lets talk about Immobilarity! Rae went in another direction..some disliked it and

[Bugzbunny129]

Idgaf what anyone says. Half immobilarity was fire

If rae had just kept like 3 joints he out on osts, 1-3 mixtape joints, maybe 1-2 high profile features for a tradeback instead of him taking checks

And The albums a classic



Casablanca
Sbeqkers
100 rounds
Live from ny
The table
The jury
Real life
My fav dread
Friday

These 9 i love each one. Got like 3-4 more good songs. And 4-5 weak beat joints. I dig the synthy murda muzik style it has it just needed to be fleshed out with stuff like frozen ft slick rick or back to the cages with zoe pound. Add in the big producer joints like dj scratches wu cream /team lineup, easy mo be prod lets make a toast, pete rock the game, large pros the heist, etc and this albums a GEM. Maybe street mic mechanic and get aroundvthat or helicopter head from mixtapes. Respect power, cuttin it up, etc from osts. Brown paper bag thoughts, blue diamond, etc etc etc


Classic. Super classic

But it didnt happen so only 3.5 micer. Rae had like 10 high profile featured singles that year complete with video from outkast to joe to tash to smif n wessun to onyx etc. then he had 10 + ost and 10+ mixtape exclusive joints he gave to each dj. Kay slay got like 5. Clue 1. Flex 1. Tony touch 1. Pete rock n marley 1. Etc etc

U take the best 20 songs from this era imo and it >>>>> cuban. Yes i said that. I think it BLOWS it away. Rae was a much nicer mc in 98 than 95. Like nas was on iww. I can def make a 18 track immoobilarity outta these 24 above and the other 35 dope joints he dropped in that late 97-00 period.

Casablanca/sneakers are raes best solos and live from ny/100 rounds his best singles outside cuban

5 mic 80 min blood on chefs apron/immobilarity

The heist
Casablanca
100 rounds
Skew it on the bar b
Rap life
Real life
Frozen
Respect power
Wu/cream team lineup
Street mic mechanic
Black trump
Live from ny
Cuttin it up
Jury
Blue diamond
Back to the cages
My fav dread
Friday
The game
Determination
Sneakers
Ghetto
John blaze
The table
Its not a game



And fact is i have a disk 2 the same amount of tracks as well thats like 4 micer at worst. This is just the BEST of that era. You could make a feature one and a rae only one. My lex diamond mix is a 3cd. My cuban 2 is a 2cd, best of vatican is like 2. Rae only rapper with this much heat from so called “bad albums”. Idk what the thinking was back then i hope he made his money at least.

So when i see people say rae was wack at this time. Obv they dont know shyt. This lil album above = supreme clientele to me.

I dont judge rappers on business moves just art. Immobilarity is mediocre cause of business decisions not cause rae was wack. He used all his relationships and stuff for promo for the album, and the album was left thin tryna scam extra points with nobodyproducers instead of filling it to the brim witj heat.

Was a bad business and art move. But the music made at the time was FAR from wack, RZA or not. Realistically it got like 6-7 skips on a 20 track album. If loud would have gotten behind him a little more, rae coulda dropped a double album of bangers thats how on he was at the time.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Album's problem was the production. And also Rae being mad at RZA for being "too busy".

Back when he was recording this, there were mad legends in their prime who would've been more than wiling to work on this with Chef. He wanted to save money, so he worked with a lot of guys who pretty much vanished after this project. And it costed him.

The only joint on here I still listen to, is "Sneakers". Pete Rock should've just did the whole album.

 

[TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?]

Meh.. gave it a chance and bushed it instantly

 

[TrapHouse Rock]

The fronting on 'Heart to Heart' is wild my fav beat on this weak produced album

"The Table" was lyrically hard but that beat sound like it was made by a wu fan on soundclick lol

 

[BuddahMAC]

Album's problem was the production. And also Rae being mad at RZA for being "too busy".

Back when he was recording this, there were mad legends in their prime who would've been more than wiling to work on this with Chef. He wanted to save money, so he worked with a lot of guys who pretty much vanished after this project. And it costed him.

The only joint on here I still listen to, is "Sneakers". Pete Rock should've just did the whole album.

I've always put it more toward Rae's ego wanting to establish his own shyt after the most praise for Cuban Linx went to the beats and Ghost so he follows up w/ absolutely no RZA or GFK. Also, not saving money so much as trying to establish his own crew and building this group inside of Loud as most the producers are his people.

Mel Carter starts with this album as Rae's long-term executive, working on most Rae's projects until his passing. Also this project & the Black & White sdtk the next year mark the end of Rae & Power working together.

Additionally, Mike "Trauma" D and Jugrnaut aka Infinite Arkatechz were new A&Rs at Loud. Mike came on to do Big Pun's debut and they produced the title track, so he brought his brother (I'm guessing- same last name) along and, besides working on a number of 99-01 Loud projects, they specifically were part of Rae's American Cream Team crew, which besides being a rap group, was Rae's crew in general and the name of Rae's new label imprint on Loud.

American Cream Team first debuted in 1998 on Flex's album as "Harlem Hoodz," but Immobilarity serves as their rebranded debut.

ACT was Rae & Power's crew which was MCs Chip Banks, Polite, Rhyme Recka, Superb, Twiz with producers Inf Arch & Tryflin. Killa Sin (Power's physical brother) would also pop up on tracks like Giant Size.

So, on the production you have 18 songs, and 11 produced by Rae's people. The Inf Arch beats are really good instrumentation with weak drums and the Tryflin beats are good to average.

The straight up awful beats are the Vo & Pop ones which I think were Rae's grab for some of-the-era sounding beats so you get the Ghost-should-slap-you All I Got sequel and the 3 in a row near the end.

Rounding it out you got Sneakers w/ Pete giving the album's best beat, a sadly weak Six July joint after the heat he just gave La the Darkman's debut and a decent DJ Devistator beat who produced the majority of the Wu Syndicate album.

As Bugz alluded to, there's a ton of other cuts of this era that ended up going to soundtracks & the Black & White sdtk, but this album was entirely Rae's vision and I think his ego had him swing and miss. A good indicator that he's just throwing some of many things together on this is the "coming soon" in the CD booklet had CL2, an ACT album & the Black & White soundtrack all dropping the next year in 2000. Only the B&W soundtrack drops and, not long after that, Loud folds & Rae/Power split. Couple years later, ACT's rebranded as Ice Water Inc which again is the same as his imprint on Universal where Lex Diamond drops.

 

[TrifeGod]

Respect Power should have been on the album

 

[BuddahMAC]

Respect Power should have been on the album

Producer – Infinite Arkatechz

 

[MurderToCassette]

This needed to be on there too no doubt

 

[BuddahMAC]

This needed to be on there too no doubt

It was initially intended for the album and was included in Loud promo tapes in 98 but ended up on The PJs Compilation for some reason.

Production was Rockwilder & "Cream Team" so not sure if "Cream Team" means Tryflin or Inf Arch (written by seems to just be the MCs)

 

[LOST IN THE SAUCE]

Rae's flow was so sharp on here. Beats were boring/trash, and really fukked over what could have been the next prime for Rae and helped to build him as an elite emcee. He's always been one of my favorite rappers, and it's a shame how much this and Lex fukked his career up.

I'm due for a relisten tbh. This thread is also a good reminder, I always wanted to try remixing some of the joints on this album but could never find acapellas. Now with stem extraction I could probably finally take a decent shot at it.

 

[Clapsteel O'Neal]

This album is garbage from front to back, except sneakers. Knock it off.

Immobilarity happens when your ego gets out of control and life decides to humble you. He felt he could make another OB4CL without RZA and Ghost because he felt they took too much of the shine away from him and the fans praised their contributions too much.....................and then found out the hard way he needed RZA and Ghost to make a good album.

 

[nieman]

The album was wack then, and still wack now. Yes, Rae was lyrically sharper on this album, but a lot of it was big swings and misses. There's nothing wrong with that. He had a vision...and you can tell it was definitely his vision...went for it, and unfortunately it didn't work.

There are some outright trash songs on there, but some gems as well. But musically it lacks cohesion for a great or even good album. And a lot of the beats clash, and all of Pop's beats were generic sounding styles of that year.

I still have my OG CD, and actually try to listen to this every 6 or so months. Sneakers, Forecast or 100 Rounds may pop in my head, so I'll dust it off, and play it all the way through.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

The first few tracks, the "Live From NY" to "Friday" stretch, and "Sneakers" are the only listenable parts of the album.
RZA listed as producer for a skit and the outro