The Greatest Story Never Told

In the late 1990s, Brian "Saigon" Carenard was sentenced to jail time at Napanoch's Eastern Correctional Facility, serving a sentence for first-degree assault after shooting at someone in a bar.[3] One day, while in the recreation yard, Brian met a fellow inmate named Hakim, who rapped and had a reputation for incorporating positive messages, and heavy use of prestigious vocabulary, in his rhymes.[3] Carenard would later state that battle rapping with Hakim would help instigate his personal rehabilitation, as he set a course for redemption through hip hop music.[3] While serving time, Brian named himself "Saigon" after reading Wallace Terry’s book about the Vietnam War.[3] This book helped realign the content and diction in Saigon's raps, as did the advice of a prison lifer: "There’s no right way to do wrong."[3] Saigon was eventually released from prison in the year 2000, and immediately recorded mixtapes, with the goal of obtaining a record contract as a means to release a debut album, which he wanted to be titled "The Greatest Story Never Told."[3]

With the help of the underground buzz that he had garnered over the years, Saigon signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2004.[3] Despite the co-sign from producer Just Blaze and collaborations with several acclaimed rap artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West and Kool G Rap, Saigon's record label repeatedly balked at setting a release date for his debut album.[3] Saigon revealed that he realized as early as two months into his deal with Atlantic Records that there were problems.[3] He later recalled how his early excitement at signing to the same label that "had so much history with black music, like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles" was quickly dampened when they suggested he record a radio-friendly song with the Miami-based R&B quartet, Pretty Ricky.[3] He also recalled a meeting with an Atlantic executive who told him "We need our three singles, then you can bust your artistic nut on the rest of the album."[3] Saigon, however, wasn't willing to comply with this request, and only one year after signing with Atlantic, he hired a lawyer to work out a release from his label.[3] He explained, "They signed me knowing the kind of music I was making, but then they try and change the direction."

This, however, didn't prompt a break from his record company, as they offered a few stipends, leading him and his fans to believe they’d still eventually put the record out.[3] Saigon later suspected that Atlantic wanted to make sure he didn't take the material elsewhere and benefit from the buzz he'd created.[3] While caught in this issue with Atlantic, Saigon continued to perform freestyles on hip hop radio shows, release mixtapes, and also continued to write and record The Greatest Story Never Told.[3] Despite not having an official album out, Saigon gradually became somewhat of a high-profile hip hop artist, as he appeared on the covers of several magazines and had a recurring role playing himself on the hit HBO show Entourage.[3]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	89/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
The A.V. Club	A[16]
IGN	(8/10)[17]
MSN Music (Consumer Guide)	A−[18]
Okayplayer	91/100[19]
The Phoenix	[20]
PopMatters	7/10[21]
RapReviews	9/10[22]
The Source	[23]
The Village Voice	(favorable)[3]

The Greatest Story Never Told received rave reviews from contemporary music critics.[14] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 89, based on 13 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim."[14] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club stated, "Told sometimes feels like too much of a good thing; at 18 furious tracks, it’s overwhelming in the best sense. Saigon’s background as an ex-con lends specificity and direction to his social criticism: He’s a battle-tested survivor singling out the injustices and hypocrisy of a world filled with prisons and traps, real and metaphorical. Told is worth the wait."[16] In his review for The Village Voice, Phillip Mlynar complimented Saigon for his "sincerity" and ability to offer advice to his listeners.[3] Chad Grischow from IGN praised the album's themes and message, and wrote that "it is the balance of uplifting, positive energy and gritty realism that makes this debut work so well."[17] About.com's Henry Adaso gave the album four out of five stars and called it "tight, visceral, consistent."[24]

Although stating "there are references to events like Katrina, that, while certainly not irrelevant, are not quite as much in the musical parlance as they were a couple of years prior" and being unfavorable toward several of the songs' long lengths, Marisa Brown from Allmusic extolled producer Just Blaze's contributions, commenting, "Blaze has always been a very involved, musically attuned producer, and his attention to detail is evident here, from the alarm clock motif to the way he transitions between tracks."[15] Brown also applauded Saigon's "intelligent" lyrics and complimented him for his maturity throughout the years while recording the album.[15] Chris Faraone from The Phoenix also complimented Saigon's maturity, explaining "To his credit, the Saigon who emerges here is aeons more mature than the clever criminal who kicked the New York mixtape game in the dick five years ago, or even the MC who played himself on Entourage. The somewhat reformed loose cannon is now a thoughtful class warrior with switchblade skills, whom cats can actually relate to."[20] In his consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau gave it an A- rating and stated "this is the Saigon and Just Blaze album I've been waiting for since a student tipped me to them five years ago — heroic post-gangstaism, with the conscious ex-con forthright as rhymer and rapper and the Jay-Z sideman bigging him up with soul singers and cinematic beats (and also with Jay-Z)."[18]

In its debut week on the Billboard 200, The Greatest Story Never Told entered at number 61,[25] selling 11,000 copies.[26] In its second week, the album sold an additional 4,800 copies, bringing its total sales to about 16,000 copies.[2] As of March 6, 2011, the album has sold 19,000 copies in the United States.[27]

 • (add.) Additional production

• Track 4 was incorrectly credited to Scram Jones; actually produced by Just Blaze and Lamar Edwards.[29]

Sample credits

• "Come on Baby" contains a sample of "Southside Shuffle" performed by J. Geils Band
• "War" contains a sample of "The Golden Apple" performed by Bob James
• "Bring Me Down Pt 2" contains a sample of "Sunshine (Adagio In D Minor)" by John Murphy
• "Friends" contains a sample of "Comment" by Charles Wright
• "Oh Yeah" contains a sample of Ghetto Life 101
• "The Greatest Story Never Told" contains a sample of "B.M.F. Beautiful" by Leon Haywood
• "Clap" contains a sample of "Let Me Make Love to You" by Lamont Dozier
• "Preacher" contains elements of "Woe Is Me" by The Dynamics
• "It's Alright" contains a sample of "Superstar/Until You Come Back To Me" performed by Luther Vandross

Credits for The Greatest Story Never Told adapted from Allmusic.[30]

• The Greatest Story Never Told at Discogs
• The Greatest Story Never Told at Metacritic