Things haven’t been looking so good for the Mobb Deep camp ever since their infamous G-Unit flop, Blood Money, in 2005. Havoc dropped a pitiful solo album last year and Prodigy, whose Return of the Mac was actually pretty decent, started to fall off visibly after getting knocked out by Saigon and sentenced to 3 years for a weapons charge. Because of this turn of events, I actually didn’t expect to see another Big Noyd album for a while, but sure enough, his latest album Illustrious was released a couple weeks ago.

To me, Big Noyd has always seemed like the black sheep of the Infamous camp. It’s not that the guy can’t rhyme. It’s just that his flow and subject matter are so repetitive that it’s difficult to take an entire album of the guy. He’s also been deemed “weed carrier” by many critics because of his close association with the Mobb, and this has prevented many from taking him seriously as a solo artist. Illustrious simply seems to reinforce these perceptions of Noyd that most people already hold.

By looking at the title, one would think that the opener, “Snitches,” would have a fairly narrow focus as far as content. Apparently I was wrong in thinking that song titles are typically supposed to have something to do with the actual song. The only part of this track that has anything to do with snitching is the weak hook, where Noyd proclaims “Niggas like bitches. Talkin, til you put a fuckin gun in they mouth.” The funniest thing about this song is in the first verse where Noyd raps “We’ll leave you gone like them buildings Saddam hit.” Is this for real? What buildings did Saddam hit again? The only thing halfway decent about this song is the old school production, which sounds like it came from a low budget Alchemist.

“So Much Trouble” is obviously supposed to be the club banger on this album, from the sound of the bass heavy beat and the Junior Reid clone, Serani, on the hook. Instead of rapping about partying or women though, we simply get another mid-90s sounding Queensbridge guns and drugs anthem. The same is true for most of the tracks on this album, where the subject matter is so tired and monotonous, that you almost want to check and make sure that this album actually came out in 2008.

One of only things that saves this album from being a total failure is the track “Things Done Changed.” The first verse isn’t anything special, but you actually get a change of pace from the guns, dope, and money template used on all of the other tracks, which is satisfying enough in itself. The second verse of the track really stands out especially when Noyd starts off with “Remember when we used to call weed buddha and sometimes cess / Now it’s nothing less than dro. The haze is the best / It was big gold chains. Now it’s diamonds on the neck / Went from two-shot Dillinger’s, to fully loaded tecs.” Again, this isn’t anything monumental, but when combined with the soulful production, you can’t help but feel a little nostalgic after listening to this track.

The rest of the album, however, suffers from Noyd’s played out subject matter and monotonous flow. The hooks and beats are pretty weak on most of the tracks as well, especially on “Nowhere Else To Hide.” The beat on this track sounds like something I could cook up in FruityLoops in five minutes and the hook is just a looped vocal sample from an old soul track, which you could probably pull off if your name was Kanye. One of the only solid beats on the album is the Lil Fame produced “Rags To Riches.” I’m generally no big fan of heavy features on an album, but Joell Ortiz and 40 Glocc really don’t add anything to Illustrious, especially when you consider that they’re in the same second-rate mixtape rapper list as Noyd. I at least expected a guest appearance from Prodigy, Havoc, or Alchemist. Illustrious is pretty disappointing. Die-hard fans of mid-90s QB hip-hop may still want to have it for their collections though.