Mario Winans :
Hurt No More

Release Date: 19 April 2004

Reviewed By: Usman Sajjad

1. Ready For Love

2. Never Really Was

3. I Don't Wanna Know - feat, Enya, P Diddy

4. You Knew - feat, Slim

5. How I Made It - feat, Loon

6. Already Know (interlude0

7. 3 Days Ago

8. What's Wrong With Me

9. Can't Judge Me

10. Disbelief

11. Enough (interlude)

12. Pretty Girl Bulls**t - feat, Foxy Brown

13. This Is the Thanks I Get - feat Black Rob

14. I Got You Babe

15. So Fine

16. Should've Known

17. Turn Around

Cassidy - Split Personality
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Only once in a while, a young multi-talented artist comes around and before shaking the charts with a huge hit single, gain’s enough respect in the production and song writing world to be the leading man behind Diddy in the Hit-men Production team producing hits for the likes of Beyonce, Carl Thomas and Jennifer Lopez. That young man is the ‘Bad Boy’ artist Mario Winans, and the hit I’m talking about is the incredible, smooth ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’, the unique r’n’b track talking about how some men want the problems they encounter in a relationship kept on the low, sees Winans sample a classic Enya piece which was used in the Fugee’s hit ‘Ready or not’. After creating huge buzz on various guest appearances such as on P Diddy’s summer smash ‘I Need a Girl part 2’ and Mr Cheek’s hit ‘Crush on you’, Winans, even before his release created the buzz only very few create. Winans also known as ‘Yellow Man’ does a good job on the album in producing every track, after gaining the right experience from being behind the board on the tracks such as 112’s ‘Peaches and Cream’, Mary J Blige’s head mover ‘Love at first sight’ and Diddy’s ‘I Need a girl’. But does the album have enough steam to label as a classic r’n’b album?

Winans is accurate in the field when it comes to content, and can speak on the pains on relationships from a men’s and women’s perspective. Winans reflects troubles in relationships in the beautiful ‘You Knew’ featuring the smooth vocals of 112’s Slim and a sample of the late great Biggie Smalls. Winan’s then portrays his passions to the girl of his desire on stunning tracks such as ‘Whats Wrong With me’ and ‘I got you Babe’, both containing smooth beats.

Concerning his beats, Winans takes an interest in his samples when he gracefully uses a sample of Madonna’s ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ on the orchestral based ‘Never Really Was’, his scheduled next single in which Houston rapper Lil Flip drops a verse at the start giving way for Mario to kill the rest of the track. The album itself at the start is bright, with the positive ‘How I made it’ featuring Bad Boy artist Loon who I swear is still sounding like Mase. Personally, I was disappointed with the way Winans did not conquer the beat with his voice leaving him to sound quite faint. Winans pulls album fillers out of the bag such as ‘Pretty Girl Bulls***’ featuring Foxxy Brown, a head moving up tempo track which was one of the top tracks on the Bad Boy 2 Soundtrack. Foxxy is not the only MC adding her raps on a Mario track, Bad Boy artist Black Rob adds his mediocre rhymes on the flute looped ‘This is the Thanks I get’- another amazing track. However, from there, Winans does not really make much of an effort to seal amazing track like these, creating a sense of boredom for some who only feel tracks such as his single ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’.

Overall, Winans has made a safe but unique attempt at capping an excellent move in living up the hype and delivering a love filled album. However, much of the mistakes can be exposed, including little versatility or strength of voice. Even though he uses his soothing voice on the interlude ‘Ready for Love’ Winans does not elevate his voice on tracks through the middle of the album and towards the end. Also, even though his production was top notch, tracks nearer the end and about four within the middle sound too similar in contrast to each other, leaving listeners in a state of lull. However, when he does, Winans uses the opportunity on the album to make solid music which appeal to not only to true r’n’b/soul fans, but even rap fans who wish to listen to more souful material such as myself. But in my opinion, he does not bring enough to the table to compete with the r’n’b/soul greats such as Usher, Mary J Blige and R Kelly.

3 out of 5

Top 3 Tracks
Pretty Girl Bulls***
You Knew
Ready for Love interlude

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