Slaughterhouse: Welcome to: Our House
On “Get Up,” Cooked I raps “four rappers who passionate/took the idea of a group and re-imagined it.” While any listener can hear the passion in the voices of Crooked I, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, and Royce da 5’9″, it never becomes apparent how Slaughterhouse has surpassed their fellow hip hop supergroup. Instead the album seems to work as a conduit to take four underground rappers to the mainstream.
If you look at other hip hop supergroups like Westside Connection or The Firm, they each had one mainstream established member. Slaughterhouse does flip the scripts in some respects by not having a cornerstone to build on but they make up that disadvantage by featuring mainstream guest vocalists and producers.
The album opens (after an underwhelming opening skit) with “Our House” which features Eminem and hip hop chorus hit maker Skylar Grey. The track is produced by British producer, Alex Da Kid who previously worked with Em and Grey on Dr. Dre‘s “I Need a Doctor.” The pedigree on the track makes you think you are about to hear something special and then every rapper on the track tells you you are about to hear something special. The track is followed by “Coffin,” a Busta Rhymes-featured dud. The track is composed of standard verses about guns and a chorus of “Ya’ll know what it is cause we do it often/caught another body, buy another coffin.” So how is this redefining what a hip hop group is?
While I will concede that the verses are generally well rapped, I can not give credit for verses that are loaded with cliches. If the members of Slaughterhouse are going to make the claim that they are reimagining what a hip hop group is than the least they can do is not rap about the exact same subject matter as 90% of the other groups out there.
Rating: 4.1/10
MP3: Slaughterhouse “Our House”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!
