David E. Beats & the White House Band ‘Renaissance’ Review: All About the Beats

With his new mix tape, “Renaissance,” David E. Beats tries to start a musical awakening creating an entire album of a unique blend of hip-hop and rock. It was a cautious attempt to break barriers, but the sea-saw of sounds, leans more to the hip-hop side more than a new breed of music.

After this album, you will see why his name is David E. Beats and not David E. Lyrics.

One bright spot of this CD is the instrumentals are solid. It would have been disappointing if a David E. Beats production did not have solid beats on it. All of the acoustics on the mix tape fit the feel of the songs. “A Lover and A Friend,” features a melodic guitar rhythm mixed with drums to produce a smooth beat for a love song.

“Guns” also has notable instrumentals.

The beat on “Guns” is the quicksand that traps listeners and sucks them deeper into the song. With a flow that complements the beat like peanut butter and jelly, “Guns” is a track that stands out from the rest. From track one to track 13, whether the song is lyrically appealing or not, “Renaissance” delivers a beat that the listener can hang their hat on.

Some songs take a direct hip-hop feel. “TGIF [Thank God I’m Fly],” plays as the average club song. It sounds like a song produced to be a summer time hit that gets blasted in the car with the windows down. The hook is catchy, giving the song the perfect make up to be a summer time success. Other songs like “Happiness” or “Ghost” follow suit with the hip-hop flow. These songs feature an all out blitz of lyrics, for once, with the instrumental taking a back seat along with the hook. These songs flex Beats’ lyrical muscles.

Songs that take the rock path are guitar heavy on the instrumentals. “Have it All” shows off Beats’ talent as a guitarist. During his guitar solo in the middle of the song, Beats puts together a segment that would have any guitarist drooling. “Sad” is another track that displays Beats’ rock side. Listeners will not be left sad from hearing this song due to the solid instrumentals. The lyrics of the song is lacking but the superior beat saves the song and makes the song tolerable.

“Renaissance” will not overwhelm a listener with overly clever lyrics or extremely impacting words. “Dream” is one song on the mix tape that will. It talks about how he will always continue to chase his dreams and motivating others to never loose sight of their dreams. “Dream” is one of the songs that demonstrates everything that’s right about hip-hop. He even throws in a guitar solo to end the song so listeners can fade out with the song.

A glaring problem with “Renaissance” is Beats’ flow is more on the basic side. His delivery is nothing that hasn’t been done before. At times, Beats sounds like a mirror image of some artists currently in the mainstream. There are very few points during the mix tape where a listener will say that’s David E. Beats.

The mix tape has one goal; to gain support and get his name out. It is likely that “Renaissance” will do that. It will not put him on the mainstream stage yet but people will take note of him on the underground level. “Renaissance” is not a bad mix tape. It is something someone can play and have fun listening to but it just will not be overly memorable nor will it be a break-out mix tape.