Tracey Lee

During the height of Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records, a relatively unknown rapper from Philadelphia named Tracey Lee had a dance club hit for Bad Boy with "The Theme: It's Party Time." He subsequently released a disappointing debut album, Many Facez, that was all over the map. Four years later, Lee's sophomore album strikes closer to home. Live From the 215 is a consistent effort, unlike his first record where he was clearly struggling to find a musical identity. Here, Lee takes a more simplistic approach, which is both good and bad. Tracks like "3 Years Later" and "Who Dat" bring a lean, hard-edged sound created by Bad Boy production wiz Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie. Other tracks like "City to City" and "Where I'm From" seem like nothing more than remakes of Jay-Z's trademark sound. After a weak debut, Tracey Lee is starting to find his way but still has a long way to go. ~ Jon Azpiri, All Music Guide