Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 19/01/09
Label: Universal Island

Rock and rap. Two multi-platinum, cash rich genres, the melding of which has preoccupied those in search of a license to print money ever since Aerosmith and Run DMC first pointed out the combined hit potential. More often than not though, the results have been less mainstream. The Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cypress Hill and Limp Bizkit may have made rap-rock viable, but they did it as outsiders. Not Kevin Rudolf. He's after Number Ones, not cult credibility.

His debut single, "Let It Rock", suggests his may well be the winning formula. Where everyone else raps over a real live band, the New York singer/guitarist/producer whose credits include Nelly Furtado, Black Eyed Peas, Lil Kim and LL Cool J, is singing his banner waving anthem and churning his fuzzed guitars over crisp computer beats and dogmatic one finger synths. That he's worked extensively with Timbaland is obvious. Nelly Furtado's "Maneater" with extra guitar and Lil Wayne thrown in for rap authenticity, if not a staggering reinvention of rap-rock, the result is a guaranteed pop sensation.

    by Dan Gennoe