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The Stimulus Package Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 11 Ratings

  • Summary: On his first album with the Rhymesayers label, rapper Freeway teams up with producer Jake One.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Jake knows Freeway's strengths and plays to them with so much grace it's almost unfair to rappers who've got to piece records together with a hodgepodge of producers who craft their tracks with no one in particular in mind.
  2. The Stimulus Package is nothing less than the album Freeway was born to make, a release that finds both Free and Jake One at the apex of their respective talents, milking each other for everything they’re worth.
  3. 80
    Even though the “fast forward button” will be needed here and there, The Stimulus Package is still a solid release that is easily the top hip-hop release so far this year.
  4. Another hip-hop comfort blanket, The Stimulus Package reminds us a dope loop and a capable MC justify their own existence.
  5. The Stimulus Package finds him working the angles as sharply as ever. On this album, he swings like a trapeze artist between the extremes of solemn commentary and hardboiled boasting.
  6. The excellent beats by G Unit vet Jake One are full of smacking snare hits and soul samples. But the real music is Freeway's tricky rhyme schemes and his gravelly full-bore attack.
  7. 60
    On his Rhymesayers debut, Philly's bearded battle rhymer gets consistently meaty beats from producer Jake One, whose soul-stirring tracks perfectly match Freeway's energetic musicality on breathless anthems such as "Know What I Mean." Problem is, proclamations that he's "about to bring that '98 hip-hop back" gradually unravel into bizarrely dated dismissals of other rappers.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Jan 27, 2011
    9
    Jake One is a master of hip-hop production and Freeway is a hugely talented MC with great lyrical prowess but without the same mainstreamJake One is a master of hip-hop production and Freeway is a hugely talented MC with great lyrical prowess but without the same mainstream appeal as Jay-Z, Nas or the Wu-Tang Clan. Therefore this record is part masterpiece and part experiment. Freeway is technically competent and maintains a superb vibrant tone throughout. The collaborations are not intrusive and the general mix of the album feels sweet whilst still retaining analog charm. One criticism is that none of the tracks really stand out but there is no denying Jake One has produced a classic. The most exciting track on the album is "Microphone Killa" featuring Young Chris. 9/10 93/100 Expand