- Intro
- Government Name
- Get Down
- He Won't Leave You
- Amy's Song
- Interlude
- War Cry
- Change the Game
- Here We Go
- Show Love
- Pursuing Amy
- Stimulate My Senses
- Like This
- Mind Control
- Up off the Wall
- For the Crowd
- Hip Hop Pie
- The Laundromat
- Outro
Unless you're Will Smith and have a prior acting resume before your budding "rap" career, it's very unlikely to find an emcee who uses his real name in hip-hop circles. Most rappers come up with all sorts creative monikers, nicknames, and aliases, hoping to build a more outspoken public persona and to gain a fresh start.
Newcomer Bobby Bishop will gladly tell you his is not a marketing tool or a funny one-liner, but his actual birth name—his
This hip-hop foundation is the right vehicle for Bishop's testimonial storytelling, which focuses on urban life and the afflictions of others in order to make a point about life in general. But while it's well intentioned and well produced, the album is peppered with the usual hip-hop clichés and thus loses much of its impact. Whether it's the irreplaceable "Intro," the shout-out track "Show Love," the inevitable party song ("Get Down"), the autobiographical account ("Government Name"), the token hip-hop lamentation ("Change the Game"), or the too-serious-for-the-album-but-let's-include-it-anyway "Amy's Song," it seems Bishop is following a script. It's fun and carefree, but too calculated and picture-perfect to determine which parts are truly Mr. Bishop, and which are merely part of the standard hip-hop playbook.