24K - QUOTABLE

Listen after listen, I couldn’t figure out whether I liked Quotable, or didn’t. 24K wasn’t the problem. She’s a damn fine MC, with a style harder and tougher than any of her female contemporaries. I was 50/50 on the production. Some of it was hot, especially the Beatminerz, Just Blaze, and Anomaly Blackanom Productions/913 Entertainment. But some of it sounded like everything else I hear and forget.
For me, knowing she’s got some serious dancehall chops ("Intro" featuring Doug E. Fresh) right at the start of the album, but having them only show up again on one track (“A Who Dat”) is a huge tease. If 24K would have dropped a little more dancehall into her songs, Quotable might seriously have been the beginning of a totally new sound and phase in hip-hop. The beats are already fierce enough. She could have seriously killed it.
All that aside, there is stuff worth hearing on Quotable. Executive Producer Madd Scientist drops by for “Chickens Move Out”, which pretty much establishes 24K as the sheriff of hip-hop’s female MCs, here to round up and get rid of all the punk-asses preventing further progress. Buck Shot, Sean Prince, and Sadat X join 24K for “Punks Still Jumpin Up”, an homage of sorts to a Brand Nubian classic. And in one of the more somber moments on the disc, 24K turns down the fire inside her for a poignant tribute track, “Fallen Soldiers”, with Tragedy Khadafhi and Mr. Ruck.
24K has the skills, credibility, and a really unique story to her-- a professional boxer in training, formerly a poetess and dancehall artist. If she starts to let more of her reggae roots blend into the sound she’s already developed, she could do something seriously unique to hip-hop.