I never quite got a handle on whether Beanie Sigel really intended to become a pop sensation. On The Truth, "Everybody Wanna Be a Star" decried fame-seeking behavior all while sounding like something the second Mase record might've turned away for being too commercial. But after The B.Coming proved to be his darkest and most affecting record, The Solution had "All the Above", with R. Kelly and the Runners and speedboats and everything. You might remember it. You probably don't. Did he really think those won over by "All the Above" would've been even more down after "Go Low" threatened two forms of sodomy in its first verse and "H.H.E.H." set the standard for anti-skinny jeans rap?
Whether it's seeing Freeway sign with Rhymesayers or, you know, Roc-A-Fella disintegrating, Beanie's realized it's time to move on and offers "the lost files" on The Broad Street Bully, which trades in the same irony as so many other similarly positioned mixtapes: It's constructed in a manner that pleases the sort of people who might actually pay for a Beanie Sigel album, and yet, it's being given away for free. Hell, it's not only an improvement over The Solution, but it's better than most other rap albums out there too-- such is the reality when we get Beanie in his natural state talking serious shit with only State Property alums as guests.
Beanie Sigel isn't a complex MC so much as a conflicted one-- The B.Coming is by far his best record because it managed to show how his remorse felt every bit as frightening as his anger, the sort of thing that makes all those tracks he did with Scarface a natural fit. That's not the Sigel you get on The Broad Street *Bully. *Befitting its stopgap, low-stakes formation, Bully is as about as subtle as a curb-stomping and every bit as straightforward, 12 tracks that mostly go into rich detail about you being a sucker and Beanie's ability to beat the living shit out of you. "The ignorance is coming," he intones, and while that likely refers to the title of his yet unannounced new album, you can be goddamn sure that the ignorance is here right now.
It might be a simplified rendering of Beans, but it's tough to care when it's so damn entertaining. Whether it's due to his no-nonsense subject matter or pugnacious persona, Beans rarely gets the credit he deserves as a lyrical craftsman, but there's not much to distract you this time around from his haughty humor, rife with internal rhyme and off-kilter cadence. "You'll forever be stuck under the baker's thumb/ You keep dealing with them crumbs/ Keep dealing with them bums who receive their funds in minute-sized sums." Such goes a line from "Why Wouldn't I" but elsewhere, he lets off punchlines brimming with self-satisfaction and double entendre.
As far as surprises go, you'll have to take what you can get here-- the beats are just functional, even if the brazen Queen rip on "All For It" is kinda hilarious for never bothering to be cleared. Outside of Beanie's usual State of the Hood address ("The Ghetto"), about the only thing that goes off-topic is "Run to the Roc", where a subdued sample of the Slickers "Johnny Too Bad" backs Beanie's just-vague-enough hashing of his relationship with his former label-- "Another lie told by Ol' Blue Eyes/ Blue is the color of deception, to my recollection," either referring to Jay-Z's insistent Sinatra-likening or any one of the Blueprint albums. There's more potential intrigue in hearing Dynasty role players like Young Chris (who's been on some kind of winning streak as of late) and Omillio Sparks give up the goods about Jigga's acumen as an executive, but somehow their restraint proves more powerful-- it might seem petty for someone at Chris' level to claim people planning his demise, but you've read a rap blog lately, right? It's even worse when people actually can bring you down.
But in a way, "Bang Bang" is the most revealing track on Bully, where Beans and State Prop associate Murda Mill riff on western films to further illustrate the numerous ways in which they can kill you. Besides being extremely comprehensive, it's jarring as well, an undoubtedly nerdy moment for a career that, outside of "Mac Man" isn't exactly brimming with them. But it's a heartening inclusion: Beanie might be myopically focused on the Art of War on The Broad Street Bully, no one works harder to make violence more graphic.
