Graffiti the World

Album Review

Rehab's 2000 debut, Southern Discomfort, was a disturbing and often bleakly funny depiction of the world of drug abuse; like Eminem, to whom the two white Atlanta rappers were most often compared, Danny Boone and Brooks Buford used hip-hop as the form to exorcise some personal demons, but unlike Eminem, there was little sense of persona or deliberate distancing on that album, which felt harrowingly real and personal. Also unlike Eminem, the album didn't sell squat, so Rehab were soon bounced from Sony and took nearly five years to create their D.I.Y. follow-up. Graffiti the World is much more live-sounding than their sample-heavy debut, with a greater use of live guitar, bass, and drums, and Boone and Buford sing at least as much as they rap. The album is also much less lyrically heavy than the debut, with some songs that actually have a glimmer of hope in them. The results at times recall a much less annoying version of the rap-rock of groups like Limp Bizkit. However, that style of music was so thoroughly past its sell-by date by the summer of 2005 that even good songs like the opening "WHT Do U WNT FRM Me" (which features the album's strongest chorus) sound unfortunately dated. It took so long for Rehab to follow up their first album that it seems like their moment has passed them by. [In 2008, after the track "Sittin' at a Bar" from the band's 2000 album had become a popular jukebox cut, the Universal label reissued Graffiti the World with a re-recording of the hit. Now called "Bartender Song," it appears along with two other new recordings plus a reshuffled track listing. "WHT Do U WNT FRM Me" has been dropped from the album. This reissue was also made available in a clean version, with all explicit material removed.]