I’m tired of reading it myself and still have to write it, too: Pusha T has not tapped his full potential often enough. The last record to fully show his skills was »Hell Hath No Fury« (2006); afterwards, there were only a few songs hinting at his talents. Now he has finally released his first solo record, and I still can’t seem to make peace with my Pusha-Stan-dom. Kelly Rowland? What the hell? Kevin Cossom? Piss off! Chris Brown? Nuff said. And the fact that Pusha opens a track with the words »I sold more dope than I sold records, you niggas sold records, never sold dope« and then has Officer Rawse aka Rick Ross be part of the track is just.. well… let’s say it’s an unfortunate choice. However, those are the only reasons why I’m not running through the city like a madman, why I’m not throwing »Eghck« in everyone’s faces. Because if you take away those initial points of criticism, you have to admit that this record is a full on tackle by Sammy Kuffour which has turned into rap. The first two songs already feature Puhsha rapping with a knife between his toes and his teeth on top of beats which are amongst the best raps of the year. If the Spartans had been driven by »Who I Am«, 100 of them would have been enough to destroy the Persians. In addition, you’ll find K.Dot doing high-noon-flexing, sour and impertinent real-talks combined with The-Dream-Team-vocals, and Pusha twice teaming up with the Neptunes. Those are the moments when I’m utterly filled with euphoria from »Hell Hath No Fury«. No one could ever copy this. And to make sure that »MNIMN« doesn’t just produce broken shinbones and sunken ships, there are a few fun-‘n’-games-tracks, too: Kanye proves in »Hold On« that he can not only design shirts but also sing lullabies for codeine-addicted six-years-olds. »MNIMN« might not be the final record of revelation, but there are four or five tracks that make any of this year’s rap-releases look as if Mommy needs to come and fetch them from kindergarten.
My Name Is My Name
