All Music Review of John Cena's cd

[Billy Castillo]

Didn't know where to put this (Ring or Entertainment).

April 2005, LA's Staples Center. At WrestleMania 21, John Cena defeats JBL for the WWE Championship, capping his raucous three-year climb to professional wrestling's top turnbuckle. That's more or less how Cena's WWE SmackDown! boilerplate reads. But there's also Cena the freestyle rapper, who tries to have as many shout-outs to, say, Ultramagnetic MCs as he does the Ultimate Warrior. You Can't See Me is Cena's studio debut as an MC. Released amidst the hubbub of his WrestleMania win and featuring his customized championship belt (with spinners!) on the cover, the album will boost his ringside marketing. But it isn't a successor to 1985's hokey, crassly promotional Wrestling Album, where WWF personalities like Captain Lou Albano and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper slobbered their way through insultingly chintzy theme-pop. Cena includes his theme music, and retains his in-the-ring brashness. But he's also as foul-mouthed (the Eligh-produced "Don't F*** With Us") and boastful as any of his microphone heroes (at times his style seems to cross 50 Cent with vintage Everlast), and the unremarkable production is still capable enough to move You Can't See Me out of the novelty aisle. Besides "Don't F*** With Us" and a few tracks from Jake One, most of the boards are handled by Chaos & Order. They establish a mildly funky percussion roll for Cena and collaborator/cousin Trademarc to rap over; standouts include "Make it Loud" and the mildly crass "Summer Flings". Cena also gets assistance from hip-hop veteran Bumpy Knuckles/Freddie Foxxx - they're best on "Bad, Bad Man". When he's not bragging about his lovemaking or MC skill, the rap-wrestler takes off-kilter shots at pop culture and sports drinks, referencing everything from soft-core porn and "Mean Jean" Okerlund to his "Oh" face, Manny Ramirez, and the Legend of Bagger Vance. It's not a hip-hop body slam by any stretch. But for fans of John Cena's bold persona, You Can't See Me will be Chain Gang-approved.

Edited May 10, 2005 by Billy Castillo

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Just sampled it over at WWE.com and it sounds pretty good, far from being all that bad. 'Chain gang is the click' song is quite ownage too.

As for the front case, nice

[Jester of Death]

There is plenty of room on my iPod for Cena.

Doesn't sound too bad, not track 1 material but it hurts to have other guys out-rap you on your own CD.

[Karizma]

Cena's got Murs, and Murs released one of the better Albums last year, if not the best Album last year.He's also with Bumpy Knuckles and Esotoric and 7L, he's gone underground, and could help expose these guys, who are talented.I was reading a interview on him, and he was talking about how he prefered to go with Freddie Foxx etc instead of getting Kanye and Em so it's based off his work, not theirs.Very honourable thing to do, IMO.

Cena comes alright on most tracks, much better than I thought he would originally.