Far From Perfect…
Keri Hilson’s debut album In A Perfect World… tries to present Hilson as two different things; a fiery diva who can lay down vocals with the best in the game and a hip hop personality who can stunt as hard as her hip hop counterparts. But in an actual perfect world, Keri Hilson’s debut album wouldn’t be so confused; she would know exactly what kind of album she was intent on making and what kind of persona she wanted to showcase.
Granted, the 26-year-old Hilson is a beautiful woman with considerable talent. She’s been writing songs for other artists since 2001 and has written for artists like Britney Spears (Who she also did background vocals for), Ciara, Usher, and Ludacris. By 2006 Hilson was getting more time in front of the mic: she featured on tracks for Diddy’s Press Play and Lloyd Bank’s The Rotten Apple. But her career really took off in 2007 when she featured on several tracks on Timbaland’s platinum Shock Value, including the Top 5 hit “The Way I Are.” She’s been working on her solo album since 2006 but the album has been delayed numerous times due to budget issues at Hilson’s label, Mosley Music Group/Interscope Records.
Although delays can sometimes be a blessing in disguise for some artists, it isn’t for Hilson. The first half of the album is feature heavy with guest spots from Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Trina, Timbaland, Ne-Yo, and Keyshia Cole; all of whom sound more comfortable on the tracks than Hilson does. Keyshia Cole’s guest spot is surprising since it sounds like Hilson is trying to be like Cole; a street smart diva who has gained mainstream success. Hilson is better at being herself and she really hits her stride on the second of the album with songs like “Make Love” and lead single “Energy.” While “Energy” came out May 2008 and it never became a big hit, it’s one of the stronger tracks on the album because Hilson tries to be sultry, soulful, and elegant instead of tough and arrogant.
That unsavory harshness can be found right away on the album. The intro has Hilson claiming she “rolls with some killers man” and the popular single “Turning Me On” has her singing about her swag, topics best left for rappers like Piles and not an R&B songstress like Hilson.
Ironically, while Hilson got her start as a songwriter, the intro is the only song she writes exclusively on, yet it seems so out of character.
The writing isn’t the only thing that’s off, the production is too. It’s not that Timbaland and Danja (who handle the bulk of the production) provide thumping beats to fuel Hilson’s vocals, but the chemistry between them isn’t up to par to Timbaland’s past production. Timbaland hit his production zenith when he crafted albums for Justin Timbaland and Nelly Furtado, so much so that sometimes the Furtado would sound like just another instrument in Timbaland’s arsenal. Despite their history of collaboration, Timbaland and Hilson don’t mesh as well as they initially did on Shock Value.
But a collaboration with Lil Wayne works well on the popular single “Turning Me On,” if only because it continues Wayne ’s streak of outshining artists on their own songs. Wayne ’s absolutely killer verse is followed by Hilson adapting Wayne ’s catch phrase “Weezy F. Baaaby!” into “Ms. Keri Baaaby!” But Hilson sounds like she’s saying, “miscarried baby.”
