Not Again! 12 Rap Album Sequels That Should Have Never Happened
The Artist: Jay-Z
The Original: 2001's The Blueprint
The Sequel: 2002's The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
The Review: You don't need us to tell you that BP2 wasn't as strong as the original BP. Jay himself has admitted as much in past interviews. But the main problem with this effort was that it was too long. (Waaaaaay too long!) And it didn't feature the same sort of soulful production that the first one did, either. The Curse, indeed.
Rap Sequel #1
Rap Sequel #2
The Artist: Fat Joe
The Original: 2001's Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.)
The Sequel: 2009's Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 (J.O.S.E. 2)
The Review: Commercially, the 2001 version of J.O.S.E. was the one for Joey Crack. From "We Thuggin" to the breakthrough hit, "What's Luv?" Joe made his mark on the game with that album. With J.O.S.E. 2, he tried to emulate that feeling by selecting a host of commercially-viable producers (Jim Jonsin, Rico Love and—gulp—Ron Browz, included) and failed miserably by deviating away from his core fan base. J.O.S.E. 2 was too much of a bad thing.
Rap Sequel #3
The Artist: Twista
The Original: 1997's Adrenaline Rush
The Sequel: 2007's Adrenaline Rush 2007
The Review: It's not that AR2007 was particularly bad—it had some joints on it, including the single "Whip Game Proper"—but this album was a clear case of Twista naming an album after a previously-successful album just for the sake of doing it. It paid homage to the 10th anniversary of his Gold-selling AR album, but the comparisons pretty much stopped there. And so did the love that the sequel received shortly after it dropped.
Rap Sequel #4
The Artist: Freeway
The Original: 2003's Philadelphia Freeway
The Sequel: 2009's Philadelphia Freeway 2
The Review: The first Philadelphia Freeway featured production by Just Blaze and Kanye and guest appearances by Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Faith Evans and Nelly. The second one was a low-budget effort that dropped on an independent label. In this case, there's absolutely no comparision to even be made. Next!
Rap Sequel #5
The Artist: Onyx
The Original: 1993's Bacdafucup
The Sequel: 2002's Bacdafucup Part II
The Review: SLAM! Duh, duh, duh! Duh, duh, duh! Let the boys be boys! Onyx's debut album, fueled by the smash hit, "Slam," was a winner commercially and critically. On the sequel nine years later, the group basically tried to revert right back to their old ways—going as far as revamping the original's cover art and recording a song called "Slam Harder"—but couldn't capture the same energy they had in the early 1990s. Hey, guys: Bacdafucup if you're thinking of doing a Part III, please.
Rap Sequel #6
The Artist: Method Man & Redman
The Original: 1999's Blackout!
The Sequel: 2009's Blackout! 2
The Review: To Meth and Red's credit, Blackout! 2 actually wasn't all that bad. Their biggest problem? They released it about eight years too late. By the time this sequel dropped, all the duo's original fans have graduated high school, graduated college, gotten a full-time job, gotten married and...well, basically, they'd stopped smoking weed in their parents' basement and bumping stoner jams. And if those guys weren't listening anymore, well, did the world really need another Meth and Red album? Probably not.
Rap Sequel #7
The Artist: Madvillain (MF DOOM and Madlib)
The Original: 2004's Madvillainy
The Sequel: 2008's Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix
The Review: What do you do when you're ready to record a sequel to a classic album but the other half of your duo isn't quite at that point yet? If you're Madlib, you go back and remix your original project and put it out...as the sequel! Listen, we're all for taking creative chances, but this just wasn't a good idea. Could you imagine Illmatic remixed and released as Illmatic 2? Or a whole new batch of beats used to create Biggie's Ready to Die 2? Nice idea for the mixtape circuit—not so nice for the official sequel.
Rap Sequel #8
The Artist: Prodigy
The Original: 2000's H.N.I.C.
The Sequel: 2008's H.N.I.C. Pt. 2
The Review: In 2000, P was a gritty New York rapper with a chip on his shoulder. So The Alchemist-produced "Keep It Thoro" was enough to get us to commit to loving his debut album. By 2008, he was a disillusioned rapper who used the title of his third album, H.N.I.C. Pt. 2, to try and get some more attention for himself. It actually wasn't half-bad, but we struggled to get over the fact that P basically used the title as a marketing plot.
Rap Sequel #9
The Artist: Saigon
The Original: 2004's Warning Shots
The Sequel: 2009's Warning Shots 2
The Review: When did you know Sai was never going to get the chance to release his major label debut, The Greatest Story Never Told? Was it after it got delayed for the 30th time? After he jumped on MySpace to announce his retirement? Or after he released this terrible sequel to his buzzworthy street album? Yeah, we went with that one. This sequel sucked.
Rap Sequel #10
The Artist: Ghostface Killah
The Original: 2006's Fishscale
The Sequel: 2006's More Fish
The Review: After releasing the damn-near-classic Fishscale towards the top of 2006, Ghost (or, more appropriately, Ghost's label Def Jam) tried to capitalize off its success with More Fish. But thanks to a slew of guest appearances by Ghost's clique Theodore Unit and the fact that most of the tracks were simply unreleased and not really meant to be part of a cohesive album, More Fish proved Fishscale was more than enough.
Rap Sequel #11
The Artist: Method Man
The Original: 1994's Tical
The Sequel: 2000's Tical 2000: Judgement Day
The Review: Meth makes a second appearance on this list thanks to his sophomore effort. While the album had some solid songs on it, it also went something like this: Song. Song. Skit. Song. Skit. Song. Skit. Skit. Skit. Skit...Okay, so there were never four skits in a row, but it sure felt like that. As a result of that and as a result of the long lapse between his first album and his second one, Meth should have reconsidered the title he chose.
Rap Sequel #12
The Artist: Young Jeezy
The Original: 2005's Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
The Sequel: 2006's The Inspiration: Thug Motivation 102
The Review: Before you start bombing the comments box, listen up: It's not that we didn't like TM102. "Still On It" was solid. "Go Getta" was an anthem. And "3 A.M." was our jam for a few months. But there was absolutely no way Jeezy was gonna be able to match the intensity and passion of TM101 on his sophomore effort. It was literally impossible to do it. So we're really not even sure why he tried.
Is there another rap album sequel that you absolutely despise? Did you actually like any of the sequels we suggested here? Do you think there's a classic album that deserves a sequel? Leave a comment and let us know.
