Big Tymers: I Got That Work

New Orleans' Cash Money Records is on a massive hot streak, riding the runaway success of artists such as Juvenile, B.G., and Li'l Wayne to multi-platinum sales and supplanting the sinking No Limit as the South's top hip-hop label. Integral to Cash Money's success is the production work of Mannie Fresh, the workaholic beatsmith who produces every song on every Cash Money album, creating sounds with his trusty synthesizers that lesser producers such as Swizz Beats can only dream about. With such a massive workload, it's not that surprising that I Got That Work, the latest album from Big Tymers (Fresh and Cash Money CEO Bryan "Baby" Williams), shows signs of artistic fatigue. Fresh's production work remains potent and inventive, but Fresh and Williams are mush-mouthed, uninteresting rappers whose endless cataloguing of their massive wealth makes American Psycho's Patrick Bateman seem like a hardcore Marxist. Juvenile and B.G. can get away with constant boasting because they've got distinctive voices and charisma to back it up. In the hands of Big Tymers, however, the rampant materialism becomes tedious and oppressive. Similarly, Fresh's habit of recycling lyrics from the verses of old songs into new choruses has always been forgivable, but when Fresh turns his "Bow bow bow bow Rocky Balboa" line from The Hot Boys' "I Need A Hot Girl" into the chorus of "Rocky," it's just sad. I Got That Work's celebratory high point is the entertaining "10 Wayz," which at least cranks up the narcissism to ridiculous levels, urging listeners to marry themselves as the start of a fulfilling lifelong relationship. But the rest lacks the smirking, over-the-top humor that sets that song apart. I Got That Work should satisfy Cash Money diehards, but seldom has the label's formula seemed as tired as it does here.