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The True Meaning picks up where Cormega's stellar debut, The Realness (2001), left off, showcasing earnest, heartfelt, and sometimes sharp-edged rhymes over gritty street-level beats. "Love in Love Out" -- where Cormega answers Nas' "Destroy & Rebuild" over a crackling sample of the beat from Isaac Hayes' "Your Love Is So Doggone Good" -- is sure to garner a lot of attention, but there's plenty more to The True Meaning than that one song. The streetwise title track is an obvious highlight, graced with a soulful Diana Ross sample for its hook. Other standouts include "The Come Up," a Large Professor production that includes a verse from the Main Source legend (the only guest rap on the entire album); "The Legacy," a stunning Alchemist production with a backward-looking lyric; and "Built for This," a tough rap with a great beat by J. Waxx Garfield, who is credited with three songs overall. Cormega stands tall as a fearless, confident rapper over the course of The True Meaning, calling himself "Queensbridge's most respected rapper" on "Ain't Gone Change," a show-stopping a cappella that sets up the title track perfectly. The True Meaning is an impressive album on many counts and is sure to please hip-hop purists as well as anyone who enjoys well-crafted, intelligent New York rap.
Condition NEW
TRACK LISTING
1 Introspective
2 Verbal Graffiti
3 Live Ya Life
4 Ain't Gone Change
5 The True Meaning
6 A Thin Line
7 The Legacy
8 Love in Love Out
9 The Come Up
10 Built for This
11 Soul Food
12 Take These Jewels
13 Endangered Species
14 Therapy
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