What is DJ Khaled the best at? Maybe the question, like his new album’s title, We The Best (Terror Squad/Koch), is best left intentionally vague to keep his options open. What is definitive is that the hyperbolic DJ and producer has enough pull to put together a star studded line up of guest rappers for his sophomore album. That said, Khaled’s latest glorified compilation has got enough juice to keep the MI Yayo party going. “One city at a time,” is how Akon croons Khaled and company are spreading their diamond encrusted Hip-Hop gospel on the ubiquitous hit “We Takin’ Over.” The first state of the union getting taken over is Florida. Save for Khaled’s Terror Squad buddy Fat Joe who gets on like half the tracks (he is the album’s executive producer after all), cameos by Beanie Sigel (“Before The Solution”) and Juelz Santana (“Brown Paper Bag”) and a de rigueur, but blasé NYC flavored posse cut, “New York,” We The Best is a heavily southern spiced dish. But keeping things local works to Khaled’s advantage. Besides Danja, who produced “We Takin Over,” the rest of the album’s spazmatic grooves are supplied by Dade County patriots including Cool & Dre, The Runners and The Diaz Brothers. Meanwhile, if you randomly skip tracks you’ll be bound to hear verses from local yokels like Trick Daddy, Rick Ross or Plies. The aforementioned all team with vocoder bandit T-Pain on the The Runners produced “I’m So Hood.” But the natives all get trumped by their Louisiana neighbor Lil’ Wayne. Whether it’s daily practice or sharp ghostwriters, Lil Weezy goes for broke every time his turn on the mic arrives, killing the majestic “‘S’ On My Chest” and the pounding “Brown Paper Bag” in the process.Unfortunately, like on his previous and underrated Listennn: The Album, since Khaled plays the back [he produces only a pair of tracks] and grants so many people mic time, it’s a wrap for any type of continuity. But even worse is when posse cuts ironically get sabotaged by too many guest, as is the case with “B***** I’m From Dade County” where everyone accept Sonny and Crockett seems to get a verse. Nevertheless, trying to figure out what everyone here is the best at leads to hearing some pretty good tunes in the process.
