Pitchfork

We'll likely see dozens of real name, no-gimmicks singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist "triple threats" make their debuts this year, but I seriously doubt any are packing the kind of C.V. boasted by Kevin Rudolf. After spending the past five years laying down riffs on hits by Lil' Kim, Nelly Furtado, and Black Eyed Peas, he now has a legit radio staple of his own in "Let It Rock". He's got the kind of connections that can land laudatory guest spots from Lil' Wayne, Nas, and Rick Ross. By an ungodly measure, he's already the best guitarist that will ever be signed to his record label. While this might initially read like a welcome relief amidst working the conveyor belt of crusty dudes with a bedraggled acoustic and Bon Iver champagne wishes, none of the above matters because In the City envisions an alternate dystopia of rock music where Rudolf's Kurt Cobain, Shop Boyz are the Pixies, and I suppose N.E.R.D. are the Beatles.

But whereas "Party Like a Rockstar" was t-t-t-totally aware of its oncoming obsolescence, In the City is proof that you can co-opt the most retarded aspects of 80s corporate rock and still not be any fun. Or maybe Andrew W.K. and the Darkness made it look too easy-- Rudolf instead honors everything synthetic and awful about his two homebases (Miami and New York) by consolidating Jani Lane's cherry-poppin' misogyny, Jon Bon Jovi's bleached-out street tales (first lines: "Every day I'm a star in the city/ Walk the streets like a wanted man"), and Jefferson Starship's staunch belief in the redemptive power of rawk in the face of urban decay. 

As expected from a rock record released on Ca$h Money, this the kind of thing you might hear in a body spray ad-- there is little indication it was constructed by real people in real time. Then again, considering "No Way Out" is an honest-to-god Wizard of Oz metaphor writ large, I can't imagine Rudolf himself is familiar with a lot of rock music. I will admit that undersells Rudolf's range a bit: In the City spans dead ringers for that acoustic Incubus song to tracks that could soundtrack the montage where the picked-on kid finally preps to push it to the limit with Billy Zabka ("Welcome To The World").

And then...Rick Ross shows up to Leon Lett all over a beat that's about 30 bpms faster than anything he should rap on. It's best to fast forward to just about any other point on the record, where chances are that Rudolf is going on about the City and its many Lights. Paul Banks can no longer boast the most lyrically awkward song called "NYC", not after Rudolf boasts a cynicism that far outstrips his celebrity: "In the city of dreams/ You get caught in the schemes/ And fall apart in the seams." And then Nas manages to namedrop Mayor Bloomberg and Scatman Crothers, which admittedly is sort of surprising to hear outside the context of an MF Doom record.

Look, it's no secret that rappers have pretty suspect taste in rock music: John Mayer, just about any of the source material for Diplomatic Immunity, Kanye including Lenny Kravitz in any discussion of Prince and Hendrix. Which means In the City makes a lot of sense, existing in some sort of triangulation of these coordinates and somehow missing all consumer markets outside the most stubborn poptimists and/or Ca$h Money completists who didn't give up after Turk's Young & Thuggin. Judging from what we've heard in his rock forays thus far, Lil' Wayne thinks In the City is the shit (or maybe his kids do), and in these days you could probably find less compelling reasons to rush a record out into the public.  But just in case you're taking a half-full approach to Rebirth, you might want to hear this first.