Chingy - Powerballin' (Parental Advisory) [PA] (CD 2004)

I first started getting into rap/R&B music a couple of years ago with probably 50 Cent being the biggest influence with his solid mainstream beats and corny lyrics. I happened to come across Chingy while playing Need For Speed Underground 2 as his song "I Do" is on the soundtrack. I soon started listening to a few of his other smash hit songs like "Right Thurr" "One Call Away" and "Balla Baby" After which I decided to buy his albums.

The main reason i love Powerballin is because it has a very bouncy feel to it. All songs have a great central beat where the lyrics flow from. The chorus of the songs are also well thought of and catchy, which in my opinion is very similar to many of 50 Cents hits. There is also a great flow between the songs, the beats all seem to merge into each other meaning all the songs flow like one. However the great thing is that all of Chingy's different personalities and thoughts seem to come across well in this album, along with his many different moods and outings that seem to happen.

Most of the songs have a specific element attatched to them, Girls and relationships feature with slower, in depth lyrics used. The best examples being Don't Worry which features Janet Jackson and Leave With Me which features R Kelly. These are also some of the best songs on the album. Cars are another favourite topic, in Powerballin, 26’s talks about the size of rims on a car and how bigger ones are better. Partying and chilling are another. Give Em Some Mo and We Clubbin' are perfect examples.

The other great plus for Powerballin is the fact that it also features some big names from rap and R&B. As I have already said R Kelly and Janet Jackson make appearances but there is also G.I.B. who Chingy is part of, David Banner, Nate Dogg, Lil' Wayne and of course Lil' Flip who all add an extra something to the album as well as the return of Jackpot the Pimp as a skit who first appeared in the Jackpot album.

The cover and inner design, to me, let you see everything Chingy is about and stands for. On the front there are two girls looking very nice, a couple of really nice, flashy cars this vision is enhanced when the jewelry Chingy is wearing is viewed from rings to tags and his belt, everything screams flashy. There is also money and values of money around the front cover. These images and visions are also expanded upon inside the insert itself.

The reason I decided to review this album over any of the others is because, even though only one single was brought out from the album in Balla Baby; I feel this is overall the best album of the three produced. Jackpot felt too much like pop music with most of the songs sounding and feeling very similar to each other and apart from One Call Away the tempo was similar in the other songs. The reason this is the case is because it was manufactured too much by Ludacris to sound commercial. Hoodstar has lost the fun bouncy beat and it might sound crazy but is a bit darker than Powerballin in my opinion.

Overall Chingy is becoming a more household name all the time as more people get to hear his music and his past successes. Although this album is largely ignored in this I feel it is the best to show exactly what Chingy stands for and it also produces catchy songs that very few people know about. This is why I had to give Powerballin 5 out of 5.

This album like all rap albums has the swearing and I have this etc - but its the actual rythem which counts and with Chingys songs on this CD he does this very well. I would recommend this album to anyone who is a Chingy fan already and/or into hip hop and R & B!

I simply CAN NOT believe the lyrical content that people put up with days. Rap used to be about one-up-manship through the skills of storytelling. But today, its about one-up-manship through aestetic means, such as who has the best car or the best "ho" or who has the brightest chain, and no one exemplifies this characteristic more than chingy. Crap, this is crap. I can only pray that hip-hop will soon be taken back by the underground, or at least rappers that rap about things that matter. I dont care about his freakin "26 rims". Why would i want to hear a rapper brag about things that I cant afford, and that nobody in the streets can afford. Please, rappers, stay true to the streets....
that is the biggest loada b******* iv herd, the content is gr8, i luv rap nd hip hop, the only eva gd people in hip hop b4 nowdays wer black sheep nd tupac, u aint got a clue bout it sonnyjimbob, but chingy is gd i agree ther (the king!) dnt post nothin stupid agen foo'