Fu Jia Tian Xia (AVCD)

The Richest in the World is the follow-up to their first mainstream breakthrough album Feng Sheng Shui Qi. Since they achieved their success with the same feel-good hip-hop that they've been doing for years, The Richest in the World will likely find success by sticking to the formula. This is exactly what producer DJ Tommy did, keeping the music coming at an energetic pace that rarely lets down. Meanwhile, the two rappers continue to infuse their light-hearted lyrics with topical taking points and plenty of local Cantonese-based humor. This is an especially fitting time for an album like this; diving morale over the economic crisis brings a real need for Fama's brand of humorous hip-hop.

Naturally, titular song "The Richest in the World" (Track 6) does exactly that. Sampling from the opening lines of the Cantonese theme song for the classic Japanese animated series The Homeless Child (Ie naki Ko), the song takes a humorous approach in encouraging people to find other things to appreciate in the middle of the economic crisis ("When the economic tsunami hit/he went surfing"). The urge for lifetime optimism is assisted by longtime collaborator DJ Galaxy's nostalgic arrangement, and the result finds a nice balance between entertainment and serious current events without undermining the issues.

With their reputation built on their sillier side, The Richest in the World definitely takes an even less sobering look at Hong Kong topics than their previous works. The overall tone is sillier, especially with songs such as "There Are Three Answers" (Track 15), where the two offer three possible answers to various nonsensical questions, including what the meaning of the song is. Other irrelevant songs include U Jump I Jump (Track 7), a mid-tempo track written for a game company that simply encourages people to party more; as an effective side track, it fulfills its purpose just fine.

Instead of the gimmick of having a famous fortune teller for a collaboration track, this album's duet, the sweet Mandarin song "My Putonghua is Too Plain" (Track 11), is with Taiwanese folk singer-songwriter Apay. The plain acoustic guitar-driven arrangement gives the song a refreshingly simple atmosphere usually not heard in hip-hop, and Apay's adorable voice gives a nice countereffect to the rapping duo. The three's lyrics almost reach the point of gimmicky with constant mentions of language barriers, but the song remains sweetly cute thanks to the musical element.

Rumors are abound that The Richest in the World will be the last album featuring longtime mentor-producer DJ Tommy. This is further suggested by the first-time presence of musicians other than Tommy and DJ Galaxy. In addition to Apay taking composition duties for "My Putonghua", songwriter Tang Chi-Wai contributes "Overjoyed" (Track 10). Like "Putonghua", the song has a heavier melodic element than the usual Fama tracks. As expected, the two don't prove to be great vocalists, but Tang's composition is not written with any powerhouse vocal in mind, and the two perform proficiently - with some studio enhancements. Surprisingly, even though the lyrics suggest that "Overjoyed" is a love song, the "you" that the boys are so in love with supposedly refers to God. Score one for making religion hip.

A less subtle message song is the government-assigned "No No No" (Track 14), an anti-drug song that literally feature the phrase "say no to drugs". Despite its preachy refrain (which will surely be repeated in upcoming anti-drug ads) sounding more like hip-hop used as a cheesy gimmick to make the anti-drug movement hip, the verses are actually not so heavy-handed. Besides, the fact that Fama is now influential enough to be asked to do an anti-drug song must be flattering for the duo. Maybe it'll work on that girl in the record store.

With DJ Tommy's possible departure and the duo drifting off to do personal solo work in the near future, one wonders whether Fama can maintain their current appeal. LMF was the closest thing to a commercial hip-hop success in Hong Kong, but they quickly lost their popularity when they tried to get away from their initial appeal of expressing their anger with lots of swearing. The final track of the album, … (Track 16), is a preview of C Kwan's direction. A hard metal track with radio host Little So, the song is part of an upcoming project for the two, while 6 Wing will be doing an acting project (he studied and teaches drama when not rapping). However, the metal track is such a deviation from anything C Kwan has done that not many Fama fans will follow, not just because of the abrupt shift, but also the fact that the music is not all that appealing. Until then, The Richest in the World is an effective reminder about what people love about Fama, and a perfect example of how hip-hop can be just as mainstream-friendly as anything else playing in Hong Kong, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Recommended Tracks - All tracks except … (Track 16)

by Kevin Ma