While Part 1 of "Twelve Eighteen" has been entirely produced by the great Fingazz, this one has also production by Simes Carter, Bionik and Moox.
This record was supposed to come out in late 2006 at first, it finally hit the stores in late 2008, so many fans lost their interest on it, it's a big question why it took so long for Upstairs Records to put it out. True fans will forgive Lil' Rob though, because he really let the music speak on this record as you can hear on the album's entrie "Bringing It Back" which features production and talkbox by Fingazz. A typical westcoast track to bump in the lowrider, with a heavy kick and the obligatory whistle in the background. Lil Rob also uses a voice-sample off one of his most popular cuts "Summer Nights" on this track: "Right next to the pacific, to be specific." - that's where he's at and the music sounds exactly like that.
The second track "Slow It Down" is the generic ladies-track, with a smooth bassline and a r'n'b-sounding hook by Frankie J. Many of you will know Frankie J from the Baby Bash hitsingle "Shorty Doowop" back in 2003.
1218 Part 2 starts really chilled and smooth as 4 of the first 6 tracks are slow jamz, mostly female pleasing and slow-flowing. You got the hanging-out "Leanin On The Weekend" with its nice bass and sleepy hook and the lowrider anthem "Let's Go" which features Fingazz again, on which you are able to experience the usual crispy clean rap by Lil Rob, it's for the good times. On "Let Me Come Back" you hear Lil Rob using the popular auto-tune vocoder. For those of you who will think of T-Pain now, there is no need to worry because Lil Rob brings a very vintage feeling to this track which is backed by Fingazz on the hook, he doesn't sound like a copycat at all. The production of this song is awsome, Fingazz still does what he does best: Summertime anthems.
Of course you can find the more party and up-tempo tracks as well, but they don't sound as much mainstream as they did on "Twelve Eighteen Pt. 1". I would call "Bang Bang Boogie" and "Fast Life" the only tracks with mass appeal. "Bang Bang Boogie" with another Fingazz production and vocal feature starts like a typical T-Pain single but turns into a bangin club joint. The heavy synthezisers and the booming bass make this song sound very vivacious. You could compare it to Rob's 2005 hitsingle "Bring Out The Freak In You" but this one sounds even more stylish and colourful. The other track, "Fast Life", is just a corny contribution to Michael Sembello's "Maniac (Flashdance)".
The other perfect track to dance to is "Do It", an 80's-influenced cut, very funky and happy-tuned. On the other hand you find a dedication to the oldies with "Out Of My Mind" as well as gangsta rap with "Brown Side". To feed some stereotypes, you will always find the brash and street-smart tracks like "Microphone Rippin" on Lil Rob's albums, which is nothing new at all but it still does its job.
"Just One Of Those Days", "Stuck With You" and "Cortez Shoes", the three singles of this album (while the two first mentioned tracks were released in 2007) are the perfect examples why this album is in my list of the best albums in 2008: They all got the summertime vibe to it, a catchy hook and a not too attention-craving sound. I guess this is the secret behind this type of records, especially behind the countless Fingazz productions in the past years. You want to hang out with your friends? Bump this record. You need background music while barbecueing? Bump this record. You want to boogie a little bit? Just bump this record. The biggest minus of this album is just the release-date, because this isn't really an album for the winter.
----Rating: 8,0 / 10
Si-Chill
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