Manufacturer: Polydor Group
If a case can be made for gangsta rap, Cypress Hill is the act to make it. The trio of L.A. Latinos has the commercial clout and its raps are mercifully free of the misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Asian, anti-Jewish racism that so often mars the genre. Member/producer D.J. Muggs creates an eerily lean soundscape of whining sirens, off-kilter funk rhythms, metallic percussion, nasal taunts, and ...
Manufacturer: Columbia
On The Slim Shady LP, Eminem wants it all. He is conflicted, you see; the world has treated him badly, and he wants to respond in kind. But he isn't a straight-up gangsta--this is, after all, the first release on Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, his post-Death Row-era venture--and Eminem (born Marshall Mathers) doesn't really want anyone to follow in his footsteps, which leads to some ...
Manufacturer: Polydor
Manufacturer: Death Row
How to follow the phenomenally-successful The Chronic album must have caused superstar rap producer Dr Dre more than a few sleepless nights. Five years on, for 2001 he's gathered a plethora of prime, new rap talent around him, including his prodigy-of-the-moment, Eminem, and Xzibit (who duet on boombastic anthem "What's The Difference?"); and is reunited with former compadres Snoop ...
1989's Straight Outta Compton, by Dre's previous outfit NWA, may have shined the public spotlight on the genre, but The Chronic legitimised it. That is not to say that Snoop Doggy Dogg (The Chronic marks his debut) and Dre's raps are for everyone; the subject matter is the sex, drugs, violence and politics of South Central Los Angeles, and the phrasing is explicit, to say ...
If the Game's G Unit-fuelled debut--the most anticipated CD of early 2005--is supposed to be the Answer like Iverson, then what was the question? Well, when an emcee gets to rifle through 50 Cent's Rolodex to hand-pick top flight producers Timbaland, Just Blaze, Kanye West) it's a can't miss scheme, right? In this case, uh-huh. "Westside Story" is Game's opportunity to remind crunk-come-lately's ...
Black Eyed Peas have at times been accused of sounding too Tribe for their own good, but this time out Will.i.am and crew have consciously expanded their horizons. Problem is, perhaps they've tried too hard. As the title suggests, Elephunk borrows from every single element of funk known to man and (with the exception of the one straight-out rock & roll track, "Anxiety") tries to cram them ...
An indispensable and definitive collection 2Pac--Greatest Hits showcases the passionate genius of the late rapper. The album's non-chronological sequence highlights the contradictory impulses that made Tupac's music so commanding. The 21 well-loved "hits" some slightly re-edited for legal reasons, are accompanied by four previously unheard songs. Of the new material, the raw-sounding "God ...
Manufacturer: Jive
