Bad News Brown

Born 2 Sin is a hip-hop work primarily driven by the harmonica; it's an album with a premise so offensive in nature it's worth a listen. The cover depicts the artist, Bad News Brown, an otherwise attractive man, holding a smoking harmonica in his mouth as if he were smoking a cigar. It's startling and induces judgement immediately, but these judgements carry through correctly upon first listen. The album opens with "Melody," a sad, rocking tune with a downward beat backed up by an extremely communicative and robust harmonica. This moves into "Touch Her Body," a romantic song sung mostly through Auto-tune. For the most part, the music is accessible, predictable and digestible enough to be played on heavy rotation by popular music radio stations. It's just that the harmonica pervades the soundscapes inappropriately, much like the thought of a family member being present during a sexual scenario. Ironically, "Bad Trip" is the best song on the CD, both in terms of atmosphere and adeptness in describing the album as a whole. Another disturbing song is "Too Deep," where he repeatedly announces "Am I going in too deep?/Tell me when it hurts the most/Just tell me when it hurts the most" and you just want to smack that harmonica off his face. For Bad News Brown, this record is bad news.