Fellow
Diplomat
and
Cam'ron
's partner in crime finally gets around to releasing his first solo album after nearly a handful of guest appearances, productions, videos, and whatever else there is in this
rap
Renaissance man's oeuvre. All of the lyrical topics du jour are covered in great detail here, with an emphasis on the concept of church and religion playing the dominant role throughout the record. Nearly a survey of
styles is evident here:
Dirty South
,
East Coast
West Coast
hip-hop
-- and yes, a predictable lift from
Kanye
by speeding up obscure
soul
records and using them as a basis for a whole track, but that's the one tired flat to be found in the entire album's production. However, that's not all in the knockoff department. There's also the obligatory
Neptunes
/Asian/Indian knockoff with
"Spanish Fly,"
a track that not even
Chico DeBarge
can help resuscitate. Guest appearances by
, everyone's favorite "no-homo," are abundant and help to strengthen the album at most points. But
On My Way to Church
stretches things so much musically and lyrically that at over an hour's length it can leave a feeling of exhaustion about midway through. ~ Rob Theakston