golden era and that's why it's hard for me to hear Warren G (one of the best to ever do it) sounding like this. Maybe I'm just trippin, maybe you don't hear what I hear...