FIRST SHOT: Stat Quo, "Statlanta"
By: Julianne Shepherd
POSTED: 13:03 EST, June 11, 2007
A look at Stat's Shady/Aftermath debut, out this August 28. PLUS: Stat talks on Dre's "Detox"!
Stat Quo's debut album, Statlanta, is finally dropping in 2003. 2004. 2005. 2006. 2007. You think we lie. We do not lie. Stat came through VIBE last week and played us some tracks, snippets and sneak previews from his oft-pushed, much-anticipated record. He also talked about where he's been, and gave a little insight into the work behind another long-delayed album: Detox, which he's been working on with Dr. Dre in a top-secret hole in the ground somewhere on the West Coast. Not really about that last part, but as Stat put it, "We can live like groundhogs, so long as the music's crazy."
We didn't hear full songs, but an early assessment: we are excited. The man is bringing a broad spectrum of topics, feelings, smarts and pensive flows, over a strong soul-sample overlay and some of the hottest Dre beats in years. And the album includes absolutely no "snapping, trapping or crunk. No disrespect to anyone. But my neck fuckin hurts," joked Stat.
Tracks, all tentatively titled:
"Testify" (prod. Eminem, f. Eminem): A proper intro to Statlanta - replete with organ intro, clattering beat and gospel choir - that establishes Stat's preeminence.
"Next One" (prod. Eminem, f. Eminem): metallic, grindy synth with Em on a hook.
"Fire" (f. Bilal, prod. Dr. Dre): Why Bilal? "Dude is fire, and he's my good friend, even though he wears rings on his feet," Stat quipped. Dre lives up to the name of this one, with a spare, ominous piano and tambourine on the slow burn. Stat is "low, fresh, lean like a kickstand I guess."
"G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South)" (prod. Dawaun Parker & Che Vicious): You know what it is: Stat puts his swagger on the Southern ladies.
"The Way it Be" (f. Scarface, prod. Dr. Dre): "This is one of my favorite songs," Stat said of the song's palette of rough life and class inequality.
"Stat Quo" (prod. Dr. Dre): He described this as an autobiography - where he came from, where he's going. It opens with the sound of pen to paper, scribbling, and lays it down on a more classically Dre-sounding, stormy production.
"Finger to Sky" (prod. Scott Storch): One of our favorites - a scorching hot club track whose chorus - "finger to the sky