It's been a long time since The Source was truly relevantit never fully recovered from the damage sham-publisher Benzino did to its credibilitybut the veteran hip-hop magazine still holds one powerful, headline-grabbing weapon in its arsenal: its rarely used five-mic rating. This week the magazine teased a fresh five-mic rating in its latest issue, the first time the magazine has granted an album that perfect score in half a decade, having last stamped it, with some controversy, on Lil' Kim's The Naked Truth.
Online the magazine polled readers to see which new album they thought deserved it the mostamong the possibilities were recent releases from Eminem, Drake, Rick Ross Big Boi and The Roots, all significant albums. Yesterday, though, it was revealed that the magazine went with a less visible choice: Bun B's Trill O.G., the third solo album from the surviving half of UGK.
So does Bun B's latest really deserve hip-hop's highest honor? In short, probably not. Trill O.G. begins with a string of excellent singles and goes on to introduce some sharp songs, but it's not a start-to-finish classic. Track for track, it's probably even a step below Bun B's lively 2008 effort II Trill.
Yet the rating could nonetheless help The Source regain some of its credibility. Few rap fans could fault the magazine for going out on a limb to give bold recommendation to a respected, eminently deserving rapper. And though Bun B's new album is a couple steps below perfection, it demonstrates a strong sense of rap history. Trill O.G. is a modern Southern rap album styled after the classic, beats-and-rhymes New York hip-hop records of the '90s (DJ Premier even produces the album's boldest statement, "Let 'Em Know"), with a guest roster that touches on multiple eras, regions and genres of rap. Young Jeezy, Drake, T-Pain, Gucci Mane and Twista are among those featured; Pimp C and Tupac are paired together posthumously on a song that refreshingly has nothing to do with death.
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It's not a masterpiece, but it's a rare modern rap record with both commercial and underground appeal, and The Source made a strong statement by giving it its full endorsement. As a symbol of what the magazine can and should stand for, The Source probably couldn't have done much better than this record.
Trill O.G. is temporarily streaming at Spinner.com; a couple of choice tracks are embedded below.
