Faith Evans will always be known as the widow of The Notorious BIG, no matter how many solo CDs she releases. The fact that Evans and The Notorious BIG had been apart for a while when the obese rapper was murdered in 1997 (Evans would even have had a thing for Biggie's rival 2Pac!) Seems like a detail. Evans became one of the successful artists on P. Diddy's Bad Boy label, but her fourth album The
… First Lady is no longer released on Bad Boy. The First Lady is a typical R&B album, with alternating danceable tracks and mid-tempo songs and ballads, but one that is worth listening to: there are just a lot of good songs on it. The Goin 'Out produced by The Neptunes, for example, but also the first single Again and Mesmerized, with a very well used funk sample from the Stax catalog, make an impression. In any case, the production of Jermaine Dupri, Mario Winans and Ivan 'Orthodox' Barias is one of the strongest points of the CD, but Evans herself is also convincing as a songwriter and singer. Vocal contributions are from Pharrell, Pusha T (Clipse), Mario Winans and Twista. (IV)more
