Ron Browz - Etherlibrium

As rappers like Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and Nas have begun to dabble in production, plenty of producers – among them, Alchemist and Nottz have started touching the microphone. Harlem’s Ron Browz proved to be one of the most jarring, as he went from producing bass-thumping singles for Nas and Big L in the early ’00s, to basically becoming a straw that broke the camel’s back for Auto-Tune with his own songs, “Jumping (Out The Window)” and “Arab Money”. While he may have largely pushed Auto-Tune to the side on his new album, Browz shows that without the studio crutch, his rhymes offer very little. As the public finally gets a taste of Ron’s debut album, Etherlibrium, one has to stop and wonder how bad his shelved major label album EtherBoy had to have been to never see the light of day if something this mediocre is released.

From the break, Browz struggles to exhibit any concrete skills at emceeing, and unfortunately this trend continues throughout the album until the very last track. His flow is never impressive, what he’s rhyming about isn’t insightful, and there really isn’t much positive to say about what he’s attempting.

One of his biggest mistakes on Etherlibrium is failing to live up to not only a satisfactory level of emceeing, but a disappointing production performance as well. Most producers-turned-emcees can at least get one of the two correct, but many of the beats on Etherlibrium end up dull and uninspired. He boldly takes samples that have been notably and widely used, and instead of turning them into something creative and up to the standards of their predecessors, he turns them into tracks that are difficult to even listen to. Evidence of this lies in “Wishing On A Star” featuring Maino, Fred Da Godson, and Malaika Russell, taking the Earl Klugh sample used for 2Pac’s “Pain,” and flipping it the same exact way but with a few different enhancements and a far softer hook. Maino and Fred’s support does help, as several of the high profile guests raise the low bar for lyrical skills on this effort. Later in the album, Browz has the audacity to try to rap over Large Professor‘s classic Illmatic “Halftime” instrumental, which any Hip Hop head will know is a disaster less than two seconds into listening to the song. Why re-do something if no justice can be done to the original?

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A song such as “Wanna Be You” are the album’s bottom. Listeners will may understand the 2009 Auto-Tune run when Browz’ natural singing voice is brought to the record. It’s bad enough to make a listener wonder if the track is simply a joke with a punchline that they don’t understand. In fact, the few instances where Browz does decide to turn on the vocoder end up being among the album’s better offerings.

It’s quite disappointing to see someone who helped create the dramatic “The Last Real Nigga Alive” or notable diss track “Ether” actually end up ethering himself on his own material. Etherlibrium ends up being not just another, but an extreme case of a producer who should focus on nothing but producing. “Don’t Breathe It” may be the only reason to even try to give Etherlibrium a listen, as he actually exhibits a successful attempt at some word play when he spits, “Just for the record, man, I used to stand on the corner with the record man / I was smart that’s why I never got a record, man / So when the fiends asked I said you can get my work from the record, man.” One or two tracks may save an EP, but it will leave this full-length debut collecting digital dust on iTunes’ shelves.