Cooley Live

Back in the '60s and '70s, artist development was a high priority among A&R people at major labels -- if an A&R department really believed in an artist, a five-album contract was a possibility. But it was a very difficult ballgame in the '90s; one-album contracts were the norm at major labels, and if an artist's first album didn't sell, they were dropped. Cooly Live might have become well known if RCA had given him a chance to record a second or third album; instead, the New York rapper became one of hip-hop's one-album wonders of the '90s. And that's unfortunate, because Livewire is a decent, fairly promising debut. On this CD, Cooly demonstrates that he comes from the storyteller school of East Coast rap -- in other words, he would rather tell listeners some type of story than spend all of his time boasting about his rhyming skills and attacking "sucker MCs." Cooly doesn't stay away from boasting raps altogether, and he sometimes feels the need to let the "sucker MCs" know how "wack" he thinks they are. But when all is said and done, it is Cooly's storytelling that leaves listeners with a generally favorable impression of this CD. And the urban tales that Cooly provides deal with a variety of subject matter -- some of it serious, some of it more lighthearted. During the course of the album, Cooly raps about everything from inner-city violence to the "fly" women in his neighborhood. Overall, Cooly's outlook is positive; it's too bad that Livewire didn't enjoy more attention. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi