Review: Trinidad James – No One Is Safe
By this point, you should know how I feel about both Nicholas Williams as a person and also his rap persona, Trinidad James. The former is a nice guy and the latter irks the hell out of many hip-hop purists. He was supposed to be a joke of a one hit wonder and then out of here — a cheap thrill at best. But on the strength of “All Gold Everything,” James found himself with a deal from Def Jam to the tune of reportedly $2 million. That’s a lot of gold for the Atlanta, Georgia native to say the least. Well, eventually James announced that he had been dropped by the label and that his forthcoming album would be free. There’s an old adage about everything happening for a reason and perhaps the situation with Def Jam was the best thing that could’ve happened to Trinidad. At the top of the year, James dropped the brief but promising “Wake Up EP”. He showed a slight bit of growth as an artist but at the same time was able to showcase what he does best up to this point in his career. Towards the end, he promised that his album would be the realest he’s been to date. I was in the middle of writing my review of the “Wake Up EP” as I got the word that the new project was available. To be fair, I downloaded it but chose not to listen until I was done with what I was already working on in the best interest in being objective. When I finished up, I hit play just to see what T. James was going to be talking about this time.
“No One Is Safe” is ten tracks deep and features production from the likes of Sonny Digital, Villo, Martieni, Watch The Duck, Forte Bowie, DJ A, Brandon Thomas, Kato On The Beat and DJ Spinz & K. Major. Featured guests include OG Maco, ILoveMakonnen, Problem, Lil Debbie, Scotty ATL, K. Major, Peewee Longway and Offset.
Similar to his “10 Pc. Mild” album, Trinidad starts off “No One Is Safe” with a taste of island flavor with Israel Kamakawiwo’ole rendition of “Over The Rainbow” before the beat for the Villo-produced “Jerome N Da House” drops and James gets busy. As it turns out, Trinidad isn’t holding punches or taking any prisoners. There are a plethora of metaphors that could be used to describe what’s going on here, but to put it in its simplest terms, Trinidad James has improved his flow but he’ll never be mistaken for a wordsmith by any stretch of the imagination.
