Savage - Savage Island

Wow is this guy reppin’ South Auckland or South Georgia? It’s often hard to tell with the album coming across like a wannabe Dirty South album, beats sounding like cheap bootlegs of Southern producers like Lil Jon, Mannie Fresh and Cool & Dre. What you have is a lot of minimalist club beats with a lot of shouting and call and response which was a feature of Lil Jon’s releases – 5 years ago. Having said all that tracks like ‘Knock A Hater Out’ get the head nodding with the gruff Savage trading verses with Boo Yaa TRIBE’s Ganxsta Ridd while ‘I Love the Islands’ is definitely more satisfying as a listener as Savage leaves the gangster posturing to the side as he takes us on a sunny journey back to the islands. You could imagine chillin’ to this track while cooking up a barbecue in the summer. Outside of that a lot of the tracks are bland and repetitive featuring generic beats that sound like you’ve heard them all before i.e ‘So Clean’ sounding like ‘Clockwork’ by Juelz Santana. ‘Hot Like Fire’ has club anthem written all over it with a pop/dance beat that’s reminiscent of Timbalands more recent beats that explore house and trance territory while Savage keeps things simple in the lyrics department ‘So She’s My Queen, And I feel just like a King when she’s standing next to me’. Insightful.

And what’s the deal with featuring ‘Swing’(twice!) and ‘Moonshine’ on this album when they were already on Savage’s previous album? Do I sniff a clever marketing ploy to maximize Savages exposure to an overseas market as both those tracks feature familiar names Soulja Boy and Akon?

It’s obvious that his music is aimed straight for the clubs with some catchy beats that will definitely get the ladies moving but lyrically he won’t be pleasing any of the fans that went and copped his Deceptikonz debut ‘Elimination’. I can’t come across too much as being a hater this album is decent for what it is, if you’re into Soulja Boy (Well actually I do like the beat from ‘Turn My Swag On’) then you may enjoy this.

(Universal Music)

- Review by Jason Jaram