LOX were one of the bands that most represented the East Coast in the late nineties and early 2000s: if from a recording point of view the Yonkers group wasn't among the most prolific in the city that never sleeps, between the group and their solo careers have committed themselves to be present in over one thousand albums over more than 20 years.
Despite a legendary pedigree, LOX has never managed to build an album that was really worth listening to, often ditched by mediocre production, if we wanted to be generous. They arrive on their fourth studio album, four years after the last. Fourteen cuts, about an hour of listening, nine guests including Benny the Butcher, Westside Gunn and DMX. This LP mirrors their discography very well: the lyricism is top notch, with aggressive and dirty lyrics, solid most of the time, and commercial production, ridiculous guests and forgettable hooks.
"Gave It to 'em" seems to start off well, but its East Coast boom bap crafted by Swizz & AraabMuzik is close to EDM, with a tense synth in the background and a hip dance beat: Jada and Styles delivers worthily, while Sheek kills the cut. This opening choice is the prelude to the whole record, solid flows and an EDM / hip dance production in an attempt to imitate Run the Jewels. Scott Storch and Avedon provide the beat for the next track, another EDM / hip dance cut with a nice elegant piano in the background, good delivery of the trio. "Bout Shit" should be one of the first banger of the project, but the boom bap hip dance chosen by Scram Jones isn't very suitable for the delivery of the group and of DMX, guest of honor here, despite a good female sample rnb tries to compensate. "Testify" comes close to being the most acceptable early production, boom bap jazzy, which maintains a heavy hip dance connotation, almost club track with a simple but long chorus, and honest group delivery.
Then comes the fall in "Miss You", where, for a reason I still don't understand, it comes an autotune hook from T-Pain which adds zero things to the track, is as long as a regular verse and is repeated too many times, on an eclectic hip dance rhythm and a drum machine close to trap. "Story" has a whimsical beat by Nottz, precedes "Do to Me", boom bap EDM / hip dance with Jeremih's rnb pop hook and problems like the song with T-Pain. The record begins to take hip-hop contours in "Come Back", pick number eight, made by the first decent hip-hop producer, Statik Selektah (thanks!): simple jazzy boom bap, somber and dark piano sample, skinny syncopated and tight drum machine, hook ok, good smoothness dope delivery of the trio, good female sample looped in the background and left to breathe for the final outro.
The best cut of the tape is made in production by the second and last true hip-hop producer called for this record, Large Professor: boom bap jazzy dark midtempo, with good samples that create a dark mood, perfect drum, skeletal, syncopated, with scratched intro; opens Styles with a raw, tight, velvet, dope flow, then Westside Gunn hook with jumbled bridge, alarms ringing randomly. Follows Sheek, in these fourteen songs he's the one that impressed me most of all for technical solidity, here Styles is committed but Sheek is probably superior to him; fourth verse to Benny the Butcher, closes Jadakiss. "My America" seems to be the third hip-hop cut of the tape, but if you listen carefully, the sound drags you back to the beach of light dance.
Six-minute conscious joint, with Oswin Benjamin's pop rnb hook. "Net Worth" has a poor sound, cheap EDM boom bap, the whole album is crossover, but this is one of the few really unlistenable beats. The following track boasts a Clay Dub reggae chorus on EDM / hip dance rhythm, while "Commitment" features another commercial rhythm with Dyce Payne's pop rnb hook. "Loyalty and Love" is the latest song of the LP, beatmakers Smiley's People and Jimmy Dukes provide a jazzy boom bap rhythm with dance vibes, but decent, the group still proves they can make a good track and can make a mediocre chorus by themselves.
Griselda doesn't disappoint and Sheek is clearly the MVP, his fans can find interesting material here. Hard to see the glass half full, the whole album is EDM / hip dance that would have gone well at the latest in 2014, there are solid lyrics, but the continued presence of long and repeated lame pop rnb hooks ditches the little replay value that this disc could have, already limited by an unusual length for the period.
Highlights: "Come Back", "Think of the LOX", "Loyalty and Love".
Rating: 7/10.
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