100% Ginuwine

the take

A part of me always appreciated Ginuwine's second album, which is why I was surprised to see some people saying its average at best. While "Ginuwine... The Bachelor" sounds a bit rough in hindsight, the musical maturity on "100% Ginuwine" is evident here, and not in terms of the production handled by Timbaland. Ginuwine shows that his player ways are diminishing as he grows older and is now much more of a consistent crooner to women he's interested in, showing growth and maturity most of the time. His vocals is still as great as it always has been, and the songwriting on here compliments him well. In hindsight, the production sounds a bit inconsistent and stale at times, but Ginuwine's presence more than makes up for it. "So Anxious" is the undeniable classic on here, but "None of Ur Friends Business", "Final Warning", "I'm Crying Out", "Same Ol' G"... shit, now that I think about it, there are a lot more highs than lows. (I'm looking at you, "I Know". Never could get into that song in particular.) This review may be biased as fuck because I literally remember when this album first came out and was played around me constantly when it was new. Either way, the sophomore slump doesn't exist for Ginuwine, and that's a good thing, to say the least.