Shop Boyz - Rockstar Mentality
Our Price: $13.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $0.54 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: Shop BoyzEdition: Music CD
Format: Explicit Lyrics
CD Release Date: 2007-06-19
Music Label: Republic
Soundtracks:
- Party Like A Rockstar
- Bowen Homes
- Baby Girl
- They Like Me
- Next To Me
- Rollin'
- Rockstar Mentality
- Flexin'
- Totally Dude
- Showin' Me Love
- My Car
- Sumthin' To Talk 'Bout
- World On Fire
Free Music Notes for Rockstar Mentality
Free Music Review: 2-1/2 stars -- Party like a flopstar
Hit: 2 Stars
Shop Boyz' single "Party Like a Rockstar" was a hit all across the board on urban radio last year. Still, it was another case of where an artist scores a big hit yet nobody picks up the album. I wondered why, but then I listened to Rockstar Mentality and I said, "Oh."
If the album title doesn't spell it out for you, Shop Boyz are trying to reach the levels of rock star popularity, which probably accounts for why many of the songs are electric-guitar-driven. But when they try ACOUSTIC guitar backdrops, it doesn't work right because it makes the songs sound TOO countrified, and that much country plus rap doesn't mix (ask Cowboy Troy). This is evidenced by selections like "My Car" and "Rollin'", which, by the way, are also predictable songs about automobiles.
That aside, the trio really don't have much to say. Dull tracks are in abundance, like "Baby Girl" and "Showin' Me Love". "Sumthin' to Talk `Bout" is anything but, and the title track suffers from an uninteresting, repetitive chorus. Speaking of uncreative choruses, the David Banner-produced "They Like Me" (the obligatory blingin' song) falls into that category: "I keep the girls choosin'/Turn `em out and have `em dykin'/They never tell me naw/(Why?) `Cause they like me".
But the most annoying thing about Shop Boyz is their catchphrase. If you're a twenty-something black guy, you do not -- repeat - DO NOT say "Totally Dude"! I'm sorry, but the only people that say that are fifteen-year-old white guys who shop at PacSun. In short, Rockstar Mentality isn't worth picking up because their minds ain't right, so leave it in the shop, boys.
Anthony Rupert
Rockstar Mentality Poster
It all happened so quickly. Or so it seems. One day Sheed, Meany and Fat were grease monkeys at a makeshift garage in their Bowen Homes neighborhood, the next they were swiftly-rising hip-hop stars, progenitors of a growing musical movement they call ``hood rock.'
But like most overnight successes, Shop Boyz's rise to fame took many years. Cousins Demetrius "Meany" Hardin and Richard "Fat" Stephens grew up with best friend Rasheed "Sheed" Hightower in the notorious Bankhead area of Atlanta, the stomping ground of some of the city's most successful hip-hop artists. They worked on cars, hustled, did whatever they could to make ends meet and when their work was done for the day, they turned to their true passion: making music. Their unique, groundbreaking style didn't go unnoticed.
Within four months of its release, "Party Like A Rockstar" set off a frenzy of activity at radio and clubs throughout the southeast and spread like wildfire across the country. The electrifying song with its contagious hook appeals to the spirited, carefree rocker in all of us - from school children and working class dads to hard-core hip-hoppers and blue-haired, Mohawk-wearing Punk Rockers. From note one, excited fans begin strumming air guitars, crowd surfing and building mosh pits that rival those of any major rock concert.
It was the perfect introduction to their unique brand of music. As for their definition of the newly-created sub-genre known as `hood rock, Sheed says, "It's got energy and a rock feel to it but at the same time it's all about rocking the club, getting the club charged up.
Shop Boyz's debut CD, "Rock Star Mentality," is a sampling of the creativity and diversity that go into each and every song that this creative collective churns out. Whether they're flossing and having fun on a track like "My Car" or showing respect for their ladies on "She Knows," Shop Boyz tell new stories in new and exciting ways. "Rain Dance," a sure standout, is bound to inspire some new moves on the dance floor. "It's a lot of energy," says Meany. "I think people are gonna like it because you gotta dance to it. It's another movement." And a group favorite, "Rollin'," is a track the guys swear is actually hotter than their blazing "Party Like A Rockstar."
They call it "hood rock," but with their debut album, Atlanta's Shop Boyz accomplish something keener than that phrase suggests. With Rockstar Mentality, former mechanics Rasheed "Sheed" Hightower and cousins Demetrius "Meany" Hardin and Richard "Fat" Stephens have coalesced their image as succinctly as any hip-hop group in recent memory. Lead single "Party Like a Rockstar" eclipsed all previous speed records for digital music distribution, capped by the sale of a million ringtones in the track's first six weeks, and though the album's only real "rock" is the committed use of live guitar throughout, these songs nevertheless pay vocal tribute to rock stardom at every opportunity. The title track forces the issue most obviously; "Rollin'"--the Boyz' professed favorite--motors forth on a bass hook pulled right out of the Beach Boys; and "My Car" keeps pace with yet another deeply thumping ode to the joys of automobile ownership. Make no mistake, from the first shout-out of their native "Bowen Homes" to the unrelenting battery of uninspiring rhymes, Rockstar Mentality is urban-radio-ready hip-hop through and through, but the trio's savvy self-image might just corral enough rock-n'-roll, grease-monkey cred to elevate the Shop Boyz' from mentality to reality. --Jason Kirk
Classic Rock Music CDs
Shop Boyz - Rockstar MentalityRelease date: 2007-06-19; Music CD
Best price: $3.57
Price in other shops:
50 Cent - Curtis50 CENT; Release date: 2007-09-11; Music CD
Best price: $1.34
Price in other shops:
Kanye West - GraduationRelease date: 2007-09-11; Music CD
Best price: $5.72
Price in other shops:
Timbaland - Timbaland Presents Shock ValueTIMBALAND; Release date: 2007-04-03; Music CD
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops:
Fabolous - From Nothin' to Somethin'Release date: 2007-06-12; Music CD
Best price: $2.80
Price in other shops:
R. Kelly - Double UpRelease date: 2007-05-29; Music CD
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops:
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - souljaboytellem.comRelease date: 2007-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $2.31
Price in other shops:
Huey - Notebook PaperRelease date: 2007-06-19; Music CD
Best price: $0.73
Price in other shops:
Rihanna - Good Girl Gone BadRIHANNA; Release date: 2007-06-05; Music CD
Best price: $4.41
Price in other shops:
T-Pain - EpiphanyRelease date: 2007-06-05; Music CD
Best price: $7.22
Price in other shops:
T.I. - T.I. vs T.I.P.Release date: 2007-07-03; Music CD
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops: