Original Soundtrack - Paid In Full (Clean) / O.S.T. (CD)

All Music Guide

Paid in Full, a doubledisc RocaFella album (half oldschool mixtape, half Roc sampler) released in conjunction with the film of the same name, could have been a remarkable release. Instead, it's a fumbled effort, one that's a major blemish on RocaFella's otherwise stellar resumé. The first disc is an oldschool mixtape with a great track listing: Eric B. Rakim's "Paid in Full," Slick Rick's "The Show," BDP's "The Bridge Is Over," Special Ed's "I Got It Made," and some pleasant surprises like Meli'sa Morgan's "Fool's Paradise," Maze's "Before I Let Go," Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight," and Guy's "Goodbye Love." It's really hard to go wrong with songs like that, but this first disc ends up being downright unlistenable because of the "world famous" Brucie B, who, for one, can't mix worth a damn and, for two, never shuts up. He shouts out to seemingly half of New York over the course of the mix, and he interrupts midsong, and midhook even to shout proclamations like "Everybody sing" "H...ere we go" and "If you in your house, if you in your car, wherever you are, tell me the name of this record" Even worse, he actually sings along to the hook of "Before I Let Go" and not well It's really remarkable that RocaFella head honcho Dame Dash actually deemed this worthy of release. What was he thinking? The second disc, which is a variousartists sample of the extended Roc family circa 2002, isn't too much better. Again, what could have been a fantastic listening experience ends up sounding questionable. The pool of talent here is unprecedented: rappers JayZ, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, M.O.P., Twista, and some lesserknowns, as well as hotshot producers Kanye West and Just Blaze. And there are some promising ideas here, chief among them a discopening interpolation of Queen's "Champions" and also a remake of Tru's "Bout It, Bout It" that features Master P. But little comes together like it should, and what could be a hitfilled sampler ends up being a jarring mishmash of offputting vainglory. Granted, some of the beats are on point, especially those of "Champions" and "I'm Ready," but rarely can the MCs bring the necessary heat. In the end, Paid in Full is for Roc diehards only, and even they may want to pass on this one. [The set was also issued in a clean version.] - Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide Read more Less