''C! True Hollywood Stories'' is the third studio album by American rapper

Canibus Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is a Jamaican-American rapper. First having gained recognition for his freestyling abilities, he signed with Universal Records to release his debut studio al ...

, released through Archives Music on October 30, 2001. The album is Canibus' first release on an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

(his first two albums, ''

Can-I-Bus ''Can-I-Bus'' is the debut album by American rapper Canibus, released on September 8, 1998, through Universal Records. The album was released after the rapper's success with his LL Cool J diss track, " Second Round K.O.", which was included on ' ...

'' and '' 2000 B.C.'', were released on

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

). The album was named after the television show ''

E! True Hollywood Story ''E! True Hollywood Story'' is an American television documentary series on E!. Overview ''E! True Hollywood Story'' originally started as a series of specials beginning on March 29, 1996, but evolved into a weekly biographical documentary ...

''. This album sets itself apart from his first two albums by seemingly being a concept album, some songs rapped from the perspective of Stan, the fan from the

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

song " Stan". It can also be noted Canibus' rhyme style and flow resemble more that of Eminem than the style presented on his first two albums, which led to mixed reviews from the public.

Critical reception

''C! True Hollywood Stories'' garnered mixed reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. Wise Q of ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

'' said that despite the album's lack of engaging topics and powerful beats, he gave credit to tracks like "Hate U 2/Luv U 2", "I Gotta Story 2 Tell" and "The Rip Off" for finding that right merger of ingredients, concluding that "Lyrically, he is still the top of the field and, with the right feedback and right amount of work, Canibus will be able to receive the respect he deserves." Brad Mills of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

was ambivalent towards the album, admiring the chill vibe used throughout but found the video games beats not working half the time with Canibus' battle flow, concluding that "If you're a die-hard fan, don't expect the MC murderer listeners have grown used to, but don't completely write it off either. An introspective effort." Steve 'Flash' Juon of ''RapReviews'' saw potential in the album's concept but felt it was undone by poor production choices, lackluster humor and failure to commit to parodying the show following lyrical standouts like "R U Lyrically Fit?" and "Box Cutta' Blade Runna", saying that "Canibus sounds like their musical equivalent - showing flashes of the greatness that made him famous but drowning in a river of bad ideas poorly executed over lackluster beats." Brett Berliner of ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' heavily panned the album for its middling beats, sub-standard lyrics and complete desecration of Eminem's "Stan" character.

Track listing

Charts

References

2001 albums Canibus albums {{2001-hiphop-album-stub