TRUTHLiVE: Patience

TRUTHLiVE: Patience
TRUTHLiVE has quite an impressive resume. His resume includes DJ, owner of Interdependent Media, and, of course, rapper. Rapper is the newest qualification added to the resume. Patience is TRUTHLiVE’s debut album. On his debut album, TRUTHLiVE attempts to stay true to himself in a business that temptation to sell out is constant.
TRUTHLiVE’s story is not different from many rappers. Growing up in Southern California, he got his starting in hip hop as a DJ. One day he surprised his peers by rocking the mic. Encouraged by their positive feedback, TRUTHLiVE dropped out of college and dedicated himself to hip hop.
The story is nice, but its nothing if he does not have the skills to back it up. Luckily, TRUTHLiVE has some skills. As a rapper, he reminds me of Mike Shinoda both vocally and subject wise, but his influences are wide and varied. On “Remind Rewind” he name checks artists that were influential in his life like Hieroglyphics, Ras Kass, and Planet Asia. However the track is a jumping off point for one of the album’s major themes which is disappointment in modern hip hop culture. On tracks like “You Do You” and “Digital Courage”, TRUTHLiVE takes on the vapidness of mainstream hip hop. Of course while taking on the hip hop culture, TRUTHLiVE bolsters himself spitting lines like “come to Santa Rosa/I’m a motherfucking legend B”.
My main beef with the album is the beats. The album is entirely produced by Jake One. Jake did great production for Freeway on The Stimulus Package but the production on Patience feels a little one note. No song stands out production wise which gives the album a fairly stagnant feel. The stagnant feel is only enhanced by the lyrics of TRUTHLiVE which seems to focus on how he is the future of hip hop and how hip hop culture is dying for almost the entire album. Overall, I would not call the album disappointing but its definitely missing something to make it better than mediocre.
Rating: 5.3/10
MP3: TRUTHLiVE featuring Donwill of Tanya Morgan “You Do You”
Buy: iTunes