Yung Berg

Yung Berg can be summed up as a "hip-pop" artist. The young wordsmith from Chicago—he's all of 22-years-old—smartly winds verbal braggadocio around a collection of hot beats. His stylized, pop-radio friendly debut, Look What You Made Me, is as clean cut as the Midwestern landscape from which Yung Berg hails.

Berg takes cues from the hip hop scene, incorporating an overly expansive roster of guest appearances, which is par for the genre's crowded course. It's also now the rule and not the exception. Look What You Made Me reads like a veritable honor roll of urban music. It's also a ripe soundtrack for those boys and girls that want to participate in a little horizontal mambo. "Sexy Can I" will make you want to lick things, as Berg trades parts with Ray J. Lil Wayne and Eve also lend their noteworthy pipes to tracks. "Do That There" rocks the bells and slides lazily down a more Southern hip-hop path. "Where Do We Go" is polished to a blinding sheen and features Twista and a driving, percussive thread that mimics mini-explosions going off in your ear. While it's impressive that Yung Berg, his producers, management and record label were able to corral all these big names and enticed them to grace Look What You Made Me with their presence, it does obscure Berg and raises questions about his ability to stand on his own. You are sometimes left wondering where his voice is amidst all the verbal, star-powered clutter. Perhaps next time he can be a bit more judicious with the guest list and cut a few names in favor of space and breathing room for his own damn voice.

Indeed, Yung Berg is somewhat hidden at the center of an eclectic, damn catchy hip-pop record that always hovers around the Rated PG-line, making it safe enough to cast a large net out to the suburban mall rats, too.

— Amy Sciarretto
08.14.08

On Look What You Made Me, the cocksure Yung Berg repeatedly mentions Jay-Z, Biggie, and Pac, but he certainly won't be mistaken for any of them. He apes Jay-Z's delivery quite a bit but his swagger and style is more Nelly and when it comes to lyrics, he's serviceable, not stunning. Put it this way, Look What You Made Me is his first full-length -- following his Almost Famous EP by just over a year -- and he's already used the word "Sexy" in the titles of two of his singles, but they were huge, hook-filled singles, both included here, surrounded by more of the same. "The Business," "Manager," "Do That There," and almost everything else that isn't marked "Interlude" would work just fine on urban radio. Add "Sexy Lady" and "Sexy Can I," plus a platinum dreams guest list that includes Ray J, Twista, Lloyd, and Eve, along with producers Rob Holladay and Mr. ColliPark, and the album is as sweet as candy, even when it's trying not to be sugary. From the confrontational album title to the cuss words, Berg is working to shake the pop tag and turn it hardcore with a baller stance that isn't so much embarrassing as it is uninteresting. The "I'm in touch with the streets"-type boasts just get in the way of the pop-rap excellence which has already earned this young artist his own imprint from Sony. If Berg stops thinking of himself as the next Jay-Z he might see what Sony sees and have a much better shot a becoming the next P. Diddy. After all, "Where Do We Go" takes an Alan Parsons sample and canes it to death, a perfectly Puffy moment if there ever was one. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide