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My Personal Review
My first impression after first listening to Innocent Man was that it should have been titled “Mark Morrison: Featuring...” because almost every track features someone, in many cases more of the background vocalists then Mark. This was disappointing. Some tracks don’t even sound like Mark is singing on them.
After listening to the Innocent Man album the next thing that came to mind is that it’s obvious that Mark wasn’t trying to duplicate the success he had with “Return of the Mack”. I think the magic he had with the first album is long gone. Practically every track on 1996’s “Return of the Mack” was a hit. Even the tracks that weren’t released as singles were hits. I can’t really say the same thing about the Innocent Man album.
I hope his camp is reading this if he plans on making a comeback, because there are only 4 tracks on this disc which standout... hopefully they release the tracks I noted as singles, otherwise Mack Daddy doesn’t stand a chance on the radio.
Tracks on the Innocent Man album refer to the Millennium which tell me now that they were recorded sometime between 1998-99 to be on the Mackellenium CD which never materialized. (Was Mark in jail again?)
... and the clash between Mark and 2Wikid / Kevin Campbell, here’s what I think happened. I think Kevin wanted to start a label and was looking for an artist who had material all ready to go quickly that, for a price could be purchased directly from or licensed to his new label by the artist. Mark clearly fits this mold and the fact he is able to now release this album on his own terms, with minor changes to the tracklisting backs up my theory.
As far as I can tell, the only 2 tracks that 2Wikid was involved with were the Daz Dillinger Mix of “Backstabbers” and the title track of the “Just A Man” single, “Just A Man” ... I’ll go into details about the “Just A Man” tracks below. The Daz Dillinger Mix of “Backstabbers” is a fuckin HOT track and it’s NOT on the Innocent Man album. Instead an horrible remix (called the Punjabi MC Mix) is featured on the album... and to be honest– it SUCKS!
Even more worrisome, is that a 3-track promo of Blackstabbers exists and 2 of the tracks are censored and uncensored versions of the Punjabi MC Mix... which tells me this is the version Mark is releasing to radio... and this makes me think 2Wikid owns the rights to the really cool version. Otherwise why else wouldn’t he be using the Daz Dillinger Mix? It was released as a B-side on the Just A Man single by 2Wikid.
Personally, if he can’t release the Daz Dillinger Mix of Backstabbers I think he should give up on that track completely... I mean he’s been trying to do something with that one since 1997’s “The Judgement” CD.
Now don’t get me wrong, the Innocent Man album isn’t bad... and after all of the time we’ve had to wait this album is better than nothing, but two tracks I’m dying to hear “I Told You So” and “Playa Hata”, which were featured on the Innocent Man album preview produced by Death Row when Mark was signed to them are nowhere to be seen on Innocent Man... and BOTH of those tracks (from what I heard on the preview CD) sounded like incredible hits for Mark. I imagine Death Row Records owns them, which is why we will probably never hear them.
Below you will find links to the songs so you can decide for yourself, along with my opinions on each of the songs.
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