Rick Ross - "Teflon Don" [Review]

I'm going to begin this review by getting something out of the way.  I do not like "B.M.F." or "MC Hammer".  At all.  It's bad enough the two beats (both produced by Lex Luger) sound almost identical.  "MC Hammer" has one key change that "B.M.F." doesn't have.  But aside from that, they're practically the same exact beat.  To make matters worse, Ross uses almost the same cadence on the hook for both songs.  So they REALLY wind up sounding like the same track.  It's such an annoyance to me that Ross fucks up this album by including two songs that are not only subpar when compared to the rest of the album, but two songs that sound EXACTLY-FUCKING-ALIKE.
 Now that I got that off my chest, allow me to say that "Teflon Don" came close to being an excellent album.  Very close actually.  The first stretch of songs is almost flawless.  "Free Mason" features the obligatory 'Hov feature and an ironic title considering his verse.  "Live Fast, Die Young" (maybe the best song on the album) is an excellent collab with Kanye that will probably be the most played song off the album (at least in my iPod).  "Super High" with Ne-Yo hit the net ages ago but is still high quality, while Maybach Music III keeps the car themed song thing going.  Even "No. 1" which ran the risk of being a BS, Diddy infected mess comes off as a fun club joint.   Trey Songz sings and raps (quite well) while Diddy keeps from embarrassing himself.  But after "No. 1" comes the two songs that sound fucking alike and that's when the album loses me.  "Aston Martin Music" comes next but I can't help but think it's just a throwaway Drake song (really, it sounds like it should be right after "Fancy" on Thank Me Later).  "All The Money In The World" is a decent enough song but nowhere near the caliber of the earlier songs. 

I don't have a huge issue with dropping an 11 song album.  But if you're gonna do that, two or three lackluster songs will fuck up the whole package and sadly, that's what happened to Ross.  There's some EXCELLENT material here but nothing is stopping me from paying $7 tops on iTunes for the ones I really like.  Ross has a great ear for beats and some good producers around him.  He may not be Kool G Rap on the mic but he's good enough to hold his own and keep listeners entertained.  With todays Hip Hop landscape, I'll GLADLY welcome an album like "Teflon Don", but anyone hoping to toss out the not-quite-what-it-used-to-be "classic" label needs calm down.  It's very good; some may even argue great.  But it's no classic.