Album Review
(written and reviewed back in 10/4/2004 under PINOYRAP.COM)
Title: Ghetto Celebs
Artist: Urban Flow
Year: 1998
Label: Octoarts Records
By Webmasta
The second album released from Urban Flow. This is fact is the group’s most serious and diversed album. Urban Flow is a popular rap group known for their ballad style of pinoy rap. The group combines popular Filipino folk/ballad music with smooth contemporaray rap. In Ghetto Celebs, tracks include mixture of rap ballad, serious lyrics and a mixture of smooth to hard beats. Another importance is the album introduces Dj. Arbie Won as a versatile turntablist which was not evident on the first one.
A review of the tracks
There were a total of twelve tracks in Ghetto Celebs. Nine are rap tracks and while the rest are skits. Tracks are mixture of English, Tagalog and Ilonggo dialects.
- “Evenflow”: The album begins with a turntable cut from Dj Arbie Won. This is an important track because this was the first track to display his turntable skills.
- “Just For You”: A romantic track.
- “Padalaw”: One of my favorite tracks in the album. Also, one of my favorite rap ballads from the group. This track is actually music mixed with a rap version of “harana”, a traditional Filipino form of courtship where the young male visits his date’s home and senerades her with music. This culture is more practiced by young men living in rural areas or small towns. One of nice things about this track is the smooth melodic beat, lyrics and flow.
- “I Dunno Why”: Another of my favorite tracks. This track is about crab mentality, one of the problems facing Philippine society. Mild melodic beats and smooth flow and delivery support this track.
- “Paraiso Nation”: A serious track about the social problems in The Philippines with a strong message of hope? Mild beats support the track’s serious subject matter. The lyrics are also mild but the only thing I don’t like about this track is the beat’s continious flow.
- “Walang Duda”: A freestyle track featuring The Third Eye Infantry, a Pinoy hip-hop crew composed of Urban Flow, Pamilya Dimagiba and more. This track is a mixture of lyrical flow and turntablism. The flow is ok and resembles the popular NY group Wu-Tang Clan.
- “Dahil Mahal Kita”: A rap ballad track. This track is actually a revived rap version of the popular track from the pinoy rock group Boyfriends. The track also features mild-beats, lyrics and samples from NY based British rapper, Slick Rick.
- “Buhay sa Maynila”: A track about life and the urban reality of Manila. Smooth beats, strong lyrical delivery and Killah Bee and Lenz Gaviola on vocals, helped support this track
- “Pubhopping Interlude / Disco Imferno”: A freestyle track featuring The Third Eye Infantry. The track starts with a club skit following the track. The freestyle is ok while the beat is from Blondie’s hit track, “Raptures Delight”.
- “Somewhere Down The Boni”: This track is about life along Boni, an avenue in Mandaluyong where the group hangs out. Mild beats, smooth flow and a cut from Slick Rick support this track.
- “Mga Kababayan”: A revised track from Francis M.’s hit track. To me, this track doesn’t fit the album especially the use of rock guitars.
- “Album Extro”: Shoutouts
Notable Quotes
“Ang puso mo o kay ganda, ang puso mo mo o kay sarap; ang tangin narandaman ako ay parang nasa ulap”
Urban Flow – Padalaw
Summary
Ghetto Celebs is ok. The album has some nice tracks and some nice style. Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks such as continious beats and flow on some of the tracks. The sound production needs some work as well since the volume isn’t loud when I was listening to it. But in all, this is still one of Urban Flow’s fine albums.
+
- Beats are ok. Mixture from smooth, melodic to hardcore
- Lyrical delivery is good
- Melodic tracks
–
- Some beats are continious
- Poor sound recording
- Some unnecessary tracks
Favorite track: “Padalaw”
Least favorite track: “Mga Kababayan (remix)”
Overall Review: 3.5/5
