''Rhyme Book'' is the second studio album by

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rapper

Scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

. It follows on from his 2003 award-winning album, '' The Crusader''. It was released on 29 September 2007.

Background and release

In an interview with ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' Scott Kara, Scribe said, "I really put a lot of thought into 'Rhyme Book''and because I'd come from Scribe the rap star, I really wanted this album to be Scribe the dude next door. The real me rather than the guy on TV." Musically, he wanted to record "a lot of different kinds of songs so in a way there's something in there for everyone. It's like a box of chocolates." On ''

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'', Scribe said that "it's a good collection of...different types of hip hop...that's why I called it ''Rhyme Book'' because it kinda represents my rhyme book." He also wanted to show his growth and flexibility as an artist since '' The Crusader'' with different types of songs. Dirty Records and

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

released the album in New Zealand and Australia on 29 September 2007.

Critical reception

''Rhyme Book'' received mixed reviews from critics.

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's Jody Macgregor gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars, describing it as "world-class, almost" because of a "few songs

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hold Rhyme Book back from being a real classic". Rebecca Barry of ''

'' said that ''Rhyme Book'' was not of the same calibre as '' The Crusader'', but called it "a quality album that exposes a more thoughtful scribe on Scribe". The reviewer from '' The Dominion Post'' was let down, and viewed the album as "a desperate attempt to be considered the Aotearoa version of

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

," and rated it two stars out of five." ''Rhyme Book'' won the Best Pacific Male Artist Award at the 2008

Pacific Music Awards The Pacific Music Awards are an annual New Zealand music award ceremony since 2005 that honours excellence in Pacific music in New Zealand. The awards honour musicians who primarily work in the Pacific Island style of music from the Cook Islands, ...

, and the award for Best Urban/Hip Hop Album at the 2008

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. It was also nominated as the Album of the Year, losing to

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' self-titled, debut album.

Commercial reception

''Rhyme Book'' debuted on the

New Zealand Albums Chart The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...

at its peak position of number four, and spent a total of four weeks on the top forty chart. In Australia, the album debuted at number nine of the

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, slipping to number eighteen the next week. After a total of four weeks in the top fifty, it fell off the chart.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2007 albums Scribe (rapper) albums