Before listening to The Stimulus Package, I knew Freeway predominantly as one of the few people in hip hop to be complimented rather than slated on Jay Z's classic 'Takeover'. While I was aware of the vague success of his 2003 Philadelphia Freeway album, and knew that he had been signed to Roc-A-Fella, I came in to this with very little expectation. Until, that is, I realised that the whole project was produced by Jake One, a producer that often flatters to deceive, but who consistently sounds like he has a great record in them.

Indeed, for the first half of The Stimulus Package - released to coincide with Barack Obama's debut album (or actual stimulus package, some shit anyway) – it seems like this could well prove a career defining record for both rapper and producer. From the sweeping strings of the funk tinged, Beanie Sigel featuring intro, things pick up at breakneck speed. 'Throw Your Hands Up' is pure boom bap, full of DJ Premier-esque flourishes and an anthemic, thuggy flow that recalls M.O.P at their most direct. 'Never Gonna Change', meanwhile, features stuttering, syncopated beats and several extremely clever changes of pace matched with ease by Freeway's vocal: producer and MC in perfect harmony and at the top of their respective games, basically. Even better is the Raekwon featuring 'One Thing', with it's classic soul loop (previously used by DOOM on last year's Born Like This album) and hefty, bass heavy beat.

The first half of The Stimulus Package isn't all uptempo intensity, however; 'Know What I Mean', courtesy of some rich Hammond organ, exudes a smokey Portishead atmosphere. A quite sublime half an LP is concluded with 'The Product' and 'Microphone Killa'. The former sees Freeway draw an admittedly clunky but endearing parallel between his addictiveness as a rapper and that of crack. It's been done before, but Freeway's flow is true, and at least he doesn't go down the oft frequented road of rappers (see Eminem, Dre et al) showing off about drug use like 14 year old kids wearing Adihash t-shirts. 'Microphone Killa', meanwhile, sees some more clever Jake One work, switching seamlesslybetween soulful piano and old school scratchathons.

Unfortunately, the promise of The Stimulus Package's first half is not fulfilled by a bloated, slow paced finale. 'Follow My Moves' features that horrible overblown synth sound so beloved of lazy mainstream producers. All urgency seems to be lost giving way to slow paced smoothness.

Ten years ago, the prevalence of four or five skits per album caused much consternation among heads. Very rarely were they a fortieth as witty as the bands thought they were after three ounces of skunk and, more importantly, they regularly disrupted the flow of otherwise perfectly balanced albums. Nowadays the problem seems to be one of poor tracklistings. Maybe low key, downtempo tracks such as 'Sho Nuff' would work if not part of a triumvirate of similarly paced monotony.

The Stimulus Package is well worth buying for its head nod-tastic first half. The second half, however, ensures that both Freeway and Jake One will have to wait a bit longer for that career defining record. Tantalisingly, and a little frustratingly, this album leaves me under no illusion that they both have one in them.