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Sep 5, 20122 Chainz's debut album is a triumph on so many levels.
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Aug 29, 2012The problem is that the hints of personality underneath the braggadocio overflowing on "Based on a T.R.U. Story" exist as faint flickers, pointing to a storytelling skill that has yet to be given the spotlight.
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Aug 29, 2012Mainly, it's good for some frivolous fun.
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Aug 29, 2012This is, quite handily, so much of precisely "what is wrong with hip hop today"--tidily sequenced into an hour of mind numbing idiocy.
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Aug 29, 2012Unfortunately, this long-awaited CD from the Georgia MC relies on too many cliches to be a revelation.
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Aug 29, 2012With his debut album he's revealed himself as bare and buffoonish.
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Aug 29, 2012Contrasted with Lil Wayne's easy, seemingly effortless guest verse, 2 Chainz sounds like a rank amateur whose topics of choice -- strippers, money, drugs -- have been examined to death in hip-hop by others with a much more varied vocabulary.
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Aug 29, 2012With the no-bullshit, spare-n-catchy Based on a T.R.U. Story, Chainz confirms himself as the quintessential 2012 rapper.
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Aug 29, 2012Despite his chart success with Drake, many of 2 Chainz' pop maneuvers feel tone-deaf.
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Aug 29, 2012There's not much that's dangerous about it, and the guests are guests you'd expect for someone who's suddenly as famous as Rick Ross.
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Aug 29, 20122 Chainz commands the spotlight--rapping about success and sex with the irrepressible enthusiasm of the upstart he isn't.
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Aug 29, 2012Overall, there's little to recommend about T.R.U. Story, with the album perhaps best serving as a warning that not everyone can make the transition from pinch hitter to bona-fide star.
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Aug 29, 2012T.R.U. Story contains few surprises, and one less once you realize that its own opening line--"Cut the top off, call it Amber Rose"--isn't threatening decapitation.
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Aug 29, 2012Based On A T.R.U. Story finds 2 Chainz mining the same territory he's been exploring for the past couple of years throughout his Codeine Cowboy and T.R.U. Realigion mixtapes, but fleshed out by the hollowness that comes as a side effect of spending too much time with Kanye West.
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Aug 29, 2012Maybe we're supposed to love this album because it's the musical equivalent of a KFC Double-Down, filled with fancy co-stars and production, deep-fried, and devoid of any intellectual or nutritional value.
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Aug 29, 2012There are no lyrical acrobatics-just his patented simple-sounding yet soon-to-be-sewn-in-your-brain one liners.
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Aug 29, 20122 Chainz over-promises and almost delivers on his official debut, putting him right in the punch-line rapper's sweet spot.
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Aug 29, 2012The album is at its best when guests take the microphone and falls short nearly everywhere else.
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Aug 29, 2012Based on a T.R.U. Story isn't a great album, but was anyone expecting a great album from 2 Chainz?
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 69
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Mixed: 21 out of 69
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Negative: 25 out of 69
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Sep 1, 2012
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Mar 27, 2019
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Feb 12, 2016