The Madd Rapper: Tell 'Em Why You Madd

The character of The Madd Rapper—a perpetually angry, disgruntled player-hater jealous of the success and fame of the Bad Boy empire—orig inally appeared on a series of skits on Bad Boy albums. What made the character so appealing was that he functioned, in a limited role, as a sort of comic antithesis to the decadent world of leisure espoused by many Bad Boy artists. Predictably, however, casting him as the star of a glossy, big-budget album littered with guest stars strips away much of his charm, not to mention purpose. The character's enduring popularity has resulted in a puzzling debut that finds The Madd Rapper rich and famous, in possession of a record deal, and, perhaps not coincidentally, not all that angry. There are tracks on Tell 'Em Why U Madd in which The Madd Rapper rhymes from the perspective of a scrappy comic underdog, but there are also tracks in which his rhymes aren't much different from those you'd expect from the likes of Ma$e or Puff Daddy. To make things even more confusing, some songs even feature The Madd Rapper's alter ego (Bad Boy producer Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie) rapping lamely out of character as himself. In essence, Tell 'Em Why You Madd is three albums in one: a muddled Madd Rapper debut that abandons much of what people like about the character, an unpromising D-Dot solo record, and a showcase for many of the artists signed to D-Dot's Crazy Cat label. Not surprisingly, it's a conceptual mess, and only sporadically funny to boot. Even worse, on several tracks The Madd Rapper kicks "serious" flows about the darkness and paranoia of his life: you know things are rough when even fictional comic characters suffer from severe depression. It's a move that's about as welcome as an album of sociopolitical commentary from MC Skat Kat.