Posted by: Johnny Loftus on January 10, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Pittsburgh Slim, Tastemaker (Island/Def Jam, 2007)
The Big Mac recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, Mayor McCheese cut the ribbon an enormous boot on a hinge, which on cue sprung back and kicked an equally huge stomach. It was a celebration of fast-food terror gastronomy, but even a burger with purely superficial rewards has a history to digest. This is not true of Pittsburgh Slim.
Slim, aka Sied Chahrour, is responsible for “Girls Kiss Girls,” an admittedly infectious jam built around — shocker — Slim repeating its title at least as many times as the average guy hopes it will happen in the course of a day. “Who woulda thought they’d both be with it?!” he marvels in the jam, again vocalizing the thoughts of the horndog nation.
But Slim’s just the guy with Jay-Z’s cash to tell you about this. As slyly charming as he is, the raps on the rest of Tastemaker are egregiously superficial to the extreme, with Slim yammering on about his trips to Nice and Brazil and his riding in Cadillacs with willing women (”My Flashy World”). The beats? Not much beyond the champagne room grind of “Girls Kiss Girls,” which is probably okay if you’re actually listening to the album in a champagne room, but it goes flat nearly immediately when you’re not. Just like the Big Mac, Tastemaker only seems gratifying. In actuality, it’s as empty as your checking account after paying the convenience fee at a strip club ATM. — Johnny Loftus
[tags]Pittsburgh Slim, Tastemaker, Krista Ayne, Girls Kiss Girls[/tags]





