Big B – “Welcome to the Club” (Album Review)
Big B is a 47 year old rapper from Las Vegas, Nevada starting out as the frontman for 187. After the band’s dissolution, the hooligan would go on to join OPM in 2002 & become a household name for the infamous California powerhouse Suburban Noize Records just a couple years later. His first 3 solo albums High Class White Trash, White Trash Renegade & More to Hate would become some of my favorite releases that the label has ever put out. We just celebrated the 7 year anniversary of B’s previous album Fool’s Gold earlier this past week & after going on a musical hiatus since then, he’s ready to make a comeback with his 7th full-length album.
“Enjoy the Show” is a good way to start off the album as B encourages the listener to just relax on top of a fitting rock instrumental whereas the next song “It Ain’t Punk Rock” talks about being him over a more traditional hip hop instrumental with a guitar thrown in. The track “Whiskey & Women” talks about it’s hard to maintain from the things he loves over a fast tempo instrumental while the song “Band of Brothers (This is How I Roll)” is a catchy country rock cut about keeping it real.
The track “San Felipe Blues” is a road trip anthem accompanied with an acoustic instrumental while the song “Forget You” with Everlast sees the 2 talking about drinking themselves blind because of scandalous women over some summery production. The track “That’s Country” talks about how he speaks the truth over a banjo & some hard hitting drums while the song “2nd Pistol in My Pocket” tells the story of a man being on a run after murdering someone the night before over a more outlaw instrumental.
The track “Where Were You” is a powerful ballad calling out those who weren’t there for him when he was struggling while the song “It’s Too Late” takes aim at those who wanna act tough over a hard rock instrumental. The track “Down” talks about partying over over some banjos & guitars while the song “My Old Lady” of course is an endearing tribute to Big B’s mother over a more vintage country instrumental. The album then finishes off with “The Whiskey Blues”, which obviously talks about alcohol over a luxurious piano instrumental.
Now if anyone’s followed Big B’s career long enough, then you probably already know that he’s repped that white trash life in his music since the very beginning. That being said, this is pretty much his very own country album & it’s a mature one at that. Michael Bradford did a good job on the production end & you can definitely hear B has the passion again after that 7 year hiatus.
Score: 7/10
