By Craig D Frazier

It’s been a minute since we heard from one of Hip-Hop’s most talented Boricuas. Now N.O.R.E. is back from his multi-year hiatus, showing his love for the culture with his fourth solo LP, Student of the Game. The 19-track album has the veteran giving us a blend of his old, new,  and true school musical aesthetics, complete with legendary producers and hot rappers. The choreography of the album exemplifies N.O.R.E.’s versatility as an artist, as songs and content flirt with different eras of Hip-Hop.

Global Warming, the first track to be finished and radio ready, features guest appearances by Pharrell and T-Pain. Pharrell hooks up with the Queens-bred Nuyorican on another song,  Problem (Lawwwddd). N.O.R.E shows his B-boy skills on one of the better tracks on the album, the Pete Rock-produced Vitamins.

There’s a club banger Tadow, featuring 2 Chainz, Pusha T and French Montana on the hook. For the first time, N.O.R.E. hooks up with respected producer and fellow Queens native, Large Professor on Built Pyramids where N.O.R.E. drops autobiographical verses like:

Flushing Meadow Park, drive my heights 8 store–We playing baseball, then we slangin 8 balls/ Mission impossible, alley cattie shot, niggas got shot too–Locked at the hospital Jamaican Ave/ Chicken patty with the cocoa bread-I know Jamaicans on drugs, call em cocoa heads/Tits lookin at the front door, always want more. So I got drugs pump and more.

Student of the Game also has the Queens rapper on a track with the now-multiplatinum Lil Wayne for the first time since the Melvin Flynt album. Tunechi provides the hook for the sexy track, She Tried. On that track, N.ORE hits you with, “Okay, we left the club around 3. Headed back to that room/Yea, it’s time for that dome ‘Cause we checkin out around noon.”

It’s no doubt that N.O.R.E. is not only a Student of the Game, but a veteran as well. His body of work speaks for itself. Add to his resume, movie roles and guest appearances on some of Hip-Hop’s most iconic tracks, N.O.R.E. has left an indelible mark in Hip Hop music history. Unfortunately there are no songs like Grimey, N.O.R.E, Oh No or Superthug on the album. N.O.R.E. does makes a decent attempt to remind us of one of Hip-Hop’s anthems Banned from T.V. with Face of Death, featuring French Montana, Swiss Beatz, Raekwon and Busta Rhymes. I guess if you want to hear his old stuff, you have to buy his old albums.

There is no drag-out, knock down, one-hitter quitters on Student of the Game. Just a bunch of songs that will be fun for marketing and promotional teams to push; an established rapper making songs with today’s hot artists. It’s approaching 20 years in the game for N.O.R.E. Has his creativity been saturated? Not necessarily, but Student of the Game is not a game changer by any means. I hope the next album is better.

Out of 5

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