Ali: Heavy Starch : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Budweiser, Mark McGwire, an arch. Such were St. Louis' bragging rights before a platinum-toothed dynamo named Nelly introduced his satin-smooth singsong flow, hydraulic beats and worrisomely catchy hooks. As if nine million copies of Country Grammar didn't redirect our national compass Midwest, along came Nelly's crew, St. Lunatics, with their platinum bow, Free City. Now? St. Louis is "The Lou"; "The Lou's" signaturrrre swing is the hip-hope of a new millennium. Enter Ali, the Lunatics' unofficial coach and now a solo rookie with the unenviable task of emerging from his protege's big-ass shadow. Alas, he simply doesn't have Nelly's God-given gift of gab. But he's a damn fine coach, surrounding himself with talented players, who bring much bounce to Heavy Starch's party-addled ounce. Fellow Lunatic Murphy Lee jumps in on the first single, "Boughetto," a neck-snapping knock at folks-claiming-bourgeois-but-you-just-know-they're-ghetto. Fact is, the disc's strongest tracks are Lunatic collaborations: the irresistible jiggle "Wiggle Wiggle," the dozen-woofers-required "Collection Plate," the street-corner-goof "Cool As Hell," all of which owe a trough of gratitude to producer "Jay-E" Epperson's electro-funk finesse. As does Ali, whose rugged baritone can't carry the nineteen tracks before him, but whose pass-the-mike mentality and big-picture vision turn those tracks into the jam of the summer.

STEVEN CHEAN
(April 30, 2002)