The Bar Exam: Mood Music 3

Artist: Joe Budden

Album #:Mixtape

Label: Amalgam Digital

By L.D.Williams Jr


Breakdown

Joe Budden finally has something in the stores after a five year hiatus. His self titled debut album was fueled by the summer hit “Pump It Up”. He began to work on his sophomore album called The Growth and as of this writing it still hasn't seen the light of day. While people may speculate on why the album never hit the shelves I can tell you the truth, only Joe Budden or his former label Def Jam knows what happened with the project. If you really want to know talk to Joe Budden and former Def Jam President Jay-Z and the truth is somewhere in the middle.

 

In the interim while Budden was prepping for his still unreleased second album he started working on the Mood Muzik series. The second installment of the Mood Muzik series Mood Muzik 2: Can It Get Any Worse? was a release that was so strong that it would have justifiably gotten reviewed on The Bar Exam providing that it was created back in 2005. MM2 did receive attention from the New York Times, allhiphop.com and several other media outlets with a consensus of positive reviews.


All of the attention MM2 got set the table for a lot of hype amongst fans for the third installment in the series. While the actual mixtape was released in December Amalgam Digital partnered with Joe Budden to commercially distribute the mixtape. Mood Muzik 3 The Album is slightly different because there is no DJ talking over the songs and there are songs on the commercially released version that was not on the mixtape that was released late last year
Joe Budden starts the project off with the soul bearing Dear Diary. Joe Budden does more venting on “Hiatus” and “Ventilation”. While a lot of fans love Joe Budden for his extremely personal lyrics he does not make the whole disc a Dr. Phil soul searching session.


He gets to together with Fabulous, Ransom, and Hitchcock for a “Family Reunion”. He also pairs up with Joell Ortiz for a three minute adrenaline rush called “Warfare”. While all of these songs are very good the scary part is the album has not gotten to the high points yet. “4 Walls” is Joe Budden publishing another memoir conceived from the mind of a man that loves to put all of his feelings into the microphone. “All of Me” is an eight minute stream of consciousness that will have your ear crazy glued to the speaker. “Secrets” is a drama novel shrunk into six minutes. “Send Him Our Love” is a genuine tribute to Stack Bundles.
This project has very little that you can complain about “Star Inside of Me” is one of those songs that could have been left of but that is really just being petty. This is an album that is truly strong front to back, in an era of downloading and burning this album is definitely a safe buy because you can put it in the car, stereo or whatever press play and let it go. This disc is proof that Budden is far from your average Joe.

FINAL SCORE: 4.5/5


1. Hiatus (produced by mellow madness)
2. Ventilation (produced by the klasix)
3. Talk 2 em (produced by wms sultan)
4. Joe budden feat. joell ortiz-warfare (produced by the klasix)
5. Joe budden feat. emanny-invisible man (produced by chemo)
6. Dear diary (produced by wms sultan)
7. Joe budden feat. ezo-get no younger (produced by the klasix)
8. Joe budden feat. suzzy q-star inside (produced by dub b)
9. Killa bh-skit
10. Send him our love (produced by the klasix)
11. Joe budden feat. fabolous ransom and hitchcock-family reunion (produced by shatek)
12. 5th gear (produced by wms sultan)
13. Roll call (produced by wms sultan)
14. Joe budden feat. emanny-secrets (produced by the klasix)
15. Joe budden feat. emanny-all of me (produced by the klasix)
16. Killa bh-foldgers brother
17. Joe budden feat. mr. probz-long way to go (produced by soulsearchin)
18. Thou shall not fall (produced by the klasix)
19. Still my hood (produced by wyks)